Closing time again

My river season has been a strange one this year -  I've hardly done any to speak of in comparison to previous years. Most of my time has been spent lure fishing the canals for zander and the odd perch instead. My visits to the rivers has been so few and far between I don't think I even fished for barbel this year which I aim to rectify in the new season ahead.

Well, in my usual last minute rush I tried to squeeze a few sessions in over the last remaining weekends in hope of a river pike, and maybe some trotting for grayling. Suffice to say this didn't quite go a well as planned and either the conditions were against me or the fish not obliging. And so we came to my finale on the river on Friday afternoon. Thursday night prior around 10:00 pm, tackle prepared, baits purchased for Pike and maggots for trotting for grayling so it starts to rain and didn't stop until well into next morning on Friday.... just bloody perfect timing.  So as suspected arriving at the first river venue that afternoon to find it chocolate brown and creeping over the banks. No good for trotting nor did I feel confident in searching for pike holed up in any slacks in that lot either.  Next venue and conditions were slightly better the river was up but not too much. A few other anglers were already down to try for barbel.  I found the swim I fancied was free and quietly set up my gear as a barrage of heavy feeders boshed down into the river around  me.  This river was still steadily rising as my carefully positioned banksticks indicated, starting on shore then soon to be surrounded by water.   After an hour of this and not so much as a twitch on maggot or Lamprey I decided to cut my losses and head elsewhere while there was still time. To a smaller river now that can usually be relied upon to throw up a few Jacks in a short session, with the outside chance of something larger. Again within the time allotted for something to have occurred, the same empty result on both maggot and deadbait. I was just not feeling it here either so with one last chuck of the dice I was off to the canal.

First cast on  the half Lamprey I had been using all afternoon and within 15 minutes the line started to tighten and the float sank away resulting in this lovely mid double to save my afternoon. (15lb 3oz)

 

 

The only other notable capture since the last update is this lovely 2lb 4oz canal perch caught at the beginning of March.

 

 

 

 

 

 So that's my end of season update, a season where I spent practically most of the time fishing the Canal and neglected the river, and now I can't fish it I am missing it already- roll on June 16th !



 

 

 

December Catch up

lure caught PB

Not a lot of change in my fishing since my last update, I'm finding it difficult to be motivated to do anything other than a bit of lure fishing these days. Maybe I've just become a bit lazy and succumbed to the convenience of chucking a bit of kit in the car and grabbing a few hours a week here and there.

I've been fishing with my light set up mostly hitting the canal catching plenty of small perch, zander and the odd small pike to keep me interested mostly all have fell for my small 2" jigs.  Recently though I have started to find some better Zander. I also hooked a larger pike last week that was on for a few seconds long enough to see a glimpse of its long flank before the small 2" jig pulled.
I returned on Christmas Eve for a quick go for the pike after finishing work with my medium set up and a BBZ lure that just happened to have been left clipped on. First cast and wallop a zed of about 2 or 3lb, not the pike I was after but very welcome all the same.

Just in time for Christmas

 

 The next time I could get down wasn't until the 27th for a few hours in a more wintery landscape following a layer of snow on boxing night. While the snow had all but gone the temperature had dropped since my last visit a couple of days before, and this didn't deter the fish it seemed. Once again practically first cast in the same area and bang another zed on. The fish thrashed on the surface then gave a decent enough fight pulling line off the drag before doing the usual roll to the surface and a capitulating glide into the net.

 

you want some - I'll give it yer !

 

Looking down at my prize in the net I was pretty pleased with the size of this one, and happy when the scales registered 5lb 4oz.  A new lure caught zander PB and whilst not my biggest ever zander certainly a pleasing fish to catch from the canal on any method. The session didn't continue in this good form though and I struggled to both catch more fish and to deal with cold hands able to work the rod and reel effectively enough, so once my flask ran out I called it a day about half past ten.  Getting back home for some fresh hot coffee and toast to thaw me out was a welcome end to an overall pleasant mornings fishing.

 

 

Cutting it's fine...

A great way to break up the working day if you happen to work near a canal is to spend your lunch hour lure fishing. That's exactly what I have been up to in the last few weeks searching a stretch of canal that has been throwing up the a few fish for me already.



Get that down yer neck !

