Well in spite of the usual protestations that January is the month for catch up on the domestic stuff and finishing the infamous book, I took the Beagle down to Derwentwater after Christmas for an early season look about. I had been out over the holiday period but only from the shoreline as there was way to much wild weather to drift a bait around. Even the shore stuff was hard going and when Russians pack up early it must be grim. Mind you the rafts of weed floating down on 4’ waves was enough to put anyone off. And fish don’t like that sort of weather either . So I waited. With a couple of bookings in the diary for early January the weather calmed enough to allow us out, and in spite of the lake a long way above its normal level we had a few fish. No real huge ones but pike big enough to put a smile on an anglers face and to be honest, after the invasion of offspring over the festive period, I was ready for some piking.

Sasha the Serb had a nice day of three out with Chris Cooke from Usbekistan while Richard Priest and his mate Mike had a couple of good fish including this one around 14lb. Not bad for a pair of sea anglers. Next day out again with Kevin Appleyard whose had some good ones off Windermere but managed to escape for a sneaky day with his pal Matt. Hard going again but we managed three with Matt getting this nicely marked fish. To be honest, if you are getting three fish on a cold winters day then its not so bad really so I’m not apologising!

With the weather closing in again, winter returning, and more writing to do, the Beagle is off for repairs until the Windermere spring fishing starts in Feb. Sorry all you would be specimen hunters but all is fully booked till the last week of March.

Happy New Year Billy

And a nice one for Matty

As for me it’s the ‘ing’ not the fish