So, how's your motivation?

Well, it's January again and the winter fish have certainly shown up in good numbers. It's not the easiest time of year to get yourself out fishing with the unsettled weather but plenty of those that have been putting in the effort have been having fish. I'd go as far as saying that the Cod and Whiting fishing have been as good as they ever have been in at least a decade.

All over the county there have been numerous reports of big Cod in good numbers. Only last week, a good customer and friend, Jason 'penfold' Hawke had a 8lb 13oz Cod (pictured left) from a deep water mark down west. He's gotten off to a total flyer in the club this year landing that big cod, a 2lb 1oz 13dr Whiting, a 3 beard Rockling of 2lb 4oz 9dr and a Dab just under a pound. That's given him around 450% in the club and county championship for 4 fish. This just shows exactly what can be done if you are prepared to put the hours in.


(for those that don't know how club and county championships work, they are based on specimen weights for each species and are given a percentage based on your fishes weight compared to the specimen weight. That specimen weight is deduced by using a formula that takes several years returns into account)

The county Whiting record also went twice in the last month. First was a mighty fine fish of 2lb 15oz 9dr only to be demolished days later by a monster fish of 3lb 7oz 9dr.

Having said all of this I really should follow my own advice and get out myself a bit more. Like most people, i really struggle with motivation at this time of year but that's more due to the lack of my favourite fish. Bass. It sounds foreign to many but if it's not shiny, silver and spiky I'm just not that interested. In the right conditions and on the right mark, there are still plenty of Bass about but it's been a while since we have had good South Westerlies with a big ground sea. I've had a couple of Bass on each of my last few session's but nothing to write home about.

It's also the right time of year to be setting yourself a couple of target's for the coming year and reflect on the year gone by.

Last season I'd decided that i wanted to catch a Bass every month of the year and i'm happy to say that i (and woody) succeeded. February and March were the month's i was worried about. but after we both cleared that the rest of the year without an issue. There did seem to be a sever lack of big Bass last year though with very few proper fish being caught. My best of the year was only 4lb 14oz but i can console myself with the fact that only a few of the other out and out Bass angler's had anything to shout about. Why? Well I don't have a clue as there were shed loads of smaller fish around but I'm just hoping it turns around again next year.

I suppose for this year rather then set myself any targets I'm going to make an effort to fish for other species. I always used to enjoy going rough grounding, hauling big ugly fish with very sharp teeth out of the depth's but in recent year's I just haven't done any at all. So hopefully you'll all be seeing reports of big Eels and Huss in the coming month's but rest assured that if the conditions are right I'll be out on the rock's catching Bass.

It would be great to see a few comment's below of if you managed to make your targets and what yours are for the next year.