2022 has been a year where I decided to concentrate my efforts around the type fishing I love. The Hobie Lynx featured heavily, as did top water lure fishing for bass and chub. It is great to look back at some of the amazing catches – experience really does count for alot – and the style and variety of fishing too – with freshwater, saltwater and fly fishing. Definitely a year where I really enjoyed my fishing.
January saw me visit Hallsands in Devon to fish the Skerries with Marcus, Paul and friends Kev and Rich. Kev kindly showed me a new area and I was soon into some nice rays, inclusing a lovely blonde ray, and a tagged small eyed ray.
Off to Blue Anchor in Somerset in February. Always alot of fun – thornback ray and conger eels kept the rod tips bouncing.
If you have been following my adventures, then you will know how much I love the Hobie Lynx kayak. This year, I was determined to make as much use of the Lynx as I could. This year I also purchased a campervan (Vantourer 540D). Its an amazing piece of kit, and it will very much be part of my future adventures as you will see from this article. The March spring sun was starting to warm things up, so where better than to experience some super hard fighting trout, but Wimbleball trout fishery. A fantastic trip with Charlie, and we caught beautiful brown trout and some hard fighting rainbows. It is a stunning place.
April, got to be worth a crack at the black bream, right? Well, it would be rude not to, so a trip to Swanage was in order. Stunning conditions, and I was rewarded with some beautiful bream.
At the end of April, I took the camper van down to Dorset for a long weekend. Luckily I managed a couple of quick trips out. Using the Bone Voyage travel rod to subdue a carp on the camp site (the owner said, there were no fish in the lake!). And then a meet up with Sav and Kris at the Hobie Center in Poole. The Navionics chart showed up a few good spots, and for some unknown reason I thought I would chuck some surface popper lures out, even though the smart money said it was too early. Well the bass absolutely smashed the lures, even when they were left static, including a couple of really decent ones.
May signals the time of year when the mayfly hatch on my local river. Its become a bit of an annual tradition that myself and good friend Charlie meet up for a bit of fly fishing. This year I was haunted by the loss of what was a really decent fish. I returned the following day, and captured the mystery fish, which turned out to be a chub. What a fight that fish put up. I will not forget that in a long time. Sight casting to fish with a dry fly on such sporting gear, really is so exciting.
Also in May, was a long awaited kayak fishing trip to France with Martin, Mark, David, Sam and Graham. We had a great time, the weather was amazing. Martin caught some huge catfish from the kayak, but the rest of us struggled. I landed a colossal 101cm zander which weighed 19lb 1oz, but unfortunately it was foul hooked. We will definitely be back again – next time, we will try to avoid catfish spawning time.
June heralded my first visit of the year to Christchurch Harbour. A location I love to fish… it is shallow, with strong tides; absolutely made for kayak fishing. And this year I had the ideal fishing kayak – the Hobie Lynx equipped with PowePole micro, fishfinder and Navionics installed. It was fantastic, and I wasted no time in catching big mullet and bass. Even the BoatCar thought it was a cool fishing machine! It would have been a perfect trip, if it had not been for the fact that I lost the Sea Trout of my dreams. The fish was on for a few minutes and had jumped a few times – it was a stunning fish, but alas the sheer strength of the fish opened up the snap link I was using…. let’s hope that one day I get another chance to hook a fish like that.
July and the hot summer weather continued to turn into a heat wave. I had been looking forward to a trip to Shetland. I had been planning for it for a long time. Three days before I was due to depart, I contracted Covid-19. I cannot tell you how upset I was to miss that trip. The guys went on to have a fantastic time, catching some incredible fish. I am still pretty distraught about it now if truth be told. Days after I was supposed to have been there, I had recovered enough that Denise suggested we take the van (and the fishing kayak!) away to a river side site. It wasn’t quite Shetland, but I did have a red letter day on the chub, with some real monsters thrown in for good measure. The Duo Realis Shinmushi surface disturbance lure had accounted for pretty much every one of the chub. What an exciting way of catching them. Shortly later I was asked to join the Duo UK and Ireland team – I was flattered.
Still time to take advantage of the good weather, with a camper van trip to Salcombe. I found a camp site which overlooked the estuary, and we had the whole place to ourselves. The Navionics charts yet again proved their worth, making it easy to spot fish holding areas. And I caught bass, pollack and wrasse – a proper fish fest, including a decent bass which hammered a live launce.
Another Saltwater favourite – Woolacombe. Again, making the most of the camper van. I had modified the van with a kayak loader, which enabled me to easily load and unload the Hobie kayak onto the roof of the camper van. The Hobie Lynx and weather Gods, enabled me to launch at one of my favourite spots – a really difficult launch. Navionics charts put me right on the spot, and a big bass and then a chunk of a pollack hit the lures. This was probably the most memorable trips of the year, a short trip and two real tug of wars, either of those fish could easily have been lost on another day.
Still time left in July for a trip back to Christchurch. More mullet, and a load of bass, including a 5lb’er. The Hobie Lynx was on fire.
On to August, and the weather was still fantastic. Time for more kayak fishing madness. I don’t attend too many competitions these days, but one event I was looking forward to was called Back To Basics. The concept is centered around everyone having the same lures to use, and no electronics are allowed. I love the idea of it. Denise had decided she wanted to come along with me, so we took the camper van with us, and made a weekend of it. The day before the event, we stayed on a riverside site, and I warmed up for the competition by catching some big chub.
The event itself was fantastic. I got the slam – trout, pike and perch, including a half decent perch. I think I ended up 5th, which wasn’t too shabby. But I am already looking forward to the next one. The Hobie Lynx excelled, and the weather behaved too!
September is probably my favorite month of the year for fishing. First stop was Christchurch, and it was a proper bass fest… including a couple of brutes, the bigger 7lbs on the nose…
How do you follow that? Well how about a bunch of mini-sub chub all taken on the surface shinmushi. All of the chub were 4lb+ including one of 6lb 1oz. I just love those surface explosions – absolutely heart stopping…
Back to Christchurch, and a pretty sea trout on the successful Lure Fans Super rattlesnake lure (SR45), along with more bass.
My last visit to Christchurch was in October. The mullet had gone, and there were less bass. But the ones which were left, were big. Very big. I spotted one of those beasts, swim past the Hobie Lynx. The water was inches deep. I swiveled around and cast the lure… the bass turned, accelerated, and absolutely nailed the lure right in front of me. Another huge bass…
November, and a visit to Llangorse lake in the Brecons. Lots of perch and pike, and of course the biggest pike fell to the smallest (dropshot) lure!
Final trip of the year, was from the bank, it was good to end the year on a high, with a lovely pike…
2022 was an exceptional year weather wise. I didn’t have a single blank session, I cannot remember another year when that happened! The Hobie Lynx was used for 90% of my trips, the PowerPole micro was a game changer, as was the Navionics and relief shading. My best year ever in terms of bass and chub, both in numbers of fish and the size, with 7lb+ bass and 6lb+ chub. Nearly all of the fish were taken on surface disturbance lures. A fantastic year that’s for sure.
A big thank you to everyone who has supported me this year, especially the guys at Shore Thing Poole, the team at Navionics UK, Lowrance, PowerPole, Reuben Heaton, Duo UK and Ireland, Bone Fishing World, Veals Mail order, Premier Fishing, The Lure Box, Lurefans UK.