the newts.net

I’ve fished in some cold weather but this was just ridiculous…
(click to enlarge pictures)

This is what happened to my short baitcaster rod while pike fishing at Bardney Lock a few days before Christmas.  After noticing what was happening I put my rod down and tried to remove some of the ice build up from the end eye.  The ice was very crisp and solid and I couldn’t remove it without using considerable force and risking damaging the eye.  By this time the line had frozen solid through every eye on the rod except the butt eye.

It took two hours for my rod to thaw out!

You wouldn’t mind freezing your b*ll*cks off for a nice double figure personal best Pike, but we didn’t catch a bean.  I tell a lie, this is probably when I caught the flu that laid me up for most of Christmas!

In a break from the usual monster Pike horror stories you often hear of as a Pike angler, where huge Pike have been seen taking ducks and chicks off the surface of the water in one gulp - Here we have the tables turned as a cormorant gets one back for the birds and shovels a Jack Pike down his throat.  Great picture (click it for biggy).

Me and a few fishing mates are going to attempt to catch every species of coarse fish native to Britain.  Being from a town notorious for it’s wonderful quality Fish n Chips, I hope you can see where the name for this challenge came from!

Something similar to the brilliantly engaging tv series by Matt Hayes & Mick Brown ~  ‘The Great Rod Race‘.

Our feat is not going to be so much of a race though, it’s purely for the achievement and ensuing adventure that we accept this challenge.  Everyone taking part has been issued with a little logo of the Fish n Trips challenge, and must include it in every photograph of every fish in the species list to prove it’s capture.  You’ll be able to follow our progress here on the newts.net as I update everyone’s achievements with their stories and pictures.

I have set up a new ‘page’ dedicated to our challenge. All information and links to new posts will appear on this page as well as a chart listing all the fish caught and pictures of them. You should be able to see a button (Fish n Trips) for the page at the top of the website page, or you can click this link…

http://www.thenewts.net/fish-n-trips/

I sincerely hope the London 2012 Olympic Naming Committee are going to show a little more sympathy when handing out the name vests as this kind of behaviour is quite simply not warranted in the 21st century.

Just a brief note to wish you one and all, a very Merry Christmas!

Spare a thought for those less fortunate than yourselves (like the poor old newts stuffed up with the flu all Christmas!) and then have a great family fun filled time!