Bringing in the green...

It's been a tough few weeks - one of those periods where even stopping to reflect has been difficult. On a dark windy solstice day I decided I needed to take time out to just take stock and listen to the wind as it whispered through the trees.

My favourite local hollow lane, holloway, dark lane or deep lane is just up the road from me. It's short unlike some of its more famous neighbours, but I find it the most atmospheric. Iv'e foraged here, brewed tea, slept, day dreamed and generally switched off, but today I just wanted to take in the air. I see it in all seasons, but like it with its thin winter cloak.

It worked. As soon as I dropped down into it I knew I had done the right thing. The quiet, other than the eery tune of wind above, was just the tonic - I walked, slipped and stumbled its full length before turning back for the steep climb.

I found, or it found me, the perfect yule log which is now drying by the fire for the festive days ahead. Some holly to green the house and all is looking good. Make time to stop. There will hopefully be more opportunities in the dark days ahead, but for now I am content to have heard the sound of the wind on this the shortest of days.  

The social pike

I hadn't been fishing for weeks and weeks. You know how it goes....stuff comes up from all angles and it just doesn't happen. The date had been in the diary for weeks. It was never going to move as it is one of the most eagerly awaited trips of the fishing season - The Christmas Pike Social.

I fish with my pal Jim regularly, but this trip involves another good friend who I sadly only seem to see on this festive social trip and we enjoy the day from the minute we start planning where, what food, what libations and then it stumbles to tactics and weather until the day finally arrives and we greet each other like excited schoolboys.

The Dorset Stour is always our venue of choice and we were lucky after some recent lumpy weather that the river was just fishable for our day. Colour had only just dropped out and the level was down by quite a few feet. We exchange small gifts before we start and then the most social of days begins.

It's not just about the pike. I am pretty sure we three have fishing as an excuse for actually just being there in the landscape, in nature, breathing it, smelling it and seeing it. Each year this trip provides us with pleasure for what we see - otters, egrets, lapwing, water rail, kingfishers galore, sparrow hawk and an amazing rook display at dusk. 

Even though an otter had obviously taken a liking to my pike at some stage during its life I still do get a feeling of complete excitement when I see one on my fishing trips. 

The wind was biting. One of those squally windy days which Simon said "send kids and cats loopy" - it was cold too. They generally are from the east. We would be fine though as the social provides - Kelly Kettle tea, pork pie, mince pies, stollen, whisky and pickled onions.

The fishing was hard as it can be on such days, but the river did grant us a wish to see a fish or two and bring some Christmas cheer. We three, kings of the river for a day reflected on what had been a special day as we trudged across the fields to the twinkling festive lights of the village and home to warm fires and liquid cheer....

Three cheers for Christmas

The annual Christmas pike social is an eagerly awaited day in my anglers diary - to be honest it is not just about the catching of pike for me, but the joy of being out before Christmas when others are rushing about with last minute preparations. The joy of good company, fine pork pie, mince pies, tea, Christmas spirit and all being well a hip flask of medicinal spirit to keep the chill away.

This year did not disappoint - they never do. Always some drama to make then day memorable and this year there was the added spice of a new stretch of the Stour to fish. I have an obsession with the writings and fishermen of the Victorian age and I like to think old Francis Francis and JW Martin would enjoy these days, so I always think of them on such occasions and raise my bankside glass to them - never forgotten.  

The river looked perfect as it had just fined down after the recent heavy rains. We exchanged cards, presents and stories and it was one of those days when watching the nature around us would have been just enough. The pike had other plans though and it was not until later in the day as the light was starting to fade that our bauble like floats twitched as pike started to search out their festive feast...........we had devoured ours and it was their turn now to seek out the spratts.

Much merriment, landing of fish, the drama of unhooking, admiring, nurturing of such a fine species before being gently returned to their watery Christmas home. The glass of Christmas beer I raised to old Esox was very sweet that evening as I sat in quiet contemplation of a day most generous. Three cheers for old Esox and three cheers for Christmas!

The finest Christmas book of them all...

A new rod for the Epiphany

I do have a liking for glass fibre rods. I know that may come as a shock to some, but I don't just fish with rods made of bamboo!  

You can imagine my pleasure, over the Christmas break, when I came across this old school glass fibre pike rod. The Blenheim (made by Vortex, ET Barlow & Sons of Thames Ditton) - no doubt named after that fine Capability Brown landscaped park at Woodstock in Oxfordshire that has a mighty fine lake which contains some mighty fine pike. The punt fishing for pike is still available and very good too, although my memories are of cold days, not enough flasks of soup and gin clear water which invariably led to no pike!

The rod was too good to pass up at about the equivalent of three pints of your finest ale - a bargain! 