The most successful method by far has been trolling the lure in the edge whilst walking slowly along the towpath. This is how I almost landed a 2lb + perch the other day, and again at lunch today managed a small perch followed by a larger zander of 3lb or so.

The method is an excellent way of quickly locating the fish ( time being of the essence on a quicky lunch hour sessions) and over a few short weeks I have found the areas where I catch are proving to be consistent with fish caught on multiple visits, as opposed to other areas seemingly barren where no takes have been forthcoming. Interestingly I have only caught one fish with a standard cast and retrieve on this particular stretch, whilst trolling has had much more success landing the fish mentioned with a few missed strikes thrown in for good measure.

So far there are two fish holding areas I have located in a stretch less than half a mile.  The water is always pretty murky and brown, not the worst I've ever seen, but with probably just less than a foot of visibility at best. There have been occasional boats coming and going stirring up the muck on most of my short half hour sessions, but this has not stopped me catching.  In these conditions I expect the fish are probably sensing more than seeing, although even if  you can't generally see the lure yourself from the surface I'm sure if it passes within a foot or so of a predatory fish it is a target on both levels.   Big Hammer 3" lures have worked best so far with the ever reliable 2 " Kopyto's scoring well too.  I think the colour is not too important but I seem always go for a bright one. More importantly is to select one that your have most confidence in. Dark lures should work in these conditions too but as I haven't got any at the moment I can't back that up with fact - I will have add some to my next lure order and see for myself.

Espania mullet and a big old roach

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic with both work and a family holiday in sunny Spain, I've not been out fishing a great deal really and to be honest I've been counting down to the fishing season opening day, I've really missed being on the rivers this closed season so now it's finally time to get back on the banks, I'm raring to go.

Mullet in Spain.....

In  Spain I packed a reel and a few bits including some jigs and lures in the case but needed to buy a suitable rod when we got out there. I managed to find one but only a cheap tourist shop telescopic effort, it would have to do. I looked at the fishing options on the net but was a bit disappointed to discover nothing much to go on in terms of info for the area. I took a walk within the first day or so and found some nice looking rocks to fish from. The first couple of 1/2 hour  sessions drew a blank though and I thought it might be a waste of time. However on seeing some locals fishing from the same rocks later in the holiday I knew it must be worth another punt. With my trusty "slap up fishing gear" rod I managed to get down for a quick couple of hours before sunset and searching for signs of life I found  a shoal of mullet in the swirling cauldron of deeper water directly below the end of the rock outcrop. I decided that the lures I had would not be any help for these fish and so I managed to cobble together a two hook paternoster baited with bread and waited for the rod tip to nibble. The nibbles came and went but in typical mullet fashion were nigh on impossible to hook at first.

Eventually I watched the bread on the bottom hook drift around in the current below me, it suddenly disappeared and a dark shaped could be seen moving where the bread had been. In a split second I had struck and the fish was on ! Success a last, the fish fought well but was no match for the "slap up rod"  and 20lb braid !

 

I caught a smaller mullet soon after, an sadly lost an even larger one that slipped the hook as it violently twisted and turned below me.

A big canal Roach....

Back in Blighty after a couple of  mediocre short lure sessions on the canal catching a couple of small perch for my trouble  I deciding that a change was needed. So at the weekend I set up a rod for canal carp and a float rod to catch bits and anything else that came along. Last time I did this I hooked and lost a carp so decided to beef up the line to 4lb straight through. With the boilie rod in I set about building up a swim. It didn't take long to start getting bites and soon a steady stream of bite size roach and small to medium perch were coming to hand. The boilie rod stuttered off  at one point and my heart was in my mouth until I felt the fish fighting and new it  wasn't quite a carp but not a quite a bream either ? Turned out to be what I suspect might have been a hybrid of about 2lb which probably explained the bit of fight it had in it.
 

 

The boilie rod remained quiet after that bit of action, but the on the float things were hotting up, - I caught a few more reasonable perch in between the blade roach and lost  a better one that had run me round the swim taking line off the pin before slipping the hook just before the net slid under it.

