Spring is my favourite period for fishing, May especially. The landscape is full of different colours, birds are nesting and everything is coming to life including the fish which need to feed before the spawning ritual begins.  

Tench, my main spring target.

A busy period

For myself this usually is a period when wet nets, even personal bests are common, however with the increase in numbers of people taking up angling, a couple of bank holidays and towards the end of the month some unseasonably warm weather the lakes have been busy. This has caused me some serious headaches as I like to use watercraft to locate the fish then set up close by, yet in most cases it’s been more about fitting in where I can, as opposed to where the fish are!

The medium Tackle Box Sets from Decoy Angling, great for the all-round specimen angler.

Product testing

The first half of the month saw some changeable weather, cold for most of the time along with spells of wet and windy weather, a busy spell which saw many a day spent guiding anglers, before a warm front moved across the country and I was able to free some time up for myself. Although tench were my main target, eels, bream and catfish also featured and although no record breaking fish graced my net it was a great time to put the arrival of loads of new Decoy products through some in-session testing, over seventy in fact and out of all of these I only had to reject one! Many of these will now be available to buy on this website and you can be confident that if I’m using them in my angling then they won’t let you down. A couple of the products that I have been extremely pleased with are the wide selection of leads, especially the in-line versions as they have a soft rubber sleeve that secures tubing tightly within as well as a rubber insert that grips the swivel tightly but releases under pressure producing a safe semi-fixed bolt rig, a set up I’ve been using whilst fishing for cats. The large and medium fully loaded Tackle Box sets are brilliant and I can see the smaller of the two being a big hit with the all-round specimen angler like myself who requires different tackle boxes containing different components for different species. I will also be doing a more in-depth review on many of these products over the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled. 

It could have been so many more!

The next bite

To round my personal sessions up quickly, one was spent under the stars targeting eels in which a dozen eels to 3lb were caught. These were caught on the Twig-Rig however many runs were missed or dropped so I will be returning to give Bolt-Rigs ago! Another night saw heavy rain and wind sweeping across the country, perfect catfish conditions and yes I was out, but it was worth it with catfish to 36lb 6oz showing. The night of the 20th saw scarily high winds keep most people in doors but once again I was out on a new venue. Tench fishing during daylight saw no fish caught, yet this is a venue where the next bite might be a 12lb plus tench, however switching to bream tactics during darkness produced a big slab around midnight, however I did return one morning, locate some tench rolling and in a short session land four, the biggest 8lb 9oz so its game on over the coming weeks. 

Dirty great big slab.

June is going to be quite diverse, the tench sessions will continue but with the rivers opening I will be doing my best to get out afloat on the Thames, just to get away from the crowds and find some respite as well as heading to the coast to see if I can catch a bass on a lure.

Be lucky,

Duncan

About Duncan Charman:

As a capable and talented angler, Duncan is widely regarded as one of the most successful all-round anglers in the UK with personal bests including a 31lb pike, 16lb 5oz barbel and 140lb catfish alongside breaking two separate British Records (silver bream and pumpkinseed). 

In the public eye, Duncan is an Ambassador to the Angling Trust, a regular writer for the biggest magazines in both the United Kingdom and Europe (Anglers's Mail, Blinker etc) and has also made appearances on Sky Sports’ Tight Lines. Duncan is also an author having written his own book - Evolution of an Angler.

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