Having the ability to do what you enjoy in life, is a very precious thing indeed. I never take for granted the opportunities I have to go fishing every once in a while. I am neither rich, nor famous. I am not well connected, and I don’t really live near to any great fishing locations. My fishing efforts are well earned, and relatively infrequent. I have resisted the urge to follow the crowd. Instead I have concentrated on watercraft and enjoyment, and that has in turn lead to me becoming a better fisherman. When I look around at other anglers in the public eye, and I see the underlying pressures and dilemmas they wrestle with, I have to confess, that occasionally it raises a smile. Not in a bad way you understand, and certainly not out of jealousy or smugness, but many of them seem so preoccupied with achieving whatever it is that they are after, that they have forgotten two of the most important aspects of the sport – watercraft and enjoyment. This last year I have dabbled in watercraft, caught some half decent fish, and most of all, I have had a fabulous experience whilst doing so. The Vantourer camper van and the Hobie Lynx have made it easier to escape, and to stay and fish at some remarkable locations, and that in turn had lead to the capture of some amazing fish. It has taken me a few years to reach this point, and when I think back to where it all started, and what I have learned, it really is quite incredible. It never ceases to amaze me what you can learn, when you take the time to stop, look around you, and think. I still find fishing a great challenge, and I love it as much as ever. I like to think I am getting better, but you can be the judge of that. I am certainly enjoying my fishing more than ever, and catching more than my fair share of big fish. Best of all, I am still learning.
What a great way to start to 2023… I found myself on the front cover of Saltwater Boat Angling Magazine. I think this is the 6th magazine cover which I have featured on…
Then, it was on to the Boatlife show at the National Exhibition show in Birmingham. This was the first time that Shore Thing had exhibited at the show. The Hobie kayak fishing stand looked amazing as always, and throughout the exhibition there was a steady stream of interested visitors who were intrigued about the Hobie products. I even made it up onto the stage and gave a presentation about kayak fishing. Host Adam Jones a.k.a London Perchfinder made the mistake of plying me with some locally sourced gin, and once he started asking about kayak fishing, that was it for the next 45 minutes…. rule #1 don’t get me started on kayak fishing!
On to the next fishing show – The Big One, based at Farnborough. This used to be an out and out carp fishing show, but the last couple of years had seen a rise in the profile of lure fishing. This year was probably the best so far, and the Hobie fishing kayaks certainly gave the visiting lure fishermen something to think about. For me, it was a great chance to catch up with my Hobie Fishing team mate David, and Kris and Steve from Shore Thing.
April, is one of my favourite months, it marks the start of decent weather, and can provide some fantastic fishing in the UK.
Wimbleball lake was on top form, with wild brown trout and the hard fighting rainbows for which it is famous. The Hobie Lynx was on top form, and paired with the Powerpole Micro, it made fly fishing this stunning lake an absolute pleasure. My good fishing buddy Charlie Halliday was also out on his Hobie lynx – the fish were not safe!
I had fitted an anchor trolley to the Hobie Lynx, and I couldn’t wait to try it out. The first opportunity was at Swanage – another one of my favourite kayak fishing locations.
The bream were biting, and so were the rays. All of the fish were returned to fight another day. I caught a load of small eyed rays, but no undulate rays. A return trip was needed, and a weather window presented itself a couple of weeks after my first visit. I was staying away in the camper van, and the parking logistics for launch were not simple – luckily Mark Radcliffe was around to save the day – Hero!! The weather was incredible, and the fish were biting – the undulate rays were going crazy for sandeels only. The bites were savage, and the fish were running off with the baits – it was another incredible day.
May started calmly and serenely with multiple visits to the small stream which runs close to my house. Myself and Charlie made a few visits. The mayfly hatches were as impressive as always, and the wild brown trout fought well above their weight. Beautiful in every way – the weather, the company, the scenery – perfect!
Every year, Mark Radcliffe keeps teasing me about Kimmeridge. He’s always telling me the bass fishing is great. This year, I decide I will give it a go. My reservations stem from previous visits many, many years ago – I loved the place, but never caught anything big from the kayak. This year was different – we caught a few bass, and wrasse.