 

Then on the fifth or sixth last cast of the evening I hooked a slow plodder that hooped the rod tip round rather nicely. Thinking bream I just let it slowly nod around drawing it steadily towards me until I caught the first glimpse of red and sliver. Not panicking I readied the net and strangely just glided it over the rim on automatic pilot. I was now looking down at a huge roach. Well huge in terms of my previous catches - in fact it turned out to be my new Roach  PB !

 

I have witnessed bigger Roach before, like when I fished with Jeff on the Warwickshire Avon a couple of years ago, but now this fish was in the bottom of my net.  The photos were taken and the fish weighed and safely rested and returned back the water. Shame it was a bit of a battered old warrior or maybe just badly out of condition after spawning.  I'd heard some tow path rumours before but now I know they are here I can always try for another in the future.

 

1lb 5oz Canal Roach

 



Funny looking zander...

Canal chub are something of an enigma in my experience, whilst I am well aware of their presence in the canal system they are not a natural target that I think about often. I've heard reports over the years of some very decent fish coming from most of the canals within my reach, but I have never got around to specifically fishing for any canal chub as yet. It's just another entry on my long to do list.

 

As with a lot of the chub I catch they often come by accident when fishing for other species. It happened again the other night, there I was sat in the darkness happily ledgering strips of trout on a stretch of canal for zander to see if I could locate some in a new area, when the bobbin finally slid up to the rod blank and the tip pulled round. I lifted into a fish that fought back and resisted being raised to the surface more than the usual 3 or 4lb zed would. This could be a decent one I thought until this fine chub popped up and slid over the net rim. Though not a big zander I wasn't disappointed to catch this nice chub of around 3 - 4lb.  If there is one fish that fits the omnivorous bracket best it must be the chub. They will have a go at virtually anything, in fact I think it is one of the only British freshwater fish you can catch on almost any method from fly to lure and certainly any bait !

Well I wasn't expecting that !

A 5lb canal zander on a sardine meant for pike!

 

 



The canal was the clearest I have seen it in many a month, but I still struggled to get any interest on the lure rod.  I think something nipped at an orka shad tail once but that was it. Having a bait rod in the water too wasn't really helping though, as I was constantly flicking my gaze to the float (despite having it set up on drop off and alarm too).

I started a short three hour session at a different part of the cut, the water appearing even clearer still here, but this didn't make any difference to my results and after an hour had passed I had no fish to show for my efforts apart from the slight nip on the lure.  I was soon upping sticks and heading back to the usual banker swim.
Once there the bait rod was positioned  opposite along a reed bed before the lure rod was put back into action. In between retrieves of the lure.  I kept twitching the bait rod sporting a headless sardine back every so often until it was time to re cast it again. The second cast out was positioned further away so I could spend longer twitching the bait back along the reeds in hope of triggering some kind of response. I'd only managed one more retrieve on the lure rod, when I saw the float suddenly bob I waited till it moved again a couple of seconds later, picked up the float rod and struck.

Fish on, and after a short but steady fight on heavy pike tackle it was neatly chinned out because of the way the trebles were positioned, one flying outside and the other firmly in the scissors. The first zander I've ever seen take, let alone caught on a sea bait was the result. It shouldn't really be a huge surprise as there have been quite a few sea baits going into this area over the years, not only from me but from all the other pike anglers that have frequented this area.
Strange as it was, I still got that little "it's a zander " buzz you get when see the fish pop to the surface, and not a bad one for the cut either.

5lb 5oz

Stormy weather

For one reason or another the wife managed to scupper nearly all of my plans to get out on the bank this week. If it wasn't picking her up from work, it was taking the dog to the vets !! still I managed to sneak out for a bit this morning.  The weather also tried its best to spoil my plans with storms through the night and into dawn dumping their tonnes of rain into the river. It had a bit too much extra water coming down for my liking however I did visit the new spot I've been waiting to try at around 7am, but just didn't fancy struggling to fish from a bed of stingers high above the normal bank edge, the extra water now creeping well over the bank and pushing through at a rate of knots.


It's lookin a bit black over Bill's mothers !

Thank god for the local canals, at least you can usually depend on them to be fishable if the rivers ain't.  I headed to one through the last of the morning storms hoping to find the water colour suitable for lures. Luckily it was ok - well, ok for this canal. Visibility was about 2ft or so which is enough if you can get the lure within reasonable range of a pike's face, that's if its other senses haven't already detected it anyway.

