February 2015 - Pictures Rather Than Pike?

What was abundantly clear from the month past was that most SENPAC members who spent time on the bankside were not disturbed by the fish and most seemed to spend their time taking photographs instead ! I guess that we are fortunate up here in the north in that much of our fishing is done in some wonderful surroundings, which provide innumerable opportunities for great images, particularly when the climatic conditions provide a little drama to the location. Our Newsletter editor was spoilt for choice this month.That said we are a region of the Pike Anglers Club, not a photographic society. It would be nice to have a little less of our time available for photography when we are behind the rods.

The general consensus amongst our members seems to be that the season so far has been one of the hardest for a number of years. With only a month to go, all concerned are hoping that there is a significant upturn in results as we head for our favourite swims which have served us well as the fish begin to gather for their annual nuptials. Over the years SENPAC members past and present have enjoyed significant success in the March rush at the end of the season, both on our regular waters as well as on events such as the PAC visits to Lake of Menteith and the like. For those of our number who will be heading north for this year's visit to "The Lake" the memory of ex-SENPAC member Lyn Baker's fantastic fish and the story of her day back in 2007 will still burn bright in the memory.

As for February, well our club outing produced a few small fish, Paul Proctor doing best with three modest fish which moves him to the head of the competition table with only one more trip to come. Some of the others took the opportunity for a rest!

Paul Proctor Walks on Water

Chris Graham, Un-Disturbed By The Fish

Best fish of the month was a 12lb'er which fell to the rods of Dave Greally which rather illustrates the nature of the month past and there was very little else to talk about at the last club meeting.
Looking forward to March, well in addition to the trip to Menteith, our club outing will see our number once again heading to south-west Scotland the outcome of which will decide our Club Trip Championship which will no doubt add a little "edge" to the event.

Our March club meeting will take place on Tuesday 31st March 2015 at the Northumbrian Piper, all very welcome. And to finish I will leave you with one of those photographs that I spoke about at the start of this. Tight lines to all.

Dodging The Ice Flows

January 2015 - and the winner is................again

Having reported in last month's blog how quiet things were on the SENPAC fishing front, it got worse in January.
People were out and about throughout the month, and although the weather did get in the way a little, the reports of fish caught were almost non-existent. I can't remember such a dismal spell. Fortunately we did have something to celebrate last month here at SENPAC, our annual presentation of awards and slideshow review of the 2013/2014 year, which took place on Saturday 31st January 2015. Highlights of the night (there were two actually) were the usual piss-take centred upon the Pike Angler of the Year trophy which this year was deservedly won by Peter Armstrong as featured on the cover of our latest Newsletter and the presentation of a special award to our RO, Mike Bell, to mark 15 years in that post. Our congratulations go to both.

Mike Bell, long serving RO for SENPAC

 It is worth noting that the trophy presented to Mike consisted of one of Mark Houghton's wonderful hand-crafted lures suitably mounted ( mhcustomlures.blogspot.co.uk). Mark was founder of SENPAC and Mike took over from him as RO in 1999.

What of our other trophy winners, well, Steve Sandiford took the "Biggest on a Lure" trophy which has become something of an annual event! Dave Greally won the "Biggest on a Club Trip" and the "Club Trip Championship" and daughter Faye was our "Junior Angler of the Year". Bruce Turnbull took the "Biggest Fish of the Year" and completely appropriately the members voted for Mike Bell for our Stuart Mordue Trophy for his contribution to the Region.

The photographer said smile.........?

Of the fishing, well, our January club trip was planned for Dumfries and Galloway and we were met with floods and frozen margins resulting in a quick u-turn back south of the border with a resulting delay to proceedings. Three modest fish were caught, two fell to the rods of Dave Greally and one to Pat Hamilton and just so that we can remind ourselves that our principal interest is in catching pike, I include this........................

Dave Greally showing us how to do it........again!