Every time I have met up with my kayak fishing guide and good friend Brian, I have an absolute blast. This year would be no different. Florida is an awesome place to go fishing, and even more epic if you are able to go fishing on a kayak.
Mahi-mahi, dolphin fish, dorado – call them what you will…. I have always wanted to catch one. And so I did. Amazing, incredible, iridescent unreal colours, and a tough scrap interspersed by jumps and spins. I will not forget it.
Then the tuna came on the feed. I have caught tuna before in Panama – yellowfin tuna on a popper, and they were scrappers. These were blackfin tuna. They scrapped hard too. The initial run of these fish has to be experienced. For a few seconds, the blistering run is mind blowing. Nothing much you can do on the kayak apart from hang on and enjoy the sleigh ride. The tuna were busting out of the water all around the kayak. It was bedlam.
When the tuna bite stopped, the Kingfish started to feed. More burning runs and airbourne leaps. I had caught quite a few of these sporting fish before, but then I hooked one, which I knew felt much bigger than the others. It was off the scale – a real monster. I was so excited.
To top things off, I caught another first – an amberjack. The water was so clear, I could see its every move. What a buzz.
Back home, the June sunshine was burning bright. The kayak fishing competition scene has changed alot over the years. In recent years, I have found myself in lighter smaller kayaks such as the Hobie Lynx. Slimmed down electronics, fast and agile, I can fish places others cannot. The UK kayak fishing competition scene is much smaller these days. It moved in a different direction, and to be honest it doesn’t offer the same challenges and interest for me which it once did. There are still a few competitions which I take part in. My Hobie team mate David runs a series of freshwater kayak fishing competitions – this year he added a saltwater event at one of my favourite venues, I wasn’t going to miss it. I took the camper van and stayed over for a few days. The KAOTY (Kayak Angler Of The Year) event was lure only, with a combination of your 3 longest mullet, 3 bass and 1 perch counting towards your total. I almost didn’t start at all, having forgotten the rudder for my Hobie Lynx! Luckily Steve Beard my Hobie Dealer from Shore Thing, went back to base to pick up a spare for me. Now that is what I call service!
From the off, all of the competitors disappeared into the distance. I hung back and spotted some mullet not far from the launch. Using artifical Isome worms, I hooked up on successive casts. Within 10 minutes I had filled my card.
I couple of smaller bass, and I had amassed a fairly decent total of over 300cms.
Back at the competition check in, the results were in – I took 2nd place overall, and also took home the prizes for biggest bass (65cms) and biggest mullet (56cms) – Not a bad day at the office!
Back to some proper fishing, and a return to Kimmeridge. I paddled over 19 miles on this visit! Navionics was the saviour of the day, pinpointing a small area of rough ground in a desert of sand. The first drift over the reef accounted for a beast of a wrasse.
Catching bass and chub on surface disturbance lures has to be up there, as my favourite type of fishing in the UK. It is so visual, and utterly addictive. July saw me start my summer campaign for chub on the river. The vast majority of my chub fishing is performed using the crazy Shinmushi surface disturbance lure from Duo.
I added a kayak loader to my awesome Vantourer 540D adventure camper van. This enabled me to effortlessly load and unload my Hobie Lynx kayak onto the roof of the camper van single handed, without having to climb onto the roof of the van. The off-grid capability of the Vantourer allows me to stay in locations without electricity for extended periods of time. The Vantourer is only 5.4m long, so I can get to some real out of the way places. One such river side retreat was the location for the start of my summer chub fishing adventures.
Sight casting to 6lb chub from the Hobie Lynx is incredible.
A brief return at the end of July to Christchurch harbour to catch some more supercharged bass and mullet.
Another event I look forward to in August is the Pitsford Back To Basics event. I have been going to this event since it started. It used to be called the Pitsford Grand Slam. The event format is simple but ingenious – no electronics are allowed (fishfinders, GPS, charts etc), and each competitor is given exactly the same lures. The aim of the event is to catch a pike, perch and trout only using the given lures. If you achieve this, then you get a “Grand Slam” bonus which is added to your score. If you lose the lures, you don’t get a replacement – so it all adds to a level playing field and a fun filled weekend. I always make a long weekend adventure for this event, staying at a riverside location before the event and taking the camper van, and my better half (and her electric bicycle – the Vantourer camper van has loads of room in the rear garage for fishing tackle and bikes!).
