At least the fishing this year didn't grind to such a complete standstill as last year did. I started barbel fishing later but caught more, larger and for longer. The year had started slowly, but I made more better decisions and was more flexible than I have been in the past, so carried on catching fish by shifting my targets. You never stop learning.
Spring and summer were difficult owing to the ever changing weather with hardly two consecutive days the same. Even so I managed to catch some nice fish. After a season of bad timing on one river in 2007 I managed to get it right more often than not this time round, as my barbel results show. But where have the chub gone? Usually a few have come along to the barbel rods. This season (so far) they have been a rarity.
I'm not making any firm plans for the coming year but I do have a couple of new venues in my sights. If I can up a few more PBs along the way I'll be happy. Then again, I'll be happy if I catch more often than I blank. Unfortunately for the blog the issue of publicity bans cropped up this year and will be a factor in the coming months too.
GaggedThat doesn't stop me looking back at some of my fishy highlights of 2008.
- Barbel - 14-03 [pb]
- Bream - 11-02
- Carp - dnw
- Chub - 5-09
- Dace - 0-07 [pb]
- Golden Orfe - 2-00 [pb]
- Grayling - dnw, but bigger than the one I caught last year! [pb]
- Perch - 3-05
- Pike - 16-02
- Roach/Bream Hybrid - 5-06 [pb]
- Roach/Rudd Hybrid - 3-04
- Roach - 1-10 [pb]
- Rudd - dnw
- Sea trout - dnw [out of season]
- Tench - 7-04 (m) [pb], 9-03 (f)
Quite a satisfying list by my standards.
All the best for 2009.