The fluro orange gold lowrider was put into action first but after a number of fan casts I eventually swapped it for an orka shad tail, the change bringing an instant result with a feisty jack to save a blank on an otherwise uneventful morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the baits for some zed action

It's been a funny week really, the wife and kids have been away and I've had all this time to fish, but having started a new job only a couple of weeks ago I haven't been up to going far or for long sessions. Most of my week has been spent exploring local stretches of river on new club tickets for short sessions where I landed a few fish but nothing to write home about yet. The important thing has been discovering new areas I suppose and as time goes on I can hopefully winkle out something more substantial.



Moonlit night on the wilds of the Staffordshire savanna

I even went out barbel fishing on Friday night on a local stretch of river, but after the heavy rain the previous night the river was up a foot or so and full of loose streamer weed that made it a nightmare to keep the bait in position. Needless to say I gave it up as a bad idea after less than an hour of trying. In the past I might have stuck it out but I can't be bothered with all that hassle nowadays preferring to return when conditions are easier to manage. The fish may have been on the feed in these flood conditions but this is a river that is notoriously difficult anyway so I didn't fancy punishing myself too much and hauling in 10lb of weed every cast !!

I have been trying for more zander on the lures but have been failing miserably of late, so instead with the strong desire to see a float slide under and a zander in the net I fished a float session for them on the canal last night.  I took a float rod for catching baits and a barbel rod for the zeds loaded with 12lb line,  a small pellet waggler float with chemical light and just simple 20lb 7strand trace and single hook. In case I didn't catch any baits I popped into Morrison's and bought a small trout for  £1.12 which turned out to be a good move.

While I set up the bait float rod and remembered what to do (it's been a little while), I cast the zed float out with a strip of trout from the flank doubled over to expose the flesh and hooked neatly through the skin. The skin is very tough so there is little chance of the bait coming off even with a distance cast. On the canal though it is more a case of under arm pendulum swing to get it near to the trees or reeds and not in them or on the opposite bank.  Before I had the bait catching rod ready I saw a boat coming up the canal at distance, the zed float was in a perfect position so I didn't want to move it until I really had to. I waited a bit more then saw the float glide away under the surface in towards the overhanging trees. "Only one thing this can be", I thought as I stuck into something. The fish put up quite a scrap for a small one hugging the bottom and making me wonder if it was more pike than zed? Just in time before the boat reached me I had in in the net.  I must mention that when I was unhooking it in the net it managed to get some net mesh hooked over its dagger like front teeth.  As I freed the mesh the zander snapped shut its jaws as they frequently do when out of the water and managed to clamp down on my finger.  Blimey it was a strong bite and even drew blood, I was pretty lucky for it not to be any worse and I realised first hand what power they must exert on prey in order to injure and disable when they are on the hunt!

Mission accomplished now to get a few more.

I managed to get the bait rod out afterwards and hooked a nice roach straight away that managed to wriggle off the hook as I bulled it in a bit too firmly, looked about half a pound or so.  I now had the roach feeding and caught three before the last throes of daylight all of them perfect dead bait size for small canal zander. That was the last of the action though except for a dropped take that didn't connect. Finally at a swim near by the car  I was just having one or two last casts when the surface erupted with fleeing fish. They seemed to be being herded by something and I would guess zander were the culprits. There are not many pike in this canal for some reason but the stretch does hold some big perch up to 3lb plus, I doubt they were responsible however, as it was fully dark now and I'm not sure they would hunt fish in this way. From my own observations over the years when perch attack the prey fish usually seem scatter in all directions. However these fish were all leaping forwards like a shoal of pilchards or flying fish obviously being chased by a pack of predators. That would be the zander in this case I would guess. It was amazing to see and the first time I have witnessed anything like it. The attacks came and went for a few minutes with the zander chasing the shoal up and down the section over a short distance of about 30 metres (32yrds).  I quickly fetched my lure rod from the car as it was pointless deadbaiting when the fish wanted a moving bait.  Despite several casts into the throng I didn't get any takes on the small cranks or kopytos that I tried.

