April 2016 - Fishing Frustrations

As we come to the end of April our members piking is all but over, with only the occasional trip over the border for one or two of our diehards to look forward to. By now I think the generally held anticipation should have been that we would all be off fishing for other things, however this year's transition to boilies, bedchairs and bolt-rigs, or wagglers and weigh-ins, or even pheasant tails and hare's ears has become mired in the gradual slide back into winter that we have had to endure as the month past developed. It's snowing outside the window as I write this!

I predicted in last month's blog that April may well be a fairly quiet month and so it has turned out.So,what to talk about at April's SENPAC gathering in the Northumbrian Piper? Well a look back over the receding month's fishing didn't take very long because most of those present hadn't been out that much with rod in hand. The only high-spot for the period turned out to be the first fish caught at the start of a four day session north of the border for Dave Greally and daughter Faye. A lovely post spawn fish of 19lb-8oz must have increased anticipation levels for the rest of the visit no end, but unfortunately such anticipation was ultimately un- rewarded. Whilst another twenty four fish came to the net, none came close to that early beauty.

Dave Greally

So with the fishing past reviewed the discussion moved on to the piking to come and next season's plans for both SENPAC's regional outings as well as our traditional, November trip. I think that there was a feeling that we may have been a little premature in our forward view, that was certainly an opinion rehearsed by our newsletter editor but as with all "democratic" organisations canvassing opinion is one thing, arriving at decisions a completely different matter. And so it was that a goodly proportion of a somewhat brief May newsletter was taken up by requests for suggestions to begin the sometimes tortuous process of deciding when and where we are going for our monthly trips and also a couple of proposals for consideration for our November break. Just to get the discussion started you understand.





And really that is about it for this SENPAC April, never a busy month for us but particularly quiet, even by our standards. Our next gathering at "the Piper" will be on Tuesday 31st May 2016 by which time I sincerely hope we will all be fishing again somewhere, for something, with some more spring-like weather to enjoy.

It's still snowing!!

March 2016 - Just In The Nick of Time

As another SENPAC piking season begins to draw to a close we have enjoyed a half-reasonable month of fishing. There will be a few of our number who extend their seasons by travelling north from our Tyneside base and those journey's have, in the past, been rewarded by a special fish or two so it's not impossible that I will have some success to report in next month's missive but for the rest April is usually the month to earn brownie points on the domestic scene before attention is focused elsewhere on other  quarry.

March is always a busy month in the SENPAC camp and traditionally gets under-way with a trip north for some of our members to the Lake of Menteith. This year was no exception and we had two boats filled by RO Mike Bell and Dennis Fearon and Joint RO Bruce Turnbull alongside Dave Gardner. This was the PAC's first attempt at a lure and bait event when we were denied the use of anchors. It was a less than successful arrangement, much as had been experienced by the Scottish Pike Anglers Alliance back in November last year. Particularly so on our visit because of the difficult weather conditions of swirling, sometimes quite strong winds which just served to make boat management difficult and effective fishing almost impossible. Catch returns overall for the day were poor as a result and there was a little discontent evident as the day drew to a premature close for many.

Dennis Fearon

 Mike and Dennis caught pike a 12lb'er each, Dave and Bruce struggled to avoid the trout, Dave boating the only pike, a modest jack. I think that it was widely agreed that a re-think will be necessary, either on the part of the fishery management which up to now they have robustly resisted or failing that on the part of those that are fishing the event as far as tactics go. Baits and lures fished from an un-tethered boat are a challenge too far if the weather is in any way un-sympathetic.

Mike Bell

As for the rest of the month's fishing I'm pleased to be able to report that a few nice double figure fish were reported by our members, principally from waters north of the border and of course our 2015/2016 Club Trip Champion was crowned after our final trip of the season which was also fished in Scotland on a very windy, very wet water in Dumfries and Galloway.

Paul Proctor's 15lb-2oz Fish

 Some of the details, well, Paul Proctor reported a 15lb-2oz  fish and Dave Greally went one better with a very elegant pike of 18lb-4oz over which there was some debate as to whether it had spawned or not. Dave also secured the Trip Championship a couple of weeks later by not catching anything on the last trip such was his domination of the events previous!

