“Anglers should be grateful that we have a crazy climate”
IF THERE’S one thing more unpredictable than the fish we chase, it has to be the British climate. But if it makes us curse as often as not, we should probably be thankful that on any given day, let alone any week or month, it can be so radically different.
Gone are the days of clearly defined seasons, for starters... to the point where it becomes risky, at best, to lay down any ground rules. Plans might have to change at the last minute, while new opportunities arise and others sink without trace. I can think of no better examples than two of our most traditional fish species, pike and tench. Every January and February, excellent tench now show on my local Exeter Canal. In fact, I’ve had rip-around bites on sessions when my landing net was frozen to the bank.
Pike are the opposite. Once upon a time, I was adamant that nobody should fish for them outside autumn and winter. But with such a crazily cold, wet and late spring this year, I did a U-turn on predator fishing and enjoyed some excellent sport.
I still maintain that we must all put fish welfare first. Nobody should be fishing for species like pike in warm, deoxygenated water. But given cool conditions even in late May, our larger, deeper venues offered some thrilling ‘extra time’ this year.
When so much of every winter seems written off by floods these days, you might be forgiven for wanting to make up for lost time.
My fly fishing pal Gary Pearson and I certainly did that, banking over 30 fish, most of which never needed to leave the water to be unhooked.
So, what next? The words ‘global warming’ are incredibly misleading these days. ‘Global instability’ would sum it up better, as climate change leads to more extremes than ever.
I maintain that anglers should be grateful that we have a crazy climate in Britain, however. This guarantees that things remain interesting, for better or worse. Admittedly, this can make it hard to plan a fishing holiday, but would you really want similar conditions all the time?
It would make things very repetitive and it wouldn’t make us better anglers. Matches would repeatedly be won by flat track bullies using the same tactics. Nor would any of us get that delicious tingle of anticipation as we tackled up on that rare ‘perfect’ day, knowing that after all our trials and tribulations our favourite venue was finally spot-on.
So, on that basis, let the weather do what it wants this month. Because variety is refreshing, while even the worst weather deepens our understanding. And who wants to fish a hundred identical sessions anyway?