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.

A small revelation

A cheeky 1/2 hour after work on a new stretch of canal.  I was using my recently purchased ultralight  Ron Thompson Flexide V2 4 - 12g rod working a 1" creamy white kopyto on a small jig head along the edge, I soon had my first zander on the bank.

More of a zedlet really but every one's a result. I continued along the canal for another 200 yards or so before turning around to head back. Occasionally I stopped to cast across the canal under some enticing bushes or feature and worked the lure slowly back along the bottom to my near edge and then, remembering what I'd read on the excellent  Artificial Lite from the waters edge web site by Eric Weight,  I decided to start dibbling the lure in the edge near the pilings and features.  I soon felt a knock and saw a nice size perch twisting on the line under the water but unfortunately it didn't hook up properly. A little disappointed I kept dibbling and managed to hook a small perch to the method - result.

On a slow amble back to the car I trolled a larger 3" hammer shad along the bank under my feet and felt the rod tip pull round near a slight indent of the soft bank, this was followed by a head shake and as I looked down I saw a large perch easily over two pounds, its thick back and bold stripes clear to see up on the surface. I tried to compose myself in those few important split seconds upon realising what I had on and attempting get the fish under control it was all over with a flick and a shake the fish broke free from the small jig head and disappeared !! That was easily a Lure caught PB perch for me but it was not to be today maybe the hook was a little too small?  I tried the lure again and felt a knock but subsequent casts met nothing more.
I moved back to the bridge where the car was parked and tried a few spots on the other side, catching another consolation zedlet on a 2" kopyto in flouro yellow. With the light fading fast and still licking my wounds a little after losing the big perch, I got back to the car and headed home feeling both pleased at the success of new techniques and the pain of lost chances. I think I'm going to enjoy exploring with this new rod. The extra feeling and sensation from a lighter set up allows you to naturally exploit subtle changes in your technique which can't be understood or realised until you try one out. In other words my old spinning rod now feels like a thick carp rod in comparison and just can't hope to give me the information I receive on the ultralite. If your thinking of investing in a lighter set up then I can highly recommend it.

Catching up - to do

Lure fishing can be a fickle mistress at times leaving you wondering why you bother at all. You can at times seemingly catch fish by chucking practically anything in the water and then suddenly without warning you can go weeks without catching much of anything at all.

It all started at one of my local lakes where I lost a couple of fish on a short morning session ending with a blank. Then it was off on holiday to Devon where I spent a couple of early mornings searching for a bass in vain.



Rough ground - surely bass heaven



But nothing to show for a long mornings chucking into a rising tide.

Finally on my return back to the Midlands I managed to get into a few small perch back on the canal, and a small pike from the lake on my old faithful 13cm 4play lowrider in flouro orange flavour.

 

 

 

 

 

As spring is now in full flow I had the urge to get the float rod out and try a little pool for tench and crucians, which was a 50 percent success at least.

 

 

 

Finally I took  walk down by the river on the way home from the last session in order to get some inspiration for the summer ahead.   I shouldn't have teased myself really because now the canal just doesn't seem so pretty and I just can't wait to get back on running water.

 

Frogging spot found.

 



Simple beauty of the river

 

 

 

 

Always time for a quick one...

5:00pm time to leave work.

Get in car and drive to the junction, beat the dithering old woman to pole position in my lane on the island, go right to head home, or straight on past the canal.  hmmm...  Follow the meandering traffic down the hill, got to hurry now.  Got to get to the canal bridge, I'll decide then, check my watch and the clock in the car,  shall I stop?.. is there time.. ?



10 minutes later .... Yeah, of course there is..



There was plenty of time for one of these,  and back home in time for tea.



Canal Zander - jigged

A bright and sunny Sunday lunchtime with on and off showers but a couple of hours free to myself,  I didn't fancy going far so I headed to the nearby canal. It's been a while since I successfully landed a lure caught Zander so headed to the stretch where I've succeeded before with the aim of trying out a fluorocarbon leader, as there are very few pike in this stretch.  I intended to attach this to a selection of light 2" jelly lures.   Unfortunately I had forgotten to put the bag of lures I had sorted out into my rucksack ! Luckily I still had some 3 & 4 " Kopytos in my other lure box in the car so dug them out from the dark corners of the box, dusted them down and fitted one to a 7gram jig head. 

It was a fair few casts before I finally had a take on an old 4" yellow kopyto that's done the rounds a bit, but hey if it still works then use it !

A bit overexposed... but you get the gist.

 

 

 



That was the only hit I tempted before I got a call from the wife asking if I fancied  heading out for a late Sunday lunch, Id already been out two hours and with a cold breeze biting my hands now, I happily agreed and headed back towards the car.

With the lighter evenings we have now,  I'm looking forward to squeezing in a few sessions on the way home from work so I can concentrate on finding more zeds and hopefully locate the perch ?

Back to the river..

A long time since my last post I know, but I have been out fishing  once or twice since November. It's been pretty tuff going though with missed fish and a few blank sessions along the way.
With the rivers being up and in flood for what seems like the whole winter I haven't made any effort to venture very far from home.

In the last week or so though the rivers have started to settle down a bit in between  the odd downpour that threatens to bring them back up again. ( as I write it's pouring down yet again !!)

