November 2014 - Not quite happening..............

I think the title of this blog sums up SENPAC's November pretty well. November is usually the month when our members sort of get serious about their piking, and just as in previous years this November saw some serious effort being put in on various waters by a significant proportion of our number, but with nothing outstanding by way of results so far. A case in point would be our annual tour of the Lake District, five days of  fishing hard for the six tour regulars with only five low doubles to celebrate along with a few smaller fish which ultimately felt disappointing. We've had 20's on each of the previous two years jaunts. Still the evening socials go a long way towards making-up for the lack of notable fish, thankfully. Stuart Fairclough managed two fish over the 10lb mark whilst Steve Sandiford, Dave Gardner and Bruce Turnbull each found one, although Bruce left it until the final hour of the trip for his fish which no doubt made the drive home a little easier.

and for Dave

A Lakeland double for Stuart

Of the other November fishing, well, our club trip was fished in what should have been ideal conditions weather-wise, light breeze, overcast, possibly slightly too mild, but as predicted in last month's blog the water level in the loch was up over a metre which made for difficult access and snaggy fishing. We were welcomed with a stunning sunrise which our editor felt worthy of the Newsletter's front cover and alarms which sounded from the word go although not all of the offers translated into fish on the bank sadly.

The action, though, didn't last long unfortunately and by lunchtime it had gone very quiet and stayed that way for the rest of the day. After two of our six trips we have a four-way tie at the head of the championship table, Pat Hamilton, Paul Proctor, Dave Gardner and Bruce Turnbull all hoping for better things on the next trip.

Paul Proctor' club trip fish

A few of our members have been fishing some of our more local waters and all have remarked on how weedy they all are. The die-back this year has been particularly slow as water temperatures seem to remain relatively high due to the lack of any frosts to speak of and the popular belief seems to be that it is this lack of winter temperatures which is responsible for the somewhat poor fishing results.........we always have an excuse for not catching I know but when you see reports of frog-spawn in the ponds and snowdrops starting to appear you could perhaps understand why the pike would be confused as to the calendar and delayed their winter feed-up. It can only get better one would hope and speaking of looking forward..............
December and we are heading south for a change for our club trip, to fish the Lincolnshire Drains. This is another of our regular venues which provides a complete contrast to the large lochs that we have so far fished this year and brings a whole new set of challenges for our members to overcome. Like mastering the art of short-distance casting and avoiding chucking your bait on to the opposite bank!! We've all done it. Over the years we have enjoyed catching some nice fish from the drains and this close-quarters fishing brings a new level of excitement to our fishing, that electric first bob of the float under the rod tip is a whole new dimension to what we are more used to.

We don't have a club meeting as such in December as Christmas/New Year usually gets in the way however this year we are have a fishing social on a local water on Tuesday 30th December 2014, the venue having been carefully chosen for its very convenient pub rather than the quality of the fishing I have to say!

From all at SENPAC can we wish you a very happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year and of course tight-lines for 2015.