June 2014..........All quiet on the SENPAC front

Highlight of SENPAC's June was undoubtedly the fishing of the Golden Maggot match which was the usual mixture of competition and banter. The turn-out was a little down on previous years for all sorts of domestic reasons that seem to get in the way of a day out fishing, I'm sure you know what I mean? On the day the weather gods smiled on us and we had the small commercial fishery that we use for the event to ourselves which was an added bonus.

Match winner Dave Greally receives the Golden Maggot Trophy
from last year's winner Chris Graham

Winner on the day, by a margin, was Dave Greally who enjoyed a fish a chuck during a hectic morning spell which left the remainder of us trailing in his wake. Loser on the day, by a margin was our RO, Mike Bell, who discovered at the weigh-in that he had a skimmer sized hole in the bottom of his keepnet! Needless to say everybody present was keen to express their "sympathies"to Mike and applaud his conservation minded catch-and-release approach.

There's a hole in my...........etc..........etc.

In common with most other PAC Regions, July and August are traditionally the quiet months for SENPAC as the member's focus moves from the fishing to all of the other summer activities that get in the way of the fishing. That said there are those amongst our number who are already plundering the bounty off the north east coast and beginning to fill their freezers with mackerel and launce  in preparation for the new season. The only difficulty that is being encountered this year as far as I can tell is that whilst the mackerel shoals appear to be better than average this year, the size of the fish is also significantly larger which provides something of a dilemma for those who are partial to a fresh mackerel fillet. And what of the launce, well they too appear to be achieving specimen sizes and whilst perhaps not a fashionable pike bait nowadays they do provide a solution when an eel bait is felt to be required on waters, or events for that matter, where the rules dictate "sea deads only". They also don't take up much room in the freezer! They certainly seem to work well on some of the Scottish lochs that we fish.

Our July club meeting will be held on the 29th July 2014 at the Northumbrian Piper as usual and whilst I suspect the turn-out will be modest the focus of the get together will undoubtedly be next season's club trips and where we will be going.

I

May 2014......................Golden Maggot Time Again

A fairly quiet month on the SENPAC fishing front with most members fishing for anything that swims other than pike, with varying degrees of success. Our May fishing social at the local Whittle Dean complex turned out to be a bit of a struggle with a bright sunny day coupled with a stiff breeze on the exposed water conspiring to make catching fish less than easy. Most of us got the odd fish or two but I suspect that most of us weren't too disappointed when it was over and we could go home and tend to our sunburn!

With relatively few fishing reports received from our members and even fewer images available our Newsletter editor took the opportunity to turn his attention to next season's pike fishing and more specifically to SENPAC's club trips for the coming season. He provided a brief resume of last season's outings and each of the six different venues that we visited by way of prodding everybody to start and consider which waters we should visit in 2014/2015.This showed that two of the venues failed to produce any fish and that a total of 25 fish were caught from the remaining four venues. Best fish caught was Dave Greally's 23lb'er with Dave Gardner's 17lb fish being the only other double caught on the club outings.

Not one of our better seasons then and this is bound to fuel an animated discussion over the next few club meetings as we try to agree the list of waters that we will be visiting next season. We always plan to have both the venues and the dates for the outings agreed in time to include the details in our September Newsletter so that everybody can organise their diaries.............so let "battle" commence!

 Chris Graham with a nice tench from a local pond

Speaking of "battles", June will see the SENPAC stalwarts fishing the Golden Maggot match on the 8th of the month when many of our number who are comfortable with 15lb mono and size 8 hook traces will be faced with the daunting challenge of 2lb hook links and size 18 hook eyes to overcome. Those of us "of a certain age" will no doubt struggle but as fishing socials go this will, as usual, be one of the most enjoyable of the SENPAC summer.

Next club meeting, Tuesday 24th June 2014 at the Northumbrian Piper.

April 2014...................SENPAC goes global

As the Summer fishing begins to take hold with SENPAC members and the pike fishing begins to take second place, our Newsletter editor took the opportunity to record the growing success of the SENPAC blog this month as well as the usual review of the now varied fishing activity amongst the club members.

 Firstly the blog, which continues to enjoy an ever growing number of visitors and perhaps surprisingly the majority of which come from outside of the UK. The details make interesting reading.................37% are UK based, a further 25% come from America, 7% from Russia and 4% from Germany with the remainder fairly equally shared between France, the Netherlands,Sweden,Ukraine, Romania and South Korea!
As you can probably imagine this all came as something of a surprise to our club members, a shared interest in pike fishing is obviously spread far and wide.

That's how you do it Dad...........

On the fishing front, our April fishing social failed to produce any fish to those present but was none the less enjoyable, a duck of the tufted variety providing the only excitement for one of our number?

Like Father, Like Son!

Also reported, a new pb perch of 2lb-3oz for Dave Gardner whilst on a weeks trip to White Acres, good bags of carp, silvers and some early season tench for Paul Proctor fishing one of the local fishing clubs ponds and a reality check for Dave Greally who was comprehensively out fished by Daughter Faye on one trip. What is it with lady anglers?

Dave saved face to some degree later in the month, this time fishing with Son Aaron up in Scotland when they enjoyed one of those remarkable piking coincidences that occasionally crop up, by catching a somewhat elderly fish of 20lb-2oz which was immediately  identified as Aaron's current pb caught eight months previous in the same swim at a weight of 19lb-13oz. You couldn't make it up?

