Fishing Across the World: Gary's Biggest Year Yet

It couldn't have started worse, though, for me. My local River Thames seems to be almost permanently in terrible fishing conditions, with high flow rates, high water, and cold weather, making it not suitable for barbel or chub. In late January, I flew to a small town in Colombia called La Macarena via Bogota to fish on the Guayabero River. It was supposed to be their dry season. I was looking forward to fishing for the Jau catfish with bait, as this river had produced some very big ones in the past, but also the lure fishing for payara, as it is considered one of the best places in the world for that type of fishing.

Unfortunately, they'd also had a lot of rain, and the river was up and coloured, which made the payara fishing a complete waste of time. Still, we persisted with it on the first day. After hours of casting lures without a touch, I felt a heavy thump as something hit my Cucu lure in fast water below some rapids. Everything went solid, and I thought it must have been a rock, but then it started to move and put up a really good fight for the next 20 minutes or so on the light gear I was using – a 24-70g spinning rod and a 5000 size reel with 30kg braid.

After a while, I was sure that I had a Jau catfish on as that was the only thing that made sense, but I wasn't expecting one quite so big. I was finally able to land it and weigh it at 84lb. The rest of the trip produced a few small Jau and other catfish species on bait, with several bigger fish lost in the rocks, but nothing of any real note.

I had agreed to spend two months at our new Embryo Carplantis Lake in the Netherlands, basically looking after the place and our customers while they found someone to do the job permanently. Commercial carp lakes aren't really my thing, and I spent most of my time fishing for the pike up until they spawned, which resulted in several 20s with lovely markings, with the best two going 24lb 11oz and 23lb 13oz.

Once they spawned in early March, I turned my attention to some local carp fishing on a very low stock pit of around 80 acres. Unfortunately, this proved to be completely uneventful. I'm sure I was too early, as the lake was very deep, and the fish had yet to wake up.

In between times, I did manage to catch a few from another local park lake, up to just over 30lb, and had some enjoyable overnight sessions with multiple fish. I even spent a few nights on Carplantis just prior to returning to England and ended up catching a nice-looking common of just over 30lb.

The highlight of my Dutch fishing, though, was spending a day fishing with my local friend Koos and a mate of his, Hans, who is a fishing guide. We had a day out for the big perch. Conditions were hard with plenty of wind, but I did manage a 47.5cm perch weighing 4lb 12oz on a minnow-style lure before we moved and tried fishing light rubber shads.

It was very hard to feel the lure with such a light jig head and the strong wind. I was working it very slowly, twitching it off the bottom and then letting it settle for 20 seconds or so. While the lure was stationary, I suddenly felt a tap and struck into what was obviously a big perch. Eventually, it was in the net and measured 51cm, weighing in at 5lb 5oz.

Once I got back to the UK, I didn't do much fishing for a month or so—partly because I was involved in making a Korda Underwater film. But by early May, I was ready to really get my tench fishing going, so I returned to a very large lake that had produced tench to over 12lb for me in the past.

The first couple of weekends produced a few fish, with the biggest two going 9lb 8oz and 9lb 7oz. What was strange is that most of these fish looked half empty, and some even had the vent protruding, which made me think they may have spawned a bit despite it being very early.

I had loads of holiday to use, having been away in Holland for so long working, so I decided to have a longer session for the tench. Over the space of a few days I landed ten tench, including a new personal best and absolute monster of a male at 9lb 14oz, along with three others over 9lb. Still, again, most of the females were skinny.

I decided to move off of fish and search for some tench that hadn't yet dropped their spawn on an even bigger lake that I'd fished the previous year and managed to land two tench in 12 days, but one had been a double.

I made the two-hour drive, including stopping to pick up some more bait and supplies, and when I arrived, the area that I wanted to fish—it's where I was sure they'd start to gather for spawning—was empty. This was no huge surprise as very few anglers ventured onto this lake. From what I could gather from the handful of carp anglers I know who fish it, only a couple of tench had been caught so far that year.