The pre-event river visit went well – with lots of big chub…
The Back to Basics event was great fun, as always. The Hobie Lynx was very at home, and Denise enjoyed cycling around the lake. The fishing was pretty tough. It always amuses me how tough it can be to catch a trout on a trout lake using lures! To cut a long story short, I managed the grand slam, filling my card and upgrading with literally seconds to go in the competition. Also managed to scrape a top ten position, which I was pleased with. This result also qualified me for the European Champion of Champion event later in the year (see below).
From fresh to salt again, and this time the continuing saga of my quest to catch a mullet on the fly from the kayak. I have hooked a few, but not landed them so far. This time I thought I had cracked it – but the “mullet” turned out to be a 5lb bass. A great fight on the fly gear, just not what I was expecting.
The perch was a real bonus – I wish I could have caught that one in the KAOTY competition earlier in the year!
Flip flopping back to the chub for a quick September river session…
Then back to the bass fishing again, in balmy idyllic September weather.
The last of my 2023 international trips had been planned for quite some time. Myself, David, Martin, Mark and Shaun were headed for France for another kayak fishing adventure. The 2022 trip was too early in the year, and the Catfish were still breeding. The 2023 September date we were hoping would be better.
Every year, I end up losing big fish, and this year was to be no exception. I was the only member of the group who was not using “Live” sonar technology, and this made a huge difference as it turned out. I could spot individual catfish on the side imaging occasionally, but the fish were moving, and by the time I had spun the Hobie Outback around, and re positioned for a cast, the fish had moved. I did hook up with a big fish early on, and valiantly played it solo until the rest of the guys arrived a few minutes later. After a long and protracted battle, I got the big catfish alongside the kayak. I could see that the fish was barely hooked, with a single lure hook holding on by the smallest sinew of skin. Then the inevitable happened – I made a grab for the leader, and the fish decided it was not done yet, and with a couple of thrashes it was gone, leaving me holding the lure. I cannot tell you how deflated I was. It was so close. I pretty much knew in that moment, that I had blown my best chance – and indeed, I did not hook another monster catfish during the holiday. I did however, hook and land a modest (20-30lb) catfish on light spinning tackle – Bone Voyage Travel rod, and a Van Staal VR50 spinning reel loaded with 20lb line. Sight casting to this fish on such light gear was a revelation, and I will not forget this for a long time.
I also landed a load of other fish – Perch, Zander, Bream, Rudd, Asp, Chub, and Ide. I was towed around the river on 3 separate occasions by big fish which I am guessing were very big zander or maybe catfish. Each time, they snaffled a small dropshot minnow fished on 8lb mainline. The fight would last for 20 minutes before the unseen fish would gain sanctuary in an unseen underwater snag. A sleigh ride with an unhappy ending. Following up on last year’s foul hooked 19lb 1oz zander, this year I foul hooked a colossal wild river common carp. An incredible fish.
France really does have some amazing fishing locations. The scenery can be stunning. Launching on to the river with mist wafting across the surface, makes for a special trip.
Mark and Martin were the stars of the show, catching lots of big catfish between them. Mark’s biggest catfish was over 230cms long. These incredible creatures live in the shallowest of water, its difficult to imagine them swimming around in such small rivers.
Llangorse lake in Wales, hosts a lure based kayak fishing competition courtesy of the SWKA South Wales Kayak Angling. It is a social event as much as a kayak fishing event. Myself, Charlie and Hewy stayed in a caravan, it is always a great laugh, and a good chance to catch up with everyone. Another ritual at this event is that I always seem to be the “Pre-fish princess” that is to say, I always seem to catch a decent fish the day before the main event! This year was no exception… on the day before the event, the weather was set fair, mild and windy – ideal conditions for the predators which make Llangorse their home. After catching a load of perch and jack pike, I was returning to the launch site, when I had one of those “One More Cast” moments. The wind was howling and it was really grim, with shallow weed clogging up the lake, and making lure fishing difficult. I had fitted a chartreuse chatterbait to the end of my line. This in itself is unusual, as I think I have had those chatterbaits in my lure box for 10 years and never really had much faith in them. Today was different, I cast the chaterbait out into the forest of weed and decaying lilly pads. After a couple of winds of the reel handle, the lure was grabbed. Wit a sudden sharp jolt, it was stopped in its tracks, and the fish started a strong and determined run across in front of me, turning the Hobie Lynx as it did so. As it moved, the line was collecting weed, making everything seem even heavier. I looked around, and my friends were nowhere to be seen. I netted the fish. It filled the net, and then some. Not a particularly long fish, but the girth on this pike was pretty impressive. A good mid double pike, which put up a great account of itself.