Looking forward to our May fishing and I suspect that once again our members will be spread far and wide chasing various quarry. Our fishing social for the month will take place on the 18th May when we are off to Northumbrian Water's Whittle Dean complex in the hope that in addition to being sociable we may also enjoy catching a fish or two! Tight lines to all.
                                                                                 
 
                                                                         




                                                                 

March 2014.....................and the winner is

So that was March and for many SENPAC members that brings to a close another piking season. But not for all, one of the benefits of living up here in the north-east is that, for those of us that enjoy a slightly extended pike fishing season, it is only a relatively short journey northwards to the cooler climes of the larger Scottish waters, that provide the opportunity to take advantage of the post-spawning feed-up. So that is something to look forward to as an alternative to the mysteries of the dark-side, boilies, bolt-rigs and the like?

One of eight for Dave

March also saw the conclusion of the SENPAC Club Trip Championship for the season with the final event fished on a day of mixed weather and equally mixed results. Hearty congratulations must go to the runaway winner, Dave Greally who, with a master class of eight fish on this final outing, cemented his almost total domination of this year's competition. Something of a tour de force from Dave this season which left the rest of us floundering in his wake.
As for the March fishing results for SENPAC members, well the highlight of the reports in this month's Newsletter is undoubtedly a second new pb of the season for Peter Armstrong, this time a wonderful fish of 21lb caught from north of the border. This, along with Peter's previous best of 16lb-8oz caught in December has meant that he has enjoyed his best season so far since joining SENPAC in July 2011. Just rewards for the significant effort that Peter has put into his pike fishing with us. Well done.

Peter's new pb

As for April, well we have the first of our SENPAC fishing socials organised for a bit of roach fishing on a local water and I suspect that a few of us will be heading north later in the month to renew the hunt for old Esox.

SENPAC continue to meet throughout the summer, on the last Tuesday of every month at the usual place, the Northumbrian Piper at Fawdon, Newcastle NE3 2AH. If you fancy a natter then why not call in and see us.

February 2014

So that was February then and for SENPAC it was a very quiet month on the fishing front, judging by the reports that I have had from the members. The incessant wind and rain certainly had a part to play and whilst up here in the north east we have been extremely fortunate compared to areas of England in the south and south west, the storms rolling in from the Atlantic have been sufficient to convince some of our less committed members not to venture out and for those that probably need committing the local rivers have really been too much of a challenge and the water levels in the lochs and lakes that we fish have been such that on a number of occasions I am convinced that we have been fishing in the fields!

As a result of this the fishing has been fairly poor and the over-riding feature for most of us that were out was the mud! We didn't seem able to escape the stuff no matter where we went, so much so that the club's Newsletter editor felt the need to reminisce about the good old days when we all enjoyed those magical, still, frosty, mornings when you just knew that the fish were going to be interested as the pale sun appeared over the horizon and began to burn off the mist.

Our February club trip coincided with one of the more vigorous storms and we had to battle 70mph winds, rain as well as the inevitable mud and by the end of the day, despite all present having numerous takes and runs no-one managed to get a fish to the net. Frustrating!

Of the February fishing results well it was generally a month of small jacks with a couple of exceptions, Steve Sandiford enjoyed an exploratory trip on one of the local rivers which needless to say was well up, coloured and running through and so reverted to the worm rod to take a very nice 3lb sea trout and a something over 3lb chub but by far and away the best fish of the month fell  to SENPAC joint RO Bruce Turnbull who after something of an extended fishless campaign on a water finally cracked it with a very fit fish of 24lb-10oz.
As for March, well the SENPAC squad will be off to one of the larger lochs in Dumfries and Galloway for the final club trip of the season on Sunday 16th March, a location which at this time last year produced two 20lb'ers in a week for one lucky (skillfull?) club member and there will no doubt be the usual end of season flurry of activity on many other waters in the area. A little colder weather and less mud would be a real treat if somebody could organise that please?

NEW YEAR - NEW START

South East Northumberland Pike Anglers Club (SENPAC)wish to record their thanks to Neil Baker who for many years has shared the role of Regional Organiser (RO) with region founder Mike Bell. Amongst other responsibilities Neil looked after our Blog. Recently he has decided that he had to retire from the position of RO and that mantle has passed to Bruce Turnbull and with it the very steep learning curve necessary to get to grips with the Blog. So here we go................January was as usual a very busy month for SENPAC. In addition to the peak season fishing we held our annual presentation of awards and slideshow review of the SENPAC year which seemed to be enjoyed by all members present. Trophy winners this year were; Biggest Fish on a Lure.............Paul Proctor/Biggest Fish on a Club Trip.......Bruce Turnbull/ Junior Angler of the Year.........Aaron Greally/ Club Trip Champion................Bruce Turnbull/ Biggest Fish of the Year.........Dave Greally/ and the principal trophy, that of Pike Angler of the Year, which is decided by the votes of the members was deservedly taken by Dave Greally, who had to put up with what has now become the traditional p**s take, celebrated on the front cover of our February Newsletter.

As for the January fishing, well, SENPAC members were out and about on a variety of waters and a few fish were being reported, however highlight of the month came on our club trip to a Lincolnshire drain and it was that man Dave Greally again who showed us all how to do it. This time with a fine fish of 20lb-3oz.

Dave Greally.........down the drain?

Looking forward to February,we are staying a little closer to home for our club trip on the 23rd February, we are going to a water which just prior to Christmas produced a red-letter day for two of SENPAC's finest with Pat Hamilton and Paul Proctor sharing a day of 13 fish. Doesn't happen very often that, in my experience, be nice if it happened again for our visit!

                                 Ever wonder why we do it

                                             This is why

                                                28lb 4ozs