Club Trip Champion With His Elegant Pike

All of which provided our Newsletter editor with lots of pictures for this latest edition which no doubt made a nice change. However a good proportion of his efforts were put into a somewhat belated tribute to the late Fred Buller OBE who, as you will no doubt know, passed away back in February.

 As an angler, historian and author he had a big influence on a lot of SENPAC's members who are "of a certain age" and reference to the volumes of The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike was un-avoidable for our editor, the fascinating tale of John Murray's Kenmure 72lb'er, an almost "local" fish for us, being used to illustrate the dedication and effort that Mr. Buller committed to his work. If, as yet you have not had the good fortune to enjoy Mr. Buller's writings then try this.......................... http://www.amff.com/assets/images/archived-journals/2008-Vol34-No2web.pdf 

 I'm sure you will enjoy the read.

 As I suggested earlier, April will probably be a fairly quiet month for SENPAC, we have our fishing socials to look forward to, The Golden Maggot Match in June and The Summer League Matches in July and August all of which feel a long way off at the moment so for me it will be a couple more Piking trips before I turn my attention to the boilies and bolt rigs! Our April meeting will take place on Tuesday 26th at the Northumbrian Piper, if you feel that you would like to learn a little more about pike fishing why not call in for a chat. We don't bite, honest.

February 2016 - No Shortage of Effort - Very little Reward

February can be one of the more difficult month's of the piking season on the waters that we fish, water temperatures would be expected to be at their lowest with moribund fish hard to locate and the activity of March as the drive to pro-create kicks-in still to look forward to. That is assuming that you can get a bait in the water with ice an ever present threat in these northern climes.

February 2016 hasn't been like that. Water temperatures have rarely dropped below 45 degrees, weed refuses to die back and the activity amongst the smaller jacks has remained at Autumnal levels. Most of our members have enjoyed days of multiple catches of fish in the 4lb - 6lb range whilst hoping for something a little larger. It is those larger fish that seem to have done a disappearing act on virtually all of our venues during February, the biggest fish reported being a 12lb'er which was as fat as butter and looking like it would be ready to spawn in a matter of days. The generally held view amongst our lot is that if ever there was a year when the fish spawn early then this could well be it. I guess that this suggestion is supported to some degree by the sustained level of activity amongst the smaller fish in the areas where we would begin to fish about now in the hope of intercepting the larger fish as they gather to spawn. Needless to say we are determined not to get caught out by the possibility of an early spawning and a lot of effort is already being expended in selected areas, so far, as it says at the top of this post, with very little reward.

We eventually had to give up on our planned region outing to a Yorkshire river.Whilst water levels gradually settled in the early part of February the banks were a bit of a nightmare with the debris and mud that was the residue of the prolonged flooding of January making things very difficult and potentially worse than difficult and with poor reports from those hardy souls who did give it a go we eventually succumbed and headed to a reliable stillwater due west of our Tyneside base. Eleven fish between the five members who made the journey went some way to convince us that we had made the right decision. So that saw us back on schedule as far as our club trip competition is concerned and it was at the very end of the month that we once again headed north and west this time to Dumfries and Galloway for our planned February outing, the penultimate trip of the season/competition. With an equal split between those that caught and those that didn't it was Dave Greally's two fish that moved him clear at the top of the competition table meaning the rest of us will be playing catch-up (again!) on the final event of the season. Hey-ho, it's a good job it is all a very light-hearted affair, much more to do with the craic than the catch.................honest.

Trip Champion Elect - Dave Greally

Our joint RO's, Mike Bell and Bruce Turnbull attended the fish-in that was organised to mark the passing of our friend Shane Patterson back in February 2015. They joined 14 other PAC stalwarts from the Hull, Teeside andDarlington/Durham Regions at the Hull and District A.A. complex at Brough. Our thanks go to Clive Melhuish and Jim Taylor for all their efforts in pulling the event together and of course to our hosts for providing the venue. Donations and a raffle raised £173 for Diabetes UK, Shane's adopted charity and that sum was boosted to £323 by money donated by another Yorkshire fish-in organised by LO Mark Green. All in all a fitting way with which to remember a good friend, just the sort of event in which Shane would have been in his element.