Today is the Ephiphany and one of my traditions is to fish at some stage on this day, return home for King Cake and a glass of amber by the fire where we will burn holly and mistletoe that decorated the house and look forward to the year ahead.

I will be casting a line at last knockings, hoping for a a pike on the Stour, but if I end up fishless I will still be happy - happy in the knowledge that after my experience I will at least be king for part of the day.     

A years turning

Merry Christmas from Bridport

Festive Felicitations

We surrender! - Time and tide and Tunnock's Tea Cakes wait for no dog!

The Christmas Number

A Christmas Pike

The annual Christmas Pike trip is something I look forward to very much indeed. It's always memorable for many reasons and this year was even closer to Christmas which added to the enjoyment of this festive period.

The day, as you can imagine, is not just about the fish. The company is as splendid as ever. We enjoy a natter, freshly made tea, pork pie and mustard and later mince pies with cognac. This year we were also blessed with suitably chilly weather coupled with a slight north easterly which cut across the Hampshire Avon water-meadows.

The pike obliged. This one was a tad under 15lbs and the fight was full of drama and close shaves. One low double was caught twice and in the afternoon I switched my attention to chub. Trundling a lump of chopped ham and pork to try and tempt something was the order of the day until last knockings at dusk. Two fine chavender graced the net, but only just. The second and biggest of my pair was duly grabbed by a pike in clear water just at the net. It frightened the life out of me let alone the poor chub - I hung on to both fish for about five minutes until the 20lb pike decided to let go.

The startled chub recuperated in my net for a while before I let him go to hopefully dodge being a pikes dinner. The moorhen and water rail which were shyly going about their business looked slightly more nervous than usual. 

A lovely festive fishing day, Francis Francis would have been proud - raise a glass of cognac to Christmas and Christmas Pike everywhere! 

Shropshire and Dorset Delight

My trip north to the River Severn last autumn was fruitful in more ways than one. I picked a bait bucket full of sloes which went straight into the freezer after my trip Severnside. I only got round to preparing them the other evening - mixed with gin of the cheapest variety and caster sugar I was extremely pleased to get three large jars out of my Shropshire sloes. What a splendid mixture and I find the colour quite comforting.

Luckily for me I always have a batch on the go, so while my Severn vintage does its thing over the next year or two it's time to crack open the Dorset Stour vintage - picked and prepared by a friend of mine from one of our favourite fishing haunts. Perfect to accompany the writing of the Christmas cards. Festive felicitations!

A pork pie is for life and not just for Christmas

This will probably sound odd, but I have long had a fascination with porcine products - I think it not only comes from my love of sausages, pork pies, brawn and black puddings but as a child I had a much loved Hornby Palethorpes' Sausages wagon. A fine wagon it was too - long lost now, but there was a rather lovely butchers bunch of sausages on the side and very appealing they were too. And so the spark was ignited. 

A pork pie, especially a fine artisan pie, is something I look forward to at this time of year - one to slice on Boxing Day accompanied by a home made chutney or a pickled walnut perhaps?

I hope you enjoy yours if you like such things and just to keep you going until the magic day here is a selection of goodies I have picked up over the years. Pass the knife Gramps....

Christmas Likings

Eric Ravilious

Eric Ravilious - Halstead Road Snow (1935)

Choose A Happy One!

1929 - Mather Work Poster

Yuletide Pike

I am not a pike fisherman. I am a fisherman who occasionally fishes for pike. When I do actually go pike fishing I enjoy it so much that I tell myself that I must go more often, but I enjoy my pike fishing more so if I am with friends. My first "proper" pike trip of the season usually falls around the festive period and is what is more commonly known as the Christmas Social.

In previous years the ground under foot has been hard with frost and one year we actually had snow carpeting the ground and covering our brollies, but this was the first social where the temperature had been above ten degrees - it was fifteen degrees, mild, wet and unseasonal. 

Bumblebees were active, daffodil in flower en route to the river and for two days before the trip there had actually been a dawn chorus.......I had to pinch myself when it started but the robin was a lone voice getting it going and by the end he had everyone joining in.......what is going on? This year more than ever the weird weather has had an impact like I have not seen before.

The Christmas Social is a day for fishing close together - brewing fresh coffee, tea, eating pork pie, mince pies, Tunnocks Tea Cakes, drinking brandy and yarning about anything and everything...........oh and casting the occasional deadbait for a pike. 

It's a miracle we catch anything, but we did get some action. The old Dennis Pye pike rod did me proud and my rancid deadbait theory worked again. The company as ever was splendid and even though we didn't catch our expected amount the fisherman's calendar would be rather a sad affair without the annual Christmas Social. I just hope that it's a bit colder next year!