The lake was a lot less weedy than the previous year, and I found that the area I'd caught from before was clear enough to fish, but it did have a nice bit of fresh silkweed on it—my favourite type of spot for tench fishing.

My plan was to bait this spot late afternoon each day with a mixture of caster and chopped worm, plus a small amount of hemp and only put more bait out if I caught and felt it needed another three or four Spombs to top it up – often Spombing on these sorts of waters can be the kiss of death if you do it on top of fish.

Over the top of that, I fished my usual Method style, with groundbait around an inline lead – my preference is for something that blends in with the lakebed as much as possible – with a double rubber caster on a size 12 Guru MWGB hook to six inches or so of Korda Loop braid, which has quickly become my favourite hook link material for this type of fishing.

The first day produced three tench up to 9lb 11oz and I was seeing fish rolling in my swim, but by day two they'd started chasing each other and I even had a couple of small males chase a female of 9lb 10oz to the net. I was cursing my luck and felt that they were on the verge of spawning any time, and maybe even that night, which was far from ideal as I'd just booked an extra week off of work!

Luck was on my side, though, and that night, the wind swung round to a northerly. It started blowing harder, and the temperature drop was noticeable. It was that change in weather that resulted in my best-ever catch of big tench in the sort of numbers I could never have dreamed of on this particular lake where bites from anything were usually so few and far between. I'm sure they had grouped up ready to spawn and were in front of me, and then the change in weather meant that they fed really well instead over the next 8 days that I stayed.

It was some of the craziest specimen fishing I've ever experienced. By the end of it, I'd landed 38 tench, with eight of those going over 10lb and three of them being 11+, topped by fish of 11lb 3oz, 11lb 1oz, and 11lb. They were also some of the best looking and well-proportioned big tench that I've caught, with most of the doubles being 25 to 26 inches long and lovely colours thanks to the clear water. I ended up staying for 12 days, but I knew it was a situation that would likely never be repeated, and I just had to make the most of it.

Summer is always a funny time of year for me as I tend not to fish the rivers until autumn and am often scratching around for things to fish for. Having not eel fished for a few years I decided to have a go, and whilst my worm hookbaits – fished on a 'twig' rig to avoid deep hooking and made from a size 6 Korda Wide Gape hook to 50lb Arma-Kord and with an acrylic rod – mainly attracted the attentions of bootlaces, I did manage a lovely brace weighing 4lb 1oz and 3lb 14oz on a sticky July night where I was kept awake by swarms of mosquitoes, as well as bites from several other eels to 2lb 10oz.

The summer also produced a new PB carp for me of 48lb 4oz, which I can't say any more about due to the water it came from, but I was very pleased with it as it was my target fish, and I caught it on my third weekend of going after it. 

That kept me occupied, along with other filming projects – including cooking for eight people on a shoot at Carplantis, which was a bit of an experience! – right through until early October, when I was due to fly back to China.

My trip got off to the worst possible start as I'd had a chest infection, plus I suffer from back problems where the muscles go into spasms and lock up, and the two combined meant that coughing whilst packing my gear the afternoon prior to flying resulted in something cracking and me being in agony.

I spent the evening in A&E, where they assured me that I'd pulled a muscle. The next morning, I got a lift to the airport. Thankfully, the staff at Heathrow were brilliant. I ended up getting taken onto the plane in a wheelchair as I couldn't carry my hand luggage. Thankfully, I had a fully flat seat booked. I spent nearly 14 hours in agony, but somehow, I made it to Shanghai.

After three days in a hotel, getting over jetlag, and with no improvement in my back, it was time to go to the first lake. This involved a 2.5-hour train journey (I'd sent my fishing gear in a van in advance) on the most modern and fastest train I've ever been on.

I still wasn't in any state to fish, so whilst my mate got set up, I went to the local hospital. Less than five hours later, I'd seen several consultants, had a CT scan done and got the results back, and it was clear that I'd broken one of my lower ribs from top to bottom. It all cost me around £50, including all the tablets I needed.