A night on the canal

A Deadbait and a lure on the canal

I had just a couple of hours window this morning before the wife went to work at 9:00am, just enough time to get some lure fishing in if I got there early enough. Arriving just before 7:00am the canal was disappointingly murky and coloured, but then I don't know why I was surprised as it always is on this part of the canal.  Luckily I decided to bring a deadbait rod too which I let fish to my side on the float ledger backed up with front alarm and drop off indicator should I miss the float going while I fanned the lure rod around the swim.

There was a slight breeze putting a chop on the water and visibility was probably down as low as a foot or so. In water this coloured I could only really hope to drag a lure past the nose of any preds lurking on the bottom in order to stir them into an instinctive strike. After a while I put on a small dead roach on the lip skull hoping that the added scent factor might give it an added edge? It didn't achieve anything though and with the last 15 mins of my session arriving I thought about a move down to the next dead reeds 20 m away. The deadbait though, had been cast to a little gap in the flaccid dormant reed line.  I had one of those feelings you sometimes get when your instinct tells you to wait a few minutes more. The lip skull roach became a impromptu freelined deadbait and was cast to the reeds and the rod put on the alarm rests, whilst I set the other rod on the deck and watched the float. With the minutes now ticking down fast to my deadline the float suddenly came to life and started to move across the surface and into the reeds, I hit the take and the fish shot out towards me and I thought I'd pulled the bait away empty handed for a second.  The rod hooped over as I caught up with the fish and it was quickly played into the safety of my waiting net. 

A nice looking but very pale silvery fish that reminded of the barracuda I've seen on scuba diving trips abroad in the past.  Pale or not a fish is a fish and at just about 9lb it was very welcome on a cold March morning in the last throes of winter.

Not long left now if your still hoping to get out on the rivers - I might just be sneaking a day out in the week so lets hope the rain hold off till after Thursday eh! Then it's still waters till June and those spring tench to look forward to come mid April if the cold weather backs off a bit.

Tight lines etc etc...

Ending the year with a struggle

I've not been posting much of late, this is because I've not caught anything to show for my efforts since the last entry. Despite this poor run of form, I thought I'd just throw a quick catch up together.

I've been fishing the local lake for pike a few times since November but I can't even report a single run on there yet. The sessions have been short bursts of 2 to 3 hours each and all of them during the morning so far.   There have been reports of a couple of mid doubles out recently but nothing more than that. I don't now if I'm wasting my time on there and the big fish have all gone but I would dearly love to catch a decent double (or better) from here if they do still exist?  I don't know why really it's just something about the lake that always pulls me back for more punishment. A lad stopped to talk the other day, asking the usual questions before telling me him and his mate had witnessed a decent sized fish ploughing into the fry in one of the bays. He said they chucked lures at it but couldn't get any interest.  I expect the fish was spooked to the other side of the lake by the way they were crashing around in their swims when I looked over a bit later!

 

 

I'm not sure why it is so difficult as the lake holds plenty of bait fish and is large enough to support a number of larger pike. I don't know if they are wise to my baits or I'm just not dropping on to the fish? The numbers of pike may have been somewhat reduced by the catch and none release members of our fishing community, but there must still be a few bigger fish left which would hopefully make the effort worthwhile if a run could be tempted from even one of them. The quest continues and the plan is to keep trying here and there through the rest of the winter and right into the spring when the fish will have spawned and will be ravenously  hungry again.

 

So far I've tried a roaming approach on various swims around the lake using deadbaits either popped up over weed or on the deck where there is no weed,  drifted at various depths and even twitched back slowly, but still no signs of a take.

 

 

 

The lure rod has been employed of course, although I should really do a session without the deadbait rods distracting me and using up my time slot, so I can give my newest lures in the growing collection a proper chance.

 

 

 

 

I've visited the canal recently but not found the fish in feeding mood since all the rain has been keeping the water a constant brown near to any river inlet.   I did a bit of exploring along an urban stretch I sometimes pass in the car that was a bit clearer, but only managed a small perch on a light jig. The snags were abundant around the bridges - which you have to accept in this urban style fishing I'm afraid.

