Fishing – The opening day

How many of you were as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve the day before yesterday, counting down the hours until we can get out and fish again? I know I was and as luck would have it, I was able to get out on the first day.  The question was, where to go? As I had a new fly rod to christen, I opted to go fishing for wild Brown Trout on a local river and had a fantastic day. Nothing of any great size, but just being out and enjoying my surroundings and the thrill of hooking a fish, brought back to me all the reasons I love fishing.

All over the country, many of you did get to fish the sea and what a day some of you had.

Thomas Morgan decided to fish the Bristol Channel and had a great session on the Rays, it has to be one of the top marks in the country for the variety of Ray species that can be caught there. These pictures are just a few of the whole range that Thomas has caught in the area.

For those of you that love your Bass, I am happy to report that they showed up as well, at different marks around the country. Dean Taylor started off with a cracking 7lb Bass that anyone would have been proud of.

Rob Wheaton managed this cracker on Peeler Crab.

As I predicted on Monday Portland Harbour produced plenty of smaller Bass on lures. I expect to see plenty more showing up this week.

Chesil Beach was predictably busy on the usual easy to access marks, but quite a few anglers had problems finding parking spaces, as some of the car parks remain closed. Well known local angler Ben Stockley showed why Chesil is one of the best fishing marks in the country with a nice Smoothound and a colourful Gurnard, from a mark far from the maddening crowds.

 

Mackerel were present on Chesil but not in huge numbers at the moment, but it is good to know that they are around this year.

One species that I will be targeting today is Wrasse, I just hope that I have as good a day as Danny Parkins and his mate, when they took to the rocks and managed 55 on lures yesterday.

 

Obviously this is just a round up of a few of the many catches that anglers have had in the South and a big thanks to those anglers that gave me permission to use their pictures. I am always looking out for catch pictures. Please feel free to send me your pictures to [email protected]

Over the next few days I hope to post more catch reports and I will also being doing fishing forecasts for the most popular marks. Make sure you subscribe to our mailing list to not miss any.