Shane Would Have Been In His Element

And what of March, well a few of us are once again looking forward to a day on the Lake of Mentieth, celebrated by our Newsletter editor on this month's front cover.

 We have our trip championship finale to look forward to and a lot of other piking besides as the season approaches its' climax, so a busy month no doubt. All of which will be reviewed and hopefully celebrated at our Region meeting which will take place at the Northumbrian Piper as usual on Tuesday 29th March 2016. Perhaps we will see you there?

January 2016 - Something of a Fishing Non-Event!

The general view amongst the SENPAC members appears to be that this season is rapidly becoming something of a non-event judging by the degree of frustration that was being voiced at our annual presentation of awards event a few nights ago. Those that have managed to get out have found their waters either totally un-fishable in practical terms due to flooding, or in some cases flotsam and jetsam, and even if they have managed to get baits into the water the results have proved to be very poor. The constantly fluctuating water levels, air pressures and temperatures may well be confusing the pike as much as the anglers seems to be a widely held view amongst our more active members.

With much of our piking being carried out at significant distance from our base here in the north east it is proving to be an increasing challenge as to whether it is worth the commitment in time and money to make the journey only to be defeated by the conditions. I suspect the internet browsing history's of our more committed  members over the past month will consist of a significant majority of visits to the Met Office and the SEPA and EA water level websites in desperate attempts to suss out whether the journey is worthwhile.

Even our most local water that is of any real interest has been substantially un-fishable since the end of December. Being a relatively shallow pit the almost continuous high winds have stirred the silt up and ripped up the remaining weed into huge rafts of the stuff which now line the banks such that any sensible fishing effort requires an hours hard work with a weed rake just to get a swim!

Am I beginning to sound like a "Victor" here? Perhaps. Not all bad though, we have managed the odd trip out on a day that wasn't completely inhospitable so there is always hope I guess.

AN HOSPITABLE SUNRISE

The January outing to the Lincolnshire Drains was well attended bearing in mind the longish drive, however only two modest fish were caught on a day when conditions were pretty near perfect which just served to compound the sense of injustice that those that were unsuccessful no doubt shared.

Our annual awards night was a success, and congratulations must go to all of the trophy winners particularly Paul Proctor who was voted our Pike Angler of the Year as well as picking up the Regions Trip Championship.

SENPAC SILVERWARE

 Paul was subjected to what has now become the traditional piss-take associated with the PAOTY award which, as usual was celebrated on the front cover of the February Newsletter.

On a sadder note, February will mark the first anniversary of the passing of Shane Patterson who, whilst not a member of our Region was a good friend, presenting the trophies at our last year's awards night. Shane was remembered in the slideshow that was part of the this year's event and is sadly missed by us all here at SENPAC. We hope to put up a team to fish the Shane Patterson/Peter Green memorial match that is being organised by the north-east and Yorkshire Region,s later in February. Cornerstones of the local PAC both and fondly remembered.

What of February, well we will be making our fourth and final attempt to fish a Yorkshire river on the 14th of the month, if this fails then we will give it best and head west to Scotland instead, speaking of which that is exactly what we hope to be doing on the 28th when we will be trying our luck on one of the better known commercial waters in Dumfrieshire.

Our February Region meeting will take place on Tuesday 23rd February at the Northumbrian Piper as usual, if you feel like joining us for the evening then feel free.

December 2015 - Tight Lines for 2016

Christmas gone and a new year to look forward to. Looking forward feels the right thing to do as far a SENPAC is concerned especially after the December that we have all been forced to endure in piking terms up here in the north-east of England. We are almost certainly not alone in feeling pretty badly bruised as far as our fishing is concerned,  all of which pales into insignificance as the appalling weather wrought chaos and misery of a much more fundamental kind on so many other areas of the country.

So looking forward is very much the flavour of this month's Blog........A happy, healthy and successful new year to you all from everybody at SENPAC.