Looking forward to February and no doubt our members will be hoping for a better return for the effort than we saw in January. We are heading to south-west Scotland again for our club trip on Sunday 15th February 2015, snow, ice and floods permitting and our club meeting will be on Tuesday 24th February 2015 at the Northumbrian Piper as usual.

And to close this month's blog I will leave you with a personal highlight of last month..............................

December 2014 - It Can Only Get Better

With the Christmas/New Year celebrations safely out of the way as I sit down to catch-up with the SENPAC Blog, the unavoidable retrospective on 2014 immediately came to mind and I am pleased to say just as immediately left again when it occurred to me that if any of our readers wanted to know how SENPAC and its members faired during 2014 they only had to scroll down! See below as they say.

Happy New Year to one and all.

Looking rearwards just as far as December and I would have to say that it was a very quiet month for RA 24 as far as the fishing was concerned, despite some completely suitable weather conditions and despite the fact that many of our number made full use of the increased opportunities offered by the seasonal holiday to get out on the water, very few fish were reported.

Peter's Reward For Sitting Still

Our much anticipated club trip to the Lincolnshire drains proved to be very disappointing with only one of the seven hopefuls that made the journey able to celebrate with a fish. Peter Armstrong was the lucky (skillfull?) angler who had adopted the tactic of "pick a swim and wait for the fish to arrive" whilst many of the rest of us walked miles (exaggeration) in every direction in search of a fish, which I suspect, made his success even more satisfying and the drive home even longer for the rest of us.

A Christmas Present For Bruce

Best pike reported during December in what was otherwise a very low key affair was a nice fish of 15lb.-8oz. taken by Bruce Turnbull on a trip to South-West Scotland on what was an absolute classic of a day, deep frost, high pressure, not a cloud in the sky from sunrise to sunset, the sort of day when being there is all that really matters. Perfect.

A Perfect Day

And what of January, well this is a busy month for SENPAC. Our club trip comes up first and we are heading to South West Scotland again, this time to one of the waters that is nearer to Newcastle than most and which produced a very nice fish for one of our number on our visit last year. We live in hope!

Next there is our Annual General Meeting which will take place on Tuesday 27th January 2015 at the Northumbrian Piper. Then, at the same venue, our annual presentation of awards night on Saturday 31st January 2015 which is the social highlight of our calendar when friends and families join in the fun, with slideshow review of the year past, buffet, raffle and of course the presentation of awards culminating in the naming of our Pike Angler of the Year. So a bit to look forward to and hopefully a more productive month on the fishing front.

As I said at the start, "it can only get better."

S.E.N.P.A.C. - Seasonal Greetings To All

With thanks to Fred Buller OBE
and his definitive work "The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike

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.

October 2014............Off and Running...........Sort-Of !

Well that is the first month of the new Piking season already behind us, where did that go? It was all a bit of a blur for most at SENPAC as far as I can tell and to be honest it didn't really feel like the season had really started. The Regions first club outing was a surreal experience in many ways, particularly the weather. In last month's blog we were expressing the hope for some decent weather for what is a fairly exposed water. What we got was almost tropical in terms of temperatures as was highlighted by our Newsletter Editor on the cover of the November Newsletter. Most of those present felt distinctly over-dressed by the end of the day despite a short monsoon-like interlude about mid-afternoon. That said the conditions were not particularly conducive to catching Pike or anything that swims for that matter. But a few fish did show up with three of our sunburned stalwarts managing to net a modest fish each.

A Slightly Pensive Jim Moody

Particularly pleasing was a first SENPAC Pike for one of the Region's newest members, Jim Moody, on what was his first outing with us. Dave Gardner and Bruce Turnbull were the others with a wet net as far as the Pike were concerned however Pat Hamilton left it late in the day for his excitement when he had the rest of us convinced that he had located one of the bigger fish reputed to be present in this water, only to be surprised, perhaps disappointed, to see an eel of some 4lbs eventually come to the surface. Difficult to be disappointed with a fish of that calibre was the final view of all present I think.

