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.

The last of the fading light

The clocks go back on Sunday, which for me means no chance of any after work lure sessions until about the end of the season. I had time for a quick 1/2 hour smash n grab session this evening on the Grand Union Canal near work. After reading Matt Holmes  Fooling Fish  and Paul Bosworth's River Piker recent exploits on a canal near them with small Kopytos, I decided to try out some of my smaller ones that had yet to be christened with a fish. I selected a small 3" yellow/white one and gave it a work out on a stretch I had just discovered earlier in the day whilst out on lunch hour recce. Lots of mouthwatering swims full of overhanging trees and reed beds were found, it just had to contain some pike or perch. I even saw a few small shoals of bait fish lurking by the towpath piling in a few places, so everything looked good for a predator or two.

The first spot produced a lovely fat jack of about 5lb or so, a fish that had obviously been feeding up for the long cold winter ahead.

 

There were a few further bangs and bumps on the jig on successive casts, and due to the good clarity of the water I saw a follow from a larger fish that was maybe a low double? Unfortunately it turned at the last second.

 

Further down the canal I managed this little tyke that I saw swim along side the lure for a few turns of the handle, then swallow it as I paused under the rod tip.

 

Another even smaller fish fell off near the net before I decided to head home as the curtain of darkness cast its sinister shadows around me, out there all alone on a deserted tow path in a strange town !

I reckon I may be able to sneak in a few casts here on my lunch hour where I will try to explore a bit more of this lovely stretch of canal over the winter.  The image of that larger fish that I missed out on now etched into my minds eye will only prove to be another challenge for me to pursue, after all they can't all be baby pike, and as the lads mentioned above have proved more than once the larger fish will take a small lure too.  It's just a question of right place right time now.

 

Nailed !

Been trying out the small 3" Kopyto's since they arrived a few weeks ago but had yet to catch on them. To be fair I hadn't given them much of a go really.

I had another little dabble on the way home  yesterday and decided to leave the spinners in the bag and try to tempt something on the small 3g red /white jig. First cast near some weeds and overhanging bushes and bang fish on !



Nailed ! - first perch on a jig

 

No more interest after that in the couple of swims I tried before heading home in time for tea !

Getting jiggy with it ...

Since the Kopyto Jigs arrived I've not really had many "throws" of them, so in order to rectify that I headed out this morning to try out the 4" yellow / red head relax with a 7gram jig head and size 4/0 hook. Now I have not caught a fish yet using jigs so I was hoping to break my duck.

I got to the river by 7:00am and worked my way up to the top of the stretch stopping at a few of the likely swims along the way. Nothing showed any interest but I decided to persevere with the jig wondering if my lack of results so far was purely down to my retrieval methods with them?

The water was showing just hint of colour, and since yesterdays rain the flow under my bank as it ran off from the shallows up stream funnelling the current onto a deeper pool out in front was a bit strong for my liking . As I pondered the water the first of the mornings other anglers turned up for a look. I told him he was welcome to move in here, as I was heading back down stream to try some slacker areas.  I dropped into the next peg down at the tail of the pool and hooked a nice  jack of around 7lb at a guess on the first cast as the lure was worked literally feet from the bank. The sight of the fish three feet down below me was awesome as it's gills flared in surprise then took off at speed to dive under the marginal weeds. This was the biggest test for my 10 - 30 gram lure rod so far and it performed excellently stopping the fish and turning it with ease. The fish was netted in no time, and my faith in the jig as a method was suddenly lifted.

That funny sense of over assured confidence washed over me as I rushed the photo's to get the fish back in as quickly as possible.  I expected I would easily have at least another couple of fish by the time I got back to the car. This didn't happen of course, I worked the lure tirelessly in all the nooks and crannies I could think of on the way back downstream only to miss a take from a tiny jack just twice the length of the lure itself as I neared the last swim.  The lure works I know that for sure now but is it the best one for the job ? I don't know.  I think that most reputable lures will work for you otherwise why would they develop and then sell them, the important thing for the lure angler is to find the one that suits them and then be totally confident in it. I know that my skills as a lure angler are still in the early stages but as long as I have a lure that I know will at least attract fish I know I always have a chance.  The rest is down to me and how I work it back to the bank.

Tight lines!