A good day fi we - Essequibo river Guyana 2014

Bigfish boys. - Me and Navin Roopnarain with my huge Jau catfish
 from near King William falls - Essequibo river - Guyana

Having missed out on catching many of the target species on my last trip to Guyana I booked a return 9 day extended adventure with Steve Townson at www.amazon-angler.com/ for late November 2014.  It turned out to be even better than I had hoped.  Read all about it here on D Heaps Fishing Adventures.

Teaser: 2014 Fishing adventure.

Hi.  Not much action on this blog lately as I've not managed to catch a big perch.   However.  I have been on another fishing adventure abroad and am working on the blog post for that now.   Here's a little taste of what's to come on D Heaps Fishing Adventures.

Can you guess where I've been?

Tackle review: Fiish Black Minnow

From the faddy world of sea bass lure fishing comes a new fad soft lure - Fiiish Black Minnow.  

Never get out of the boat. - Guyana : November 2013

Guyana : November 2013

British Guyana stamp featuring an Arapaima
and her Majesty the Queen
(it looks like she can smell it)

Having sat on my allowance of holiday days all year, some other travel plans fell through so I started seriously thinking about fishing in the Amazon.   To fish here has been a dream of mine from the wilderness years between the ages of 17-37 when I had stopped fishing in favour of other pursuits.  I remember seeing a BBC Attenborough nature documentary about the Amazon where a little guy perches on the front of his canoe in a little creek and attaches a feather and a hook to the end of a whippy stick.   He proceeds to wiggle this about just under the water for a few seconds and WHAM.  He hauls out a large peacock bass.  I thought to myself that 'that has got to be a great place to go fishing'.

Peacock Bass

Many years later in September 2013 I found myself fortunate enough to have holiday, money in the bank and a rekindled love of fishing.  Previous fishing holidays to India had turned out to be wonderful experiences so I began to seriously look into living the dream and fishing the mighty Amazon.

Best GIF in the world.

While you wait for the Guyana report.  Please enjoy the best gif in the world.  I could easily watch this for a day.

Tiny peacock bass

Can you guess where I've been on holiday?  It was a great trip but I suffered the slings & arrows of some shitty luck before getting an unforgettable fish.
Full report to follow when I get around to it.
www.amazon-angler.com

bait-sized but pretty peacock bass

2013-2014 Early season lure fishing report.

The river fishing season here starts on the glorious 16th of June.  This day is always hotly anticipated by UK anglers and, in my experience, never fails to disappoint.

Thames sunset at Eynsham.

This 2013-14 season was different and got off to a great start on June 16th.  I was due to attend the Lure Anglers Society event on the Thames at Eynsham at 9am on opening day but I could not resist nipping in to one of my favourite Thames predator venues on the way out.

Tackle review: Shimano Rarenium CI4 4000FA.

Time for another tackle review.  This time we will look at the Shimano Rarenium Ci4 4000FA The most expensive reel I ever bought.

GOLD! That lovely spare spool is included in the price.

Lure Anglers Society event. Newport Pagnell. May 5th.

In which my talent for catching small pike is rewarded with glittering prizes from the land of the rising sun.

A smug D.Heaps relaxes over a few tench
wearing  runner-up Sunline cap.

Not much to report here for me since the end of the river season. I've tried luring for perch a bit in the canal and secret gravel pit with a couple small pike to show for it.  I've also got off the mark for tench with a couple from Newlands Angling Club.

Today I have just returned from a splendid event.  The Lure Anglers Society event at Newport Pagnell Fishing Association's Sherington Lakes.  There were competitions sponsored by Major Craft and Sunline with predator fish caught being judged on the basis of length rather than weight.  There were prizes of Major Craft (smart Japanese Tackle) rods for longest pike and perch and an overall total length competition with prizes of Sunline braid/hats/trophies up for grabs.

Hosted article: Rohu fishing at KRS by Pete Carroll

As a departure from the usual format of me gloating about what I've caught I am proud to present an article by my friend Pete Carroll.  Regular readers will recognise Pete from the Indian mahseer fishing articles.  Pete is based in India and, with Joe, has been pioneering fishing in the vast Krishna Raja Sagara dam at Mysore.  I've never caught a rohu but I have enjoyed eating one that someone else caught at Kabini.  Over to you Peter.

Rohu fishing at KRS

Joe with a good rohu

Let me start these tales of worldwide ‘derring do’ by telling you of my humble angling background. I have fished for longer than I can remember, my father was a fanatical angler and he gave me no choice, I was always going to be a fisherman whether I liked it or not. My earliest fishing memory is as a four year old, I was left standing, holding a rod, on a rock in the middle of Rydal Water and was literally nearly dragged into the depths by a vicious toothy pike that probably weighed in at a massive 5 pounds.  After this traumatic event if my father and Uncle Vic announced they were going pike fishing I would decline the invitation to join them.

