Des Taylor’s
Is another year really almost over? Well, 2017 was a vintage one for this old boy!
Diary of a Countryman
ALMOST another year over in the life of Des Taylor – and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my weekly Diary of a Countryman as much as I have writing it.
People often ask me how I manage to write every week in Angling Times but to be honest it’s quite easy, because I fish so much.
Obviously, I can’t catch every time and I think readers like to hear about my failures, especially when I drop the odd clanger!
Still, I’ve had a great year with lots of fish, I’ve shared great times with mates, had successful guiding trips and even moved house in between times.
Here’s my pick of some great days in 2017…
SPRING
Sessions after tench, roach, perch, pike and even sea fish, but my spring highlight had to be catching a personal-best 16lb-plus bream.
My fishing buddy Ray Cutler and I had set goals of a 16lb bream and a 16lb barbel for this year, and it started well for me with that lump of a bream from St Ives fishery in Cambridgeshire.
It was the first time I’d seen the water and I spent three days up there in the company of Phil Riley, an Evertonian and a barrel of laughs.
The first night Phil had a personal best at over 14lb and I remember him saying: “That’s the job done, all we need now is for you to catch one even bigger.”
Little did we know it at the time but that’s exactly what happened. The very next morning my bobbin hit the butt and the rest is history.
I remember catching my first double-figure bream from TC Pit in Oxford back in 1981, and my mate Peter McMurry had a 13 that same session. As I looked down at his fish I said: “I will never see a bream that big again in my life!” How specimen angling has changed!
SUMMER
A long, hard one for me, what with moving house and a lot of guide days. I’m 66, not 40 any more!
Some days I would spend 10 hours on the Severn with a client and then come home, have a quick bite to eat, and be fishing the Warwickshire Avon till midnight, before a 5am start with another client. A hard summer!
However, I also had some very nice fish and some lovely sessions. Without doubt the highlight of my summer was putting the net under Ray’s 16lb-plus Thames barbel.
Ray was a match angler for ages before a number of years on the carp scene, but over the past five years he has turned his hand to all-round specimen fishing.
He has caught some great fish, but this barbel was the icing on the cake and I’ll never forget the look on his face when we were taking photos of him holding the fish.
Ray was in dreamland, and I don’t think it was until the following day that he realised just how big a fish he had caught.
We are both halfway to our goal of a 16lb bream and a 16lb barbel and rest assured, we will be trying our best to complete the task!
AUTUMN
A very enjoyable time with lots of ‘guide’ fish including 2lb roach, double-figure barbel and 6lb-plus chub, and for me some more barbel and zander doubles, but the highlight was catching some lovely-looking common carp.
Anglers sometimes think I am an out-and-out river man. Well,
I am not, and I enjoy my stillwater carp as much as any river species, especially commons. It still gives me a thrill to hear the buzzer sound off on a one-toner and then watch a deep-flanked common roll over the net.
My biggest common is 62lb from France but the fish I have caught this autumn mean just as much to me. Look at the one in the photo. How nice is that?
WINTER
This season started so well! My first pike session of the season with John Chester on the mighty Chew produced fish of 27lb 4oz and 32lb 4oz, both on a small smelt. John had them even bigger!
In 2016 I wanted to catch my sixtieth 20lb pike but I failed, so to catch my target at Chew – and a ‘thirty’ at that – really was special.
It was a magical two days down there – we had a great laugh, with great fishing and great food and
drink along with the legend that is Ray Brown, formerly from the Coventry Circus specimen group who joined us for the evening.
Some sessions remain in your mind forever and this was one of them. John is a top angler, and every time we fish together we make something happen. We’re off to Holland in March so let’s hope we can work our magic on those massive Dutch perch.
FISH WITH DES!
WHY not book a day’s fishing with Des next year? Just visit destaylorstackleden.com for all the info and lots of great gift ideas.