January is usually a busy month for SENPAC and this coming month will be no exception... we hope? We have not one but two region outings to anticipate, having been forced to postpone our planned November trip to the North Yorkshire rivers, twice, we will be trying again on the 10th January followed two weeks later by another journey south, this time to a favourite venue on the Lincolnshire drains. Towards the end of the month we have the evil necessity of our AGM to look forward to but that is quickly followed by our principal social event of the year, the annual presentation of the regions awards and review of our 2014 - 2015 year. Not quite "Sports Personality of the Year" but based upon a very similar if somewhat more modest model!

Having to spend most of last month reliant on You Tube for our piking action, particularly to fend-off the inevitable cabin fever that is the festive period, it would be especially welcome if we could be granted some proper Winter weather this coming month, you remember the sort of thing,  clear crisp frosty dawns, camera ready sunrises and the promise of a fish or two instead of having to paddle around in mud!!

Is that too much to ask, probably I hear you say?

So to finish off, our next region meeting/ AGM will be on Tuesday 26th January 2016 at the Northumbrian Piper as usual which will also be the venue for our awards/review night on Saturday 30th January 2016. If you have been toying with idea of coming to see us, then why not join us for the evening, you will get the best possible in-sight into what we are all about.

Tight lines to you all.

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

November 2015 - A Turn For The Better

Here at SENPAC November tends to be one of the busier months of our piking season. This November was no exception. Our members are now generally in full pike fishing mode, we have the PAC access event on the beautiful Lake of Menteith to distract us from our usual haunts and, in addition to one of our regular monthly outings, a few of our number have the annual "jolly boys outing" to the Lake District to cram in to the fishing schedule.
Having said all that Novembers past haven't necessarily been particularly kind to our crew in terms of the fishing results and I think it is fair to say that over the years a few of us have arrived at the end of this particular month feeling slightly bruised. A lot of effort, mileage and expense with not a lot to show for it is, I guess, the risk that we take in pursuit of our quarry. There are certainly no guarantees in this business! One compensation this time of the year is of course that we do end up fishing in and enjoying some fabulous scenery with the added sparkle of the late Autumn colours which goes some long way ease the pain of long fish-less hours if they are to be endured. A compensation that was celebrated by our editor on the front cover of our latest Newsletter.

However, it will hopefully not of escaped you that the title of this month's missive is " A Turn For The Better"and as somebody famously said "the clue is in the name"! Far from feeling in anyway mistreated by this November past, a few of SENPAC's finest were feeling relatively content with the outcome of their fishing with good numbers of double figure fish being reported during the period from a variety of waters and in addition, a couple of twenties which were the high-point of the month, one each for our joint RO's Mike Bell and Bruce Turnbull.
Mike has been a Menteith regular for more years that he cares to remember I suspect, always in the draw, nearly always with his regular boat partner Dennis Fearon and with a better than average hit rate for getting afloat. However the one thing that has eluded him over all these years is a "Menty Twenty" Not any more, one of only five fish over twenty pounds(mind you one of them was a 35lb'er) that were recorded on the day, Mike's fish of 21lb-3oz was no doubt a particularly significant milestone for him.

Mike

The second of our twenties came later in the month, during the outing to the Lakes.Over the years a number of our "jolly boys outings"have produced fish over the magic twenty pound mark but not previously for Bruce so he very much saw it as his turn this year. At exactly 20lbs and after a less than successful Menteith trip, it no doubt went some way to making the effort feel worthwhile.

Bruce

The only blot on the November landscape was that we were forced to postpone our monthly outing which was going to be fished on a local river but fell foul of a storm that some bright spark had decided to name "Clodagh". Severe gales, heavy rain and a rapidly rising river did not appear to be ideal conditions for what was intended to be something of a social although there were undoubtedly a number of our "keener" members
who thought that perhaps we were turning soft?
So all in all a fairly positive month to report up here in the north, we all now look forward to December, two club outings to fit in as well as trips far and wide over the festive period no doubt. Historically we do not have a formal meeting in December due to the "festivities" but there will no doubt be a few of us at the Piper on the 29th December 2015 if you want to pop-in for a drink.

Tight lines all.