St Helens Predator Hunters: 2013 round up

2013 was certainly an interesting year for all of us with good memories and a few personal bests broke along the way. The key moments of 2013 only real started to developed in February when we discovered some good pike fishing on a local river, I had probably done a dozen sessions on the river prior to then and only one jack of around 8 lb to show for it, I new there was some good fish in there and witnessed Bri catch his first ever river pike of 16 lb 01 oz in February 2012. Location was the key and I found a good spot that put 4 doubles in the net for me in 3 sessions with the biggest going 14 lb 01 oz. It wasn't just the bank fishing either, me and Bernie made time at the beginning of March for a day session in the boat, this was to be our final trip before the close season, between us we landed 6 pike two of which were doubles with the biggest 14 lb 03 oz going to me, another personal best river pike. This very short spell of success put the dampers on my pike fishing so much so that once the close season kicked in I hung up my pike rods and started to fish for carp/and tench, the tench were having none of it but I did pick up a few carp on some small local waters to low doubles. Bernie and Bri continued fishing for pike and managed a few and I should of done the same thing. I started to concentrate on the tench fishing, this was very new to me, I've caught loads of tench in my time but never actually targeted them, I had the water, the gear and read up about it but where I got it all wrong was location and timing to a degree. I was getting up at 1 am and I'd be fishing for 3 am at the latest, to the best of my knowledge no one else was making this kind of effort, I did this for 4 weekends in a row and found it to be very tiring but it payed off. I had tried almost all of the known spots but the fish were not there and with one area left to try I decided to do a reccy one evening late on in the week and took my

wife along for a walk. When we got there that evening the shallows were teaming with fish, just about ever fish in the lake was in this one area spawning or preparing to spawn, the weekend couldn't come fast enough. I arrived early on the Saturday morning and did my usual 5 hr session and caught my first tench by design just under 5 lb. I went out again the next day and managed 2 more tench, a female just over 5 lb and a male of 6 lb 14 oz which is my biggest to date. I did a few more

sessions to no avail but learned a lot and look forward to the 2014 tench fishing. We spent the rest of 2013 summer fishing for eels and carp (well I did at least) one eel session that stands out was a rare mid week session Bernie and I did on a local pit, Bernie had a good session and managed a few fish, it was to be the night that Bernie broke his personal best with a 2 lb 9 oz water snake, a good session but was only one of a few eel sessions I did in 2013. We didn't fish together all that much through the summer months, I wasn't too bothered about eel fishing, Bernie doesn't do carp fishing and Bri had fell out with his door step fishery Carmill dam, Bri as fished on Carmill dam for decades and I don't know anyone that knows the lake as well as him so I asked him to put me on the carp, the way I would fish for them and the baits I would use was my doing but the location of the fish was totally down to Bri, he put me on a swim alright, chest waders all the way, the rods were set in 3' of water and I was fishing tight to an over hanging willow. After 4 nights of pre baiting with tiger nuts and hemp I fished the swim, what a night, I never slept a wink, I had about 15 runs, landed 3 carp all doubles and lost 12 carp, relentless and tiring also pissed off i'd lost so many fish but defiantly doing it again this year. Summer soon passed and September was looming, Bri and I had

planned to start our pike fishing campaign a month early so on the 6th of Sept we hit the river. What a lovely place the river is in September all the greenery and wild life, I managed 3 jacks and Bri blanked but lost a fish. 2 days later we were back out, this time I brought our Mike and the boat too, Bri bank fished and me and Mike set of on Mikes first ever boat trip for pike. He had a great time, he caught 4 pike in total, 1 on a bait and 3 on a 6" replicant rainbow, I landed my 1st double of the new season 10 lb 01 oz and Bri
Managed to land his 1st pike of the new season. We did a few sea fishing boat trips in 2013, the idea was to catch plenty of mackerel for this coming pike season but it didnt turn out to well, the mackerel numbers were down of the coast of north Wales but the Bull Huss fishing was spot on and I think everyone managed at least a few into double figures. I was lucky enough to hook into a tope of 22 lb, wow don't they just go when you strike into them, a true predator. It was to be pike fishing all the way from September 2013 till early April 2014 and between us we've had a pretty good year, Bernie caught the biggest of the year and a new personal best 22 lb 03 oz river pike, Mike had a 21 lb 02 oz Scottish pike which up to now is the biggest pike caught on a club outing, he also had a 17 lb 04 oz river and English personal best and has caught 7 doubles since September. I broke my river record 5 times this year with fish of 11 lb 04 oz, 14 lb 01 oz, 14 lb 03 oz, 17 lb 04 oz and 17 lb 05 oz which also stands as my biggest pike to date. Although Bri didn't beat any personal bests this year he caught quite a few fish including at least 8 river doubles, between us we caught about 30 doubles including 3 upper doubles and 2 twenties, not bad for our first year on the river. Roll on 2014, so many fish to target in such a short period of time, tight lines.