Blogs, Boats and Apps

I recently did a few things that I had not done before (App'ing) and things that I had not done for a long time (boat fishing).

Firstly I was able to go fishing two days in a row, which I have not done in a long time, really it’s something I would normally do on holidays.

I went to a club water lake to lure fish for Pike. It was a short evening session, 5pm till 21.30. No fish caught but it was good to be fishing at that time of day. Usually I would be fishing early doors and leaving by the afternoon. I was using my bait caster which is the longest I have used it for. I had a few birds’ nests but overall it worked well. I was able to adjust the clutch for the various lure types I was using, and swapped between floating frogs, paddle toads in several colours and my new Salmo Roach lure in sinking.

Salmo Roach sinking, bought from Angling Direct

There is something scary about casting a £10 lure at structures, whilst thinking “I would cry if I lost this”. I am sure I will be less blasé soon and will be flinging it with gay abandon until I actually do loose it!

Speaking of losing it, I think Giles from AT Products will still be spewing at the fish he lost late on in the evening!?!

Giles and Rich aboard their boat

The next night it was a different type of fishing; boat fishing on the Lower Tees, again Pike the target, again no fish. We only fished about an hour as it was an experiment of towing and launching the boat and any fishing was just a bonus. We launched at the barrage and quickly, albeit within a speed limit (Giles’s own speed limit) was down in an area that could only be described as ‘pikey’. Reeds, slow, deep, shelves and wide. All good features. However, the river was a peaty colour and no pike were looking at investigating my frog as it came from out the reeds slowly towards the drifting boat. Having the boat was amazing, three of us were able to cast at likely looking areas easily and just the feel of where we were fishing was enough to ensure we all had a great trip. I do like the feel of boat fishing, there is something about being on the water and it really increases the number of swims to somewhere around the billion mark! We saw a few anglers along the Tees and it really was a nice evening to be out.



Barrage position

Pikey area



Lastly, I have recently been recording my trips on a new fishing App, called Finygo. It is somewhere between “Facebook for anglers” and that little school note pad you use to record your catches on.

In terms of modernisation, it is great to have an app to record things and not rely on pencil and paper. I have played around with plotting my position as I moved around the lake on my first trip and was able to add comments which will help me later. The Esthwaite trip looks great as it shows I caught 56lbs of fish and achieved new Pb’s.

Regarding the sharing side, I am still unsure as to what people will share, as I know all fishermen never “know” where the fish are if they are catching and mostly keep things secret. However, as I type this I have had a look and noticed another angler has shared his comments on a recent trip on the Ribble, and the more it is used the more people will be willing to share, after all there are lots of great magazines which are full or people celebrating their catches.

As I use the app more, I think I will get better used to it, it’s like everything and requires more use to get better. There are some premium settings that allow more and I will need to look at upgrading in the future, but for now I am happy to record it as I go and use that information when completing my blog and reviewing the next time I fish a water. As I continue to use the app more I will keep you all updated....