 

In November I joined some workmates on a trip to Boddington Res for day out where we were treated to an adventure just trying to get to the water. Well getting to water wasn't so much a problem as the floods around the area were encircling all the entrances and lanes in the valley, but once we found a safe parking spot and waded through floodwater to get to the submerged car park and up the embankment we were able to set up and fish. It was a completely wasted effort though as the water that was still pouring in from the inlet stream continued to colour the the entire res turning it more and more chocolate throughout the day making our chances of any fish extremely remote. Needless to say the three of us blanked that day.

 

Slowly turning chocolate !

 

 

Finally just a quick thought about the black death from the sky (or cormorants), I saw three last week at the lake near me in the two or three hours I was there.

 

.... Today in the same amount of time I just lost count !

 At one stage I saw a flock of five in the sky together. You could have literally filmed a documentary about them. It's getting ridiculous now, I'm no expert but surely this affects all wildlife in the ecosystem and not just the fish themselves. Other inland bird species must suffer as a result of so many of these sea birds living inland and competing for food and roosting sites like this, not to mention knock on effects on other wildlife, plants and trees etc.  

 

When out for an afternoon walk today with the family we saw a chap shooting ducks across the swollen river tame opposite in the flooded meadows, I couldn't help thinking he should be leaving the ducks alone and targeting something else !

 

 

Where I used to see one or two a day,  I now see flocks of them !

Black Death - to a fish

 

On a lighter note I saw plenty of other bird life at the lake this morning, from buzzards to herons and then capping it off were two white egrets locked in an air battle to defend territory, the first egrets I've ever seen in this area.  Too quick for me to get the camera out in time unfortunately.

 

Happy New Year ...  lets hope it's a good one !

 

Really eely

 

 

 

 

I bit the bullet and splashed out on a pack of real eels, purple and pearl was one of the few choices left in the 20cm size, I think fire tiger was the only other. Since it arrived mid week I was like a kid at Christmas waiting to get my first chance to use it. That finally arrived this morning for a very quick two hour session before the wife went to work, ( had to be back in time to look after the kids). So I set off "down the cut" with it to a favourite pike spot.

 

I have to say it was a bit strange to use at first but then I soon got a technique going making it flash and rock from side to side with the tail spiralling like a artistic gymnasts ribbon. This had an instant effect as an over optimistic small perch chased it out of the water as I lifted to recast.  Next cast and the first fish to christen it was landed. Just a small jack that was snared on the main hook not the stinger, which means it must have attacked it from the side. I did notice a small tear near the main hook so had to glue that with some superglue I had in my bag. I hope they don't disintegrate too quickly after only a few fish ?

 

I had nothing more on it in the next half an hour so I tried some of my other previously successful lures but couldn't get any joy on these either.   The water was quite coloured today, so did this mean the fish weren't having it?  I don't know so to be fair the real eel was the most successful lure of the session after all.  I'm looking forward to the chance to get to a nice clear running river  to give it a go and see what it can do in clear conditions. 

A couple of questions answered

Back in the summer I fished a couple of small wild clay pools in the Lincolnshire countryside. I had an overnight stay in the area at the weekend so took the opportunity to fish them again on the Sunday morning. On that last session I had a few half hearted flicks of the lure rod without success and the feeder rod soon won over when I caught a tench on breadflake. I wondered back then  if there were any pike in the water? but that question still lay unanswered.

 

This time I took only my lure rod and bag of jigs, plugs and spinners. With the consistent yellow and white kopyto I made the first few casts into the south east corner and the lure didn't let me down pulling in this little chap from under the near margin.

Question number one solved - they are indeed present, so if there are small jacks then there must be a bigger girl in there lurking somewhere? I cast across to a the edge of a dying lillypad bed and hit what felt a much bigger fish - unfortunately it was off quickly and all I had to show for it was a critically damaged tail paddle, which soon fell off on a subsequent cast.  Never mind I knew there were at least two fish in the pool and I will be back in the spring to try again.  The adjacent pool was very coloured in comparison for some reason so I didn't spend long trying in its murky brown water. 

Shallow  Lincolnshire drain

On the way back I stopped to try a small drain for a few casts, but only managed to spook a shoal of roach in the shallow depth with my lure knifing though the surface layers above the heavy filamentous weed still present from the summer growth. I later saw something charging into them making them scatter like a shoal of flying fish as they leaped out of the water to evade there pursuer, and despite my casts into that area I couldn't get a take from whatever it was !



