Firstly I'd like to congratulate my cousin for winning this months improve your course fishing photography competition with "a photo of himself (me) trotting for grayling" on the river Derwent in Derbyshire - Top quality photograph!
The winning photo!
Whilst were on the photography front i'd also like to share this photo taken again by my cousin. I find the best light to take quality fishing photos is early in the morning (like the one shown above and the ones shown below).  The image below was taken on an i-phone at daybreak (just goes to show you don't need a good camera to take some nice photos).  I admit the quality is not the best but I still think that its a good photo.



I'm afraid a new blog entry has been long overdue. The last month has been extremely busy, so much so, my fishing trips have been rather short, and if I'm quite honest, relatively unsuccessful. Nevertheless march saw me bank my first lure caught tench, hooked in the traditional fashion of spearing it in the tail fin.  Not something to be proud of but it was nice to see my first tench of 2015.


Lure fishing has dominated over the last month or so, I find it quite conducive to the shorter sessions and takes very little planning. Disused canals are my favourite venues to spin, often weedy, overgrown and underfished.  I recall one of my most enjoyable sessions of 2014 on the disused "topcut" canal in Ilkeston, notts with my cousin James where we caught around 10 fish in just a few hours, the biggest only being about 8lbs (not bad for a canal which is probably only 2ft at its deepest).  It always surprises me how big fish can grow in such shallow water. My most recent canal visits this month have been on the disused grantham canal between Cotegrave and Woolsthorpe, some parts are completely unfishable, whereas other are still quite deep and hold some good fish.  The fish pictured above was caught by my dad on a copper mepps No.4.

Jack pike being returned to the water














Rivelin Dam
Now to move onto a water that has been furstrating me for some while.  I've recently started fishing a dam located just of the Rivelin which flows into the centre of Hillsborough.  Its a small water with a depth of only 4ft in the deepest areas.  There is very little information to be found on this lake online, however as its only a 4 minute drive from my house i though it was worth a shot. My first trip started out promising, and I lost a nice fish which I estimated in the water to be a low-mid double. However since this I lure fish the pond on several occasions and only had one follow.  On Friday evening I returned for a short session, this time I had switched tactics and presented a small float fished smelt on the bottom. This method produced 3 takes in an hour and I banked two fish weighing between 3 & 4 lbs each. I dont know whether is a reflection on my lure fishing talent, or the preference of the pike at this venue, but i was pleased to finally catch a fish out of here.

The method also went down well with the local signal crayfish, this one clawed chap didnt want to release his prize.


Now to introduce my new personal best carp, not a pretty beast by any measure, nor a wild fish.  Weighted in about 6lb caught on a single maggot whilst float fishing a commercial for silvers, put up a good scrap on my 2lb line and 1970s Shakespeare boron!

May is shaping up to be a good month on the fishing front, I have my first day fly fishing booked on Eyebrook reservoir for my birthday, preceded by a days tench fishing with James. 

Finally I would like to end with a photo taken by my dad at Rutland water.  A nice shot, I like it.