Armed with painkillers and various other medicines, I somehow managed to set up all my gear and get fishing, but unfortunately, the next four days and nights proved to be completely uneventful—not a huge surprise as this lake is 132,000 acres in size—and I was ready to move on to another water.

This involved an uncomfortable 9-hour drive in an electric van. Still, I was going to the lake where I'd caught black carp to 77lb 12oz the previous year, and I was very confident of some action. After a night in a hotel I was ready to set up and did so slowly – my mate wasn't due to arrive until the next day as he had things to do back in Shanghai – and after checking the area I'd fished the previous year and finding it to be clear, I put out 20kg of snails via a boat.

I tied up some rigs with two snails on a hair with a piece of cork stick sandwiched between them – I used the tip of a 6mm bait drill to make a hole in the shell and then threaded them onto a piece of 50lb Arma-Kord which was used to tie them onto a large Micro Rig Ring swivel fished blowback style. The idea was to allow some movement and also make it easy to change hookbait when I needed to – the 50lb braid was strong enough that it wouldn't cut on the edge of the snail shell – and the piece of cork was purely to separate the two snails, as they are so heavy it made no real difference to buoyancy!

This was fished on a size 1 Korda Wide Gape XX hook to around 18 inches of 50lb Arma-Kord and a 4oz inline lead, with a 65lb Dura-Kord leader of around a metre long. I'd spread the bait over an area maybe 10m or so across and would fish all three rods on it, and each time I recast, I put half a dozen large Spombs of snails right on top of the rig. Conditions looked perfect, with a fairly strong wind blowing into my bank – this lake is around 1,200 acres, and they do seem to like being on the wind – and I'd only been cast out for an hour or so when I had a swift take typical of a black carp.

When I lifted into the fish, it felt very heavy, even on my 6lb test curve rods. Although it didn't take much line, it was very slow and heavy, unlike most of the black carp I'd caught previously, which tended to go on very fast, short runs. After around 15 minutes I'd finally got it close to the margins and the tip of its tail broke the surface, but I couldn't believe I wasn't seeing things as it was so far away from where my line was entering the water!

Eventually, a massive black carp surfaced and went off down my left-hand margin, where an old wooden post was left. Sod's Law meant that it went around the back of this post towards a reed bed and then, upon finding the water to be shallow, turned and headed back out into the lake. Unfortunately, my braid had dug into the wooden post and was now stuck on it, so it wouldn't come free.

I felt like panicking as I'd seen how big the fish was, but I managed to remain calm and took off the bail arm whilst I put on my waders and got into the waist-deep margins – made slower than usual due to my broken rib. Once I'd waded down to where the post was, I managed to free the line easily, and a few minutes later, managed to somehow get the fish in my 60-inch catfish net and then immediately transferred it into my retainer sling as they can have a tendency to go crazy in the net and there is a risk of them breaking free.

My sling is 1.65m long and this fish was slightly longer – somewhere between 1.7m and 1.75m – and at this point I knew it was a monster and messaged some of the local Chinese who run the lake and surrounding park to come and give me a hand. We weighed the fish at 118lb and took a few photos before returning it.

For me it was mission accomplished as this was my tenth different freshwater species over 100lb. I couldn't quite believe it when the next day I hooked my second fish of the trip and after a much shorter fight I landed something of a similar size, which weighed 113lb – this time my mate was there to see it and take some better photos for me.

In total the eight day session produced 13 black carp for me, and aside from the first two monsters, I landed others up to 80lb.

Aside from the two huge fish, I loved the time I spent there anyway and it is quickly becoming one of my favourite countries, and I'm already planning a return later in 2025.

Once home and my rib had recovered enough to be able to carry or barrow my gear any distance, I started targeting the Thames again and things got off to a very good start with my biggest ever brace of barbel, which you can read about here.

Sadly though conditions took a turn for the worse with the river pretty much being unfishable due to the amount of flow and all the rubbish coming through, and those two barbel were my last fish of the year.