My Fishing Year 2011, Highlights & Lowlights

Looking at the weather it looks as though my fishing year is at an end, so now looks like the appropriate time to publish my review of the highlights and low lights of my fishing year, so here goes.
The year started off with the worst winter in living memory, most of my local fisheries were frozen over for weeks and weeks.
I also had a broken hand at the beginning of the year, so that prevented me from having any time on the bank.
By the time the weather improved and my hand repaired, we were into the early spring.
In April, Richard had his best ever Pike. Trolling lures along the Bridgewater Canal, he had a beauty on a Big “S” plug.
I began to fish Rixton regularly, working out where and how to fish this wonderful piece of water.
I had some nice Tench and my best ever Bream. Working out how to mix Groundbait properly, has helped my feeder fishing tremendously.
Turning up at Rixton at 06.00 on the morning of the Royal wedding and finding every Peg taken, must be one of the low lights of the year.
At the beginning of the year I’d hoped to get some time on the rivers close to where I live, but the summer was so wet and miserable, I tended to stick to waters that were not going to affected so much by the amount of rain we were having.
The summer was a washout for me fishing wise, a combination of bad weather and other things going on, prevented me from getting out.
Although I didn’t get out much during the summer and Autumn, that didn’t mean I stopped thinking about my fishing, I’d been thinking about Rixton, more importantly, Rixton Pike, I’d seen plenty of evidence of Pike in Rixton earlier in the spring, I witnessed numerous Pike strikes at prey fish when, I’d been Tench and Bream fishing.
I’d never seen another Angler fishing for the Rixton Pike, so I came up with a plan to try to target them come the Autumn.
Come early November I put my plan into action, it turned out a partial success, I had four visits targeting the Pike, being successful on three out of the four visits, I say “partial success“, because I only caught one fish each time I caught.
Most of my Pike fishing over the years has been a very simple Float Fished method, setting my float to about 3feet in depth and hoping for a bite. In November I attended a “Pike Teach in” for Warrington Anglers members, run by the Pike Angling Club, I picked up some useful tips on different rigs, so I’ll be giving those a try in the coming year.
The rumours of Pike in the Mersey, are actually fact, not just rumours, I’ve seen the pictures, so that will be one of my targets for the coming fishing year. I will find fishing a big river daunting as I do prefer smaller more intimate rivers but If I do manage to connect with a big Pike it will be worth it!
For me one of the saddest things this year was the closure of Bennett’s of Sheffield, which, in my opinion was the finest On-Line fishing shop, a sign of the times I’m afraid!
In the coming year I hope to get on to some of my local Rivers, the Bollin at Bowden is a beautiful little river, not much more than a stream, but if it has improved, in the same way lots of other rivers in the North West have improved, it will be a gem. I used to fish the Bollin a few years ago but I’ve neglected it in recent years, but this coming year I intend to correct this oversight. There’s a beautiful swim which is an ideal trotting swim, I will get into my chest waders and trot a stick float, once again, this another area of my fishing I’ve neglected.
I don’t think I’ll be buying any major items of fishing tackle during this next year, I think I own all I could possibly need, having said that, I do find it hard to walk past a Tackle shop and not get the urge to go in and buy myself something!
A finally, a big thank you to all the people who have helped and encouraged me this year, also a big thank you to all the people who follow this blog, it is encouraging to look at the stats and see all the different parts of the world where people are viewing from. So far I’ve had over 2300 visits to my Blog
Good luck to everyone who reads this. If you’re an Angler, I hope this coming year, fishing wise, is better than the last.
Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!