As for the competition, it was another top ten finish in the Hobie Lynx, so I was pretty chuffed.
Then on to the last event of the year. As I mentioned earlier, I had managed to qualify for the European freshwater Champion of Champions kayak fishing event organised by SWKA. This was a Who’s Who of UK freshwater kayak fishing tournament junkies, all armed to the hilt with the latest fishing kayaks rammed full of hi-tec equipment. I turned up with my Hobie Lynx and trusty Lowrance Hook 5 fish finder, much to the amusement of the assembled masses. However, the normal debacle did not apply at this event – there was no gain to be had by individuals having fished the venue umpteen times before. This would be the first time the venue had been fished competitively by fishing kayaks. I was based in the small village of Felinfoel near Llanelli. This is as proud village with alot of sporting history associated with it. We ended up in the local pub, The Royal Oak, as did many of the other kayak fishermen the night before the event. It turned into one of those classic unforgettable nights where we were adopted as one of the locals. After some great food and excessive amounts of alcoholic beverages, we had all been convinced that the lake contained fish of monstrous proportions. The comp favourites left the pub early, and the rest of us continued to consume beverages until the early hours. The following morning, how the assembled masses managed to fit their vehicles and kayaks into the miniature car park, I have no idea, but manage it they did. And soon we had set off on the long journey along the lake side to the launch point, and ultimately to appear as if by magic at the other end of the lake, attracted by the smell of bacon sandwiches, which were being handed out by the SKWA organisers. Soon we were off, and a long day of fishing had began. After a short while, it became obvious that the fishing was going to be tough. Very tough. After a couple of hours, nobody I had spoken to had seen a fish, let alone caught one. All thoughts of pike and trout went out of the window, and I knuckled down to try for some perch. Eventually I tracked some down, and soon started building up a respectable tally of small perch, which seemed concentrated in quite a small area. As we neared the end of the competition, it seemed like every man and his kayak was crammed into that small area.
At the weigh in, it became obvious that it was going to be a close run thing. Bogdan scraped a very emotional win, and I ended up in 4th place, another 0.5cm would have seen me overtake Mark in third place – it was very close. 4th place in the freshwater Euro champs in the Lynx – considering I don’t really do much comp fishing these days, I was really happy with that. A great way to end the year.
As I write this end of year compilation, it is with a mixture of emotions that I remember 2 of my kayak fishing friends who sadly passed away earlier this year. Jim Marsh was one of the nicest people you could meet. He possessed a dry sense of humour, and seemed to have a knack of making me laugh, usually at the most inopportune moments. On the day of his funeral, I was out on the water at Llangorse lake. It was a pretty miserable day, the wind was blowing and it was raining. The fishing was dire, and as I stopped for a moment to think about Jim laughing at the futility of it all, the wind dropped and the sun broke through the clouds. As if on cue, a rainbow appeared. It seemed somehow very fitting to a great bloke who I will miss dearly. Bob Findlay, or Swami Bob as we knew him was Hobie’s media man. I first met him at a Hobie World’s event where he had just capsized a kayak which contained all of his photographic equipment. Bob was a true larger than life Aussie. All of the Hobie kayak fishermen knew Bob, or knew of him. His reputation proceeded him. There was never a dull moment when he was around. He said what he thought, and he would go out of his way to help friends and strangers alike. We became friends, and met up at many of the Hobie Worlds events across the world – Texas, Australia, Holland and China to name a few. The world is a poorer place without Jim and Bob, but they have left us with happy memories which will last a lifetime, and remind us to make the most of life.
I would like to end this review by thanking everyone – especially my supporters and sponsors…