I have caught a couple of jacks here and there on the local rivers recently and then finally made it to the Dove today, and caught this scraper double on bait, my biggest so far this year.

a dove double (just)

I also lost another fish later in the session that took the bait within seconds of me dropping it in the margin presumably smack on its nose. I felt the line pulling tight as the float dived under because I was still holding the rod as I struck and it proceeded to rip 20 yards off the reel before spitting the bait, I didn't get to see it but it felt a good one, you know, heavy, solid and powerful !

I should hopefully manage one or two more sessions on the river before the close session kicks in, the hopes I had this year for plenty of river sessions and lots of big river pike have been washed away with the floods, so I'll be back on the canals again for a while I think, which isn't a bad thing but I'll look forward to the new season in June even more this year I expect.


A couple of jacks from the local ....

 

 

Christmas is coming and the Jacks are getting fat

I started the morning on the canal in the same swim as last week to see if I could tempt the same fish that followed my lure in, the one I've been thinking about all week while at work. It's not massive, possibly not even a double but I so badly want to catch it now I've seen it.
Lure fishing gets you like that I have found. It has a habit of creating these little unexpected challenges and you're teased by them for a while until you either succeed or forget them and move onto the next one.   This week it was a different ball game though, where as last week I could have expected plenty of takes had my time allowed. This week all hopes of a string of taking fish were quickly quashed due to the sharp drop in temperature overnight taking the air down to minus 2 deg C.  So I arrived to a severely frosty towpath but I didn't let it deter me and tried my very best to cause something to stir from its lair. The canal water is very clear at the moment, it would be nice to think that this clarity will last throughout the winter so that I can take full advantage.

I can see clearly now...

 

 Several swims later and still no sign of a fish, I gave it up as a bad idea and moved venues to a river, although the first stretch I chose was clearly going to be a challenge too.

What the feck are they doing out in  -2 !!

Arrrggghhhh !!

Finally I found somewhere else that I knew held fish and where I wouldn't have to share the stretch. I had a flick around a favourite spot expecting a take within a few casts, when this didn't happen I started to think a blank was on the cards. I eventually moved downstream and a few casts later finally had a hit from a fish.

It was then almost a fish a chuck as I went on to land 4 fish in about half an hour, all fat little jacks like peas in a pod that have obviously been feeding up hard for the cold winter ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried a new spot up stream that I had found a little while ago. It really looks the part and I hear on the grapevine (from the match lads) that there are some larger fish to be found there.  There was nothing at home for me except for a large perch that followed the lip lure in. I tried to tempt it with a kopyto and a little size 3 spinner after but it was not seen again.

 

Earlier I managed to lose one of my favourite lures on a snag in mid river. The snag, an old tyre or car wheel, I managed to move slightly and felt the distinctive thud of it landing back down transmitted up the braid to my fingers.  I have hauled a couple of these in on the canal in the past and managed to get them out and retrieve my lure no problem. However on this occasion as I lifted the weight of the tyre I must have ground the braid across some rock or concrete on the bottom which sliced it through like cotton. Damn I liked that lure too - still I might be able to get it out with a tench rake next time I'm there?

 

 

Not quite what I expected... part two

Finally the local rivers had started to show signs of clearing slightly after all the on off, on off rain that has fallen over the last few weeks. I thought about just taking a lure rod and heading further afield for a roaming session, but as I got into bed the night before the wife informed me she needed the car in the morning so I'd have to be back by around 11am. I changed plans and decided to bait fish a local stretch of river to maximise my time instead.

I got to the river around 7:15am just as the dawn light became enough to see by ( lie ins being one of the bonuses of this time of year !) and as I pondered the scene of the river from the first swim on the stretch I noticed a load of fry leaping out of the water by an overhanging tree in the next swim down. So with the swim choice sorted, I quickly unfolded the made up rods and in no time at all I was fishing.

Ready to go

The first take came quickly as the float across the river on the far margin suddenly disappeared with a plop. I wound down to a satisfying pull on the rod but as the fight wore on I noticed something wasn't quite right. Seeing a glimpse of the fish mid river it looked quite silvery, could just be a pale pike I suppose, but then it surfaced in front of me and turned into a pretty big chub. Now I've caught a quite few chub over 4lb in my time and at least one over 5 before so I was quite excited to find out how big this one would go. It's been a while since I targeted chub so I might need to get my eye back in but I couldn't help thinking if it was over the magic 5 ? it was certainly a good four plusser.



5.5" Fox Rep for scale

Unfortunately I will never know as I must have lost my scales on the last trip out ! They are one of those items that are always in your bag quietly waiting to be called into action. So when you discover they are no longer there it's a bit annoying to say the least.  Still, there was nothing I could do about it now so I took a few photos and tried to console myself by the fact that it was an accidental capture (it took half a mackerel on trebles  !)  so could never have as much satisfaction as one caught by design anyway. Also I now know where they live so I can always come back with the feeder rod to see what its shoal mates are like.

 

Eventually after no more signs of activity I gave up on the bait fishing and headed to the canal on my way home to throw a few lures before I had to be back.  The canal, still as clear as last week, was looking good and I landed a jack pretty much first cast on a liplure and had an exciting cat and mouse game with a much larger fish that followed the lure in but cautiously refused to take it. I wafted the lure around beneath my feet and could clearly see the fish hovering just behind. