July 2016 - A Forward Look

The summer fishing continues for our SENPAC members with reports from all the different angling disciplines being generally positive, including from our local rivers which, despite rapidly falling water levels have been producing the goods. Highlight from the flowing water in July, a new personal best barbel for Steve Sandiford who is fast becoming our stand-out angler of the season. Both of the first two rounds of SENPAC's Summer league passed off successfully with a different winner on each match we currently have a tie at the top of the league at the mid-way point. Two more rounds in August will hopefully sort that out.

Steve's 10lb-12oz New PB Barbel

However, whilst we are all enjoying our warm weather fishing and hopefully we continue to do that for a few more weeks yet, there has been a noticeable increase in anticipation amongst our number as we begin to formulate plans for next season's pike fishing.There has been much "chatter" about venues and trips for the Region's social piking which has always been an important element of the SENPAC philosophy and of course many of our members will also be quietly researching and planning their own campaigns for the coming winter. On the social front our newsletter editor has been able to confirm the club trip calendar for next season in the latest edition of the publication and in addition arrangements for this year's "jolly boys outing" in November have been finalised and accommodation for our four day trip has been booked, all of which served to heighten the sense of anticipation for the fishing to come.

Our six club trips held monthly, October to March, have a distinctly Scottish feel once again, with only two of the excursions south of the border. This year we have decided not to experiment with unknown waters and not to include a visit to a river venue, in order to avoid last season's frustrations of cancelled outings due to out of sorts waterways. So, very much tried and tested waters which, over the years, have served us reasonably well. A big change though on the "jolly boys" front. For a number of years we have visited the Lake District for our outings but nothing stays the same for ever and whilst our trips to Lakeland have produced some great fish for a number of our members, changes on the accommodation front and frankly increasing restrictions on access to waters and cost increases have lead us to decide to find pastures new. Guess what, we are going to Scotland! An easy decision to make in those terms I think.

So the new season is beginning to take shape nicely, next step I guess will be to put together the Region's order for bait and the logistical organisation of placing the order with the Lord of Darkness at Lucebaits and the subsequent distribution around the members and then we will be set fair for what we hope will be another enjoyable and hopefully successful season.

Only two months and counting as our newsletter editor put it!

The August regional meeting will take place on Tuesday 30th August at the Northumbrian Piper as usual. I'm sure that there will only be one subject on everybody's minds.

Best of luck, whatever you are currently fishing for.

June 2016 - On The Up

At long last we seem to be getting something like the Summer fishing that we have come to anticipate locally. There were times over the last couple of months when it felt like Spring was was never going to end and the constantly changing weather, particularly the winds from the northerly quarter, dictated that we were going to have to continue to struggle for our fish.

Well June finally saw an up-turn in results for most of our SENPAC members. The match fishermen began to see decent bags of fish, the few carp anglers that we have reported the odd fish, the mackerel arrived off the north sea coast and we had the first salmon of the season reported from one of our local rivers. Even the pike began to co-operate for the lure anglers amongst our number, particularly for Steve Sandiford ( he of the first salmon) who reported fourteen hits with eight to the net on a half-day session on one of our local waters! Our Newsletter editor persuaded Steve to disclose the successful lure that he used on the day and here it is, looking slightly second-hand but remarkably intact bearing in mind the action that it has seen.

This One Definitely Works

And speaking of action the other highlight of the SENPAC June, and thankfully it turned out to be a highlight, was our Golden Maggot Match. Six of our number fished the competition and all were grateful for some half-decent weather and some fish. The eventual winner was our joint-RO, Bruce Turnbull despite being somewhat outside of his comfort zone, having to adapt to 2lb hook-links and size 18's from his more usual 3oz. leads and 40lb. traces being a real test for his eyesight. An age thing you know!

The Golden Maggoteers

What of July, well we have the first two rounds of our Summer League matches to look forward to and whilst we are just starting to celebrate the arrival of Summer up here in the north-east we will also have an eye on next season's piking as our Newsletter editor will be confirming our club trip calendar and venues in the next edition of the Newsletter just to whet everybody's appetite.

Speaking of the Newsletter, there was a brief focus on fishing fashions in the July edition with a lot of talk about camo and olive green, although waterproof and warm seemed to be the priority for us piking types, regardless of what it looks like and I think most if not all of the SENPAC squad would hesitate to be seen on the banks (or the high street) in the footwear that featured on the front cover??

Our July meeting will be held at the Northumbrian Piper on Tuesday 26th July 2016 at 8-00 pm. We have had one or two enquiries from potential new members over the last month so we may see some new faces at the meeting which would be great.


Tight lines to all.