A Slippery Customer........Nice Eel As Well Dave!

And speaking of inadvertent eels! Dave Gardner had a session on one of our local commercials in the hope of intercepting one of the specimen perch that featured in our September blog and thought he had struck lucky when his king prawn bait suddenly came back to life and headed off to the far side of the pond putting a worrying bend into his feeder rod. 3lb-10oz this one and whilst this is a good sized eel Dave was genuinely disappointed that it wasn't the perch that he was seeking, particularly after the head-shaking battle that he had to endure in the murky waters of the fishery had him completely convinced that he was connected to a monster stripey. Hey-ho, next time perhaps. Back to the Pike fishing and other notable fish caught during October were a repeat capture from a  south-west Scotland loch for Dave Greally of a very recognisable fish of 21lb which is fast becoming a part of the Greally family ( see our April 2014 blog) and an immaculate fish of 16lb for Bruce Turnbull from one of the larger Highland lochs whilst on a week long visit. Larger being the operative word as his visit coincided with ten inches of rain which fell in the first three days of his stay making swim selection interesting!

Looking forward to November and a busy month here at SENPAC, with our annual four day jolly-boys outing to the Lake District, our monthly club outing, this time to a hydro-electric loch north of the border which brings the additional variable of water levels to add to the challenge and a visit to the Lake of Menteith for a couple of our number. No doubt there will be a lot to talk about at out November meeting which will take place on Tuesday 25th November 2014 at the Northumbrian Piper.

September 2014..............New Beginnings

The month of October and the beginning of a new piking season is always highly anticipated here at SENPAC, and every year the excitement builds amongst our members and whilst some of our number have been enjoying the odd foray north of the border there is something magical about the start of the season proper, the early morning chill, the changing colours and, perhaps an early fish and then the magic is complete..............................

These new beginnings were celebrated by our newsletter editor in his October missive which also marked the end of the SENPAC competition year for 2013/2014. The trophy winners for the season are as follows;

Biggest Fish on a Lure......................Steve Sandiford
Biggest Fish on a Club Trip...............Dave Greally
Club Trip Champion.........................Dave Greally
Biggest Fish of the Year....................Bruce Turnbull
The three remaining Region trophies are all decided by the votes of the members, Junior Angler of the Year, Pike Angler of the Year and The Stuart Mordue Trophy for contributions to SENPAC will be announced at the annual presentation evening in January 2015, but congratulations go to all of the above named.

As for the September fishing, well the continuing dry bright weather and milder temperatures have not really helped those of our number who have been piking with small numbers of modest sized fish seeming to be the order of the day even on the bigger, deeper waters. Best fish of the month went to Dave Greally at 8lb on one of his trips to Scotland. Those of us fishing for the silvers have found it a lot easier I'm pleased to say.Highlight of the September SENPAC fishing reports though was, arguably, a continuation of the story reported in last month's Blog, the search for big perch from our local commercial fisheries and that man Greally, joined this time by perch fan Bruce Turnbull, were back where they left off in August. Success came towards the end of the month with two more clonking fish .

A 2lb'er for Dave and an ounce short of 3lb for Bruce

 There is no doubt that as the new piking season progresses time will be found for more forays after the stripeys. Whilst we are all first and foremost pike fishing enthusiasts at SENPAC, there is something very special about a big perch.
As for October, well, our first club trip of the new season will see us on one of the more remote waters in south-west Scotland which over the years has become something of a favourite with the SENPAC members. This is very much a "big-sky" venue which, if we are blessed with decent weather, can be a very special place to be.
Our October meeting will take place on Tuesday 28th October 2014 at the Northumbrian Piper as usual. Plenty to talk about I suspect as the fishing will be well underway by then and of course some of our number will be looking forward to a trip to Menteith as well as SENPAC's annual jolly-boys outing to the Lakes.