Two PB fish in 8 days. February 2013

Three months later I've finally got something to write about.  Most anglers have targets in terms of  sizes of different fish that they wish to achieve but it is important to enjoy the fishing rather than obsess about these targets.  Three big ones for me that I had yet to realise were the 2lb roach, 3lb perch and 6lb chub.  Fish larger than these live in the rivers around where I live in Oxford.  In about 7 hours of fishing in the last 8 days I have just beaten 2 of these and am very happy indeed.

If you know chub you will like the look of this classic swim
Smooth water in between turbulent runs with a big snag at the end.

November Perch Spectacular

Urban perch go berserk.

Typical perch specimen from downtown

As Summer turned to Autumn my focus has continued to be on Perch fishing as I strive to beat the magic 3lb mark.  Conditions on the Thames have been difficult as the ground is still wet from the summer rain and every fall of rain is expressed quickly by the Thames rising and colouring up, making lure fishing difficult and usually making the places that produced fish over the last 2 seasons in low water conditions less productive as water is let through Oxford rather than it being held up by the many weirs and locks. 

Although the boat traffic on the Thames around Oxford can be a nuisance to anglers, the need for weirs and locks to make the river navigable provides interesting features and some nice areas for fish to shelter from heavy flows after rain.  I've been studying Google maps to try and figure out where fish might hide in higher water and went for a 'look' at a little basin/confluence right in town yesterday evening with my lovely new light spinning outfit described HERE

Tackle review: My new light spinning outfit. Dragon guide select & Okuma trio

Always with me, tiny dancer in my hand

I'm not a tackle tart but... A lovely looking light setup.

Time for another tackle review.  Lets take a critical look at my new light spinning setup.

Lure Review: Northland Reed-Runner

Reed-runner reed-runner.  Going faster miles an hour..   *

Reed-runner once..

Time for a tackle review.  At the Lure Anglers Society lurefair recently I visited the stall of Franglais Fishing  As well as an ace Dahlberg Diver Frog lure I purchased a Northland Reed-Runner magnum spinnerbait in 'Bass' colour as seen in the picture.

Carry on up the Jungle. Mahseer fishing in Coorg March 2012. Part II

In Carry on up the Jungle part II I meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.  Part II takes us into the weekend where Peter and I would be fending for ourselves as Joe returned to Mysore for the weekend and fishing on the golden mile is suspended.  In week 2 I try lure fishing for mahseer with mixed results, battle with Peter in Turtlemania! 2012, and a great time is had by all except Dinesh.

Read part 1 here

Carry on up the Jungle. Mahseer fishing in Coorg March 2012. Part I

I've not finished writing up the last mahseer trip and another has come around.  I will finish the other at some stage but must relate to you now the tale of my trip to Coorg in March 2012 to meet up with my friend Pete Carroll and 'Mr Joe' the Cauvery mahseer fishing legend and bon-viveur.

The smallest of my 'proper' fish but the most photogenic

First ever pike on a spinnerbait & she's a big-un.

Regular readers of D.Heaps fishing adventures will notice that there has been little activity on here lately.  That is if regular readers of D.Heaps fishing adventures actually exist.  I've still been doing things and going fishing but there has been little significant action to report on the angling front. 

Until now....

Look at the size of  it.  A dinosaur

Read on and I'll tell you about my new biggest pike.

Kennet barbel at last.

The picturesque weirpool swim at Lower Benyons on the Kennet

Hot on the heels of the last glum post I'm back from the Kennet on Reading DAA.  I have caught my first barbel from the Kennet.

Mid August fishing report.

I have not been going fishing as much as I would have liked due to holidays, work etc.  I've done very little proper fishing with baits either as it is the season for crayfish and bleak and I hate them both.   To be honest it has been a struggle.  I've been getting a few lure fishing trips in to the Thames with only a few small pike and perch to show for it.  Barbel fishing in the Kennet near Reading has produced 4 or 5 blanks.  The rivers, both Kennet and Thames seem to be in poor shape with hardly any flow in the Thames and both rivers having an ugly brown colour which must be an algae bloom of some kind.

I did get a chub around 5lb last night on a 5" pike plug (Salmo executor 12 in Real Roach).  It was the first cast with the large plug and the chub nailed it as soon as I began the retrieve.  It appears chub eat roach now as this is the 2nd chub I've caught on a pike-sized lure in photorealistic Roach pattern.  Given the lack of pike action and numerous perch follows I'm tempted to try ultra-lite lure fishing to try and bank more of the smaller perch and chub.  Goodbye money....

I'm off for another crack at the Kennet in a moment but am not seriously anticipating catching anything.  We've still had no significant rain since winter.

Au revoir.  Heaps

Tech review: the iPhone 4. A nice phone but I still hate Apple.

Shiny and clean look.

I've always maintained that Apple sell overpriced form-over-function style-over-content gizmos to an army of monied iMugs. Due to this stance I was secretly saddened by the launch of the original iPhone because I couldn't have one of the wonderful things without being a hypocrite.