Question two for this week

Is something that I've pondered over for a while but have struggled to find out much info about on the net. I've found a few brief mentions or accounts about it and some posts on forums that said yes you can, but then they admit they've never actually tried it themsleves ( I love that ...  I mean seriously come on ?)  However, despite all this supposition there was not much that you could call solid evidence or proper advice about techniques.

So what is this big question?

Well it's simple,  could I catch a Zander in the dark on a lure?

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The Answer.................

 



 

So I stopped off at the canal about 6:30pm  on the way home (it was fully dark by then if your reading this from outside the UK) just  to prove if for myself, and on the third cast hooked another of these handsome looking creatures. Only 3lb 12oz but that's not really  the point here, it was another challenge succeded and one to be ticked off the list certainly.  It will open up some more opportunities for me over the winter I'm sure. Trying to catch bigger fish is always on the adgenda for us specimen anglers so I may even try exploring some other stretches of canal on the way home.... I'm sure you'll read about it on here if I do.

First Frosts of Autumn ...

Getting out of the house before the sun is up is a great way to start a session, unfortunately the sun beat me this morning as I couldn't peel myself out of bed as early as I'd planned. Still it was a lovely bright morning with a light crisp frost. After performing the first scrape down of my windscreen this Autumn I was finally on my way.

 Checking the river levels online yesterday the Trent system in Burton and Staffordshire seemed to be 'in flood'  so my planned pike and perch session on the Dove or Trent was postponed for another time.  Instead my back up plan was to re visit to the canal in hope of a big double from my usual spot. I could easily have been a bit more adventurous and gone for a bit of pioneering on a new stretch of the cut, but today the known knowns outweighed the unknown knowns. I was soon settled in and fishing two halves of a sardine by a quarter to eight.

The early morning mist in the valley enveloped the scene around me and whilst sat there contemplating the usual questions we fisherman ask ourselves when waiting for a bite, I thought I saw the float on the left hander twitch.  Nah, must have been the wind !

The odd dog walker passed by along the towpath (some of them very odd !) and early morning pleasantries were exchanged with most. The float twitched again, I was sure. I had that feeling there was something interested but it still could have been my imagination. A few more quiet moments passed by, then the float bobbed, moved and line was taken, finally it wasn't my imagination. I picked up the rod and wound down to a taking fish that fought well for it size. Although it wasn't the hoped for double, it was a nice fish at least. A holiday boater out for a morning stroll, cup of coffee in hand, stopped to admire it and took a photo on his own camara. We chatted for a while about fishing and all things canal, he wondered back to see if the rest of his crew were stirring by now, and I got back to concentrating on the floats.

7lb 8oz

That was all the peak of the action for the morning despite trying out some "sprat twitching" ala' Graham Pullen (look it up on youtube), I didn't receive any further interest up until the Sunday morning boat traffic became too intolerable to continue. I was back home by ten thirty just in time for coffee and toast.

The one that got away

The kids and me were on the way to my Mom & Dads for another quick visit about 6:00pm, lure fishing tackle was in the boot.

"Fancy half hour on the canal" I said.
" Oh not fishing" said Hollie.
"Yes, come on just a quick go before the light goes, I'll let you have a go too" I said trying to induce some enthusiasm from them both.

After a short walk I was casting across the canal, whilst the kids sat quietly on a wall playing games on my phone and the NDS.

Working the soft 4play for a while without any signs of a take I decided to move 20 yards down to cast to a reed bed. I had a few casts around then finally felt a hit but the fish came free as it surfaced. It looked silvery like a zed to me and knowing from experience that they will normally take a dead bait straight away again if they slip the hook, I quickly cast back over the spot where it came free to see if they would do the same with a lure.  There was another pull and a fish was on, this was a small jack though, maybe I'd been wrong about seeing a zed I don't know? but I wasn't too bothered I'd got a fish on and now I just needed to land it so I could show the kids their first pike.

 

Jacob keeps his fingers well back

 

 

Photo's were taken and the kids were excited although Jacob wasn't too sure about the pikes teeth (he's not daft Dad).  Hollie suddenly became interested in fishing again and wanted a go on the rod, so I let her reel in a few casts I made for her.  It's difficult to impart all your years of experience to someone who has barely even held a rod very much let alone reeled a lure in an acceptable fashion that will fool a fish, (hell, I'm not really that experienced with lures myself yet).

