New Year Ramblings - January 2018

So January came and went in a mishmash of weather fronts, both warm and cold, the odd named storm and in between the occasional day when it seemed just too nice to go fishing. I'm joking of course as well as being confused. Up here in the north we seemed to go from days of sub-zero temperatures and snow, when we struggled to find somewhere to fish which didn't have a lid on, to days of double figure temperatures when the sun shone and the rivers raged and throughout it all you often had to find something to hide behind to avoid being blown into whatever water was in front of you. Definitely not umbrella weather Chris, wouldn't you say?

Despite all this confusion some of the SENPAC lads were out and about and fish were being caught by most, with one or two special fish included. Top of the special fish list for the month has to be Dave Greally's spanker of 22lb-8oz which is now starring on You Tube (see previous blog) and on Dave's toilet wall I understand?

Not far behind in the size stakes and only a week later in the month and our other Dave, Gardner, got in on the act with a Yorkshire lump of 20lb-12 oz from a water that was in the process of trying to freeze.

As for the rest of us well most had to settle for quantity as opposed the obvious quality of the previous fish although Chris Graham set his bar slightly higher than most with a  nice brace of doubles in a week, both from the same venue but on two separate visits. Nice way to avoid blanks that.

First 12lb - 4oz and.......

........second 13lb - 8oz

So all in all not a bad month for the clubs members speaking of which we welcomed a new member to the Jolly Boys during the period, another Geordie piker (ex Lincolnshire, not that any of us will hold that against him) so a warm welcome to Rob Brewis.

All of a sudden we are into the last couple of months of the season and some favourite swims will be on the agenda in the hope of a special fish, January got us off to a good start in 2018, let's hope it continues!