After a few iffy retrieves I had an inspired thought on how I could slow down her erratic winding.  "Just reel in time to one potato two potato" I said and let her do it without my guiding hand reminding her not to forget to gently flick the rod tip now and again to make the lure flutter up in the water. As I watched Hollie retrieve the lure back near to the bank I wondered if she would achieve just the right action without any old habits to iron out,  then the rod suddenly pulled round in a full curve down toward the water a few feet from the edge of the tow path in front of us. Fully expecting it to have snagged on a branch or some other debris, I grabbed the rod near the spigot and pulled it towards me to lift the offending snag. It turned out to be a large long greeny - yellowy gold spotty shape  that rose up in the water. My senses snapped into realisation as a fish of good double proportions "lolled" on the surface.  I uttered Jesus, or bloody hell look at the size of that or something.  Hollie now just instinctively handed the rod over to me and she rushed off to grab the net that was about 8ft behind us.  The pike now realised something was up and dived pulling the rod tip down further.  Before I had chance to react and give it some line the single treble hook pulled and the fish was off !

It was a mixture of elation in that the lure had succeeded in tempting a decent fish and gutting disappointment that I'd managed to lose it. But I suppose if the hook hasn't got hold properly then there's not a lot you can do. The points still felt sharp so it was just unlucky I think.  Hollie wasn't that bothered though and seemed pleased enough just to have seen it and that was almost as good as actually catching it for her.  I just wished that we'd landed it for a photo of Hollie and me holding her first pike, a probable 12 or 13lb fish !! Still there's always next time.




More on the lure ... with another ticked off the list

Just a few quick lure sessions to report on lately, well I tell a lie I did have a blank during a mornings pike fishing on deadbaits the other weekend, but apart from that I've only been  sneaking in a half hour after work here and there.  If I'm honest I quite enjoy these little quick fishing fixes but they do tend to stop me getting around to a proper session after the non predators.

Today was a great example of one of these quickfire sessions, I was trying out the 4play soft body  roach  for the first time down the canal. The lure was twitched slowly back giving a great impression of an injured fish I thought and within about four casts it was grabbed by this great looking zed. My first ever zander caught on a lure and I've got to say was completely unexpected. Weighing in at a reasonable 3lb 13oz - (well reasonable for the canal).
I was really pleased with it, something I've been wanting to achieve for a while ever since watching Mr Hayes on wets nets repeats catching zeds on lures on the Warks Avon. Shame I only had the phone's camera with me.

First of many on the lure ?

The results on my usual river have dipped a bit of late (might be the very clear water conditions prior to the latest floods?) and I can't seem to settle on a lure that I'm really confident in again. I doesn't help that I've been buying them like they're going out of fashion in recent weeks. Too many lures in the bag is not always a good idea. Unless of course your out all day where you might have the luxury of giving them all a decent go. Any way I digress, the good old yellow red head kopyto is still bringing the odd result and tempted this hungry little chap, amazing that he managed to get this three and a half inch lure so far down its throat !



Hungry ?!!

Looking ahead...

I'm really finding lure fishing enjoyable but at the same time I'm hankering for a few bait fished sessions now that Autumn is upon us, and with all the big stripey's that are being caught around the country its hard not to get inspired to try for another big one too.  I know a few spots where a carefully chosen bait fished in the right spot might just produce what I'm after.  Then there's barbel and chub to think about, the barbel will start to get more and more difficult to tempt as the water gets colder. The chub will become slightly easier as winter approaches, or at least more accessible in their hidey holes in the snags when the weed beds start to die back anyway. A few zander trips will definitely be on the cards, visits to the Severn and Avon are already being planned in the hope of a big beast.

Finally there's all the pike fishing I am planning to do over the autumn and winter.  I am looking forward to this the most at the moment, and holding a big pike up for the camera is the image I tend to see in my dreams.  So I expect that it will be the pike that receives most of my attention over the next few months ahead, not least because they are the most accessible large fish to me locally, and until I satisfy my current obsession with them I might just get stuck in a pike rut for a bit.

13cm 4play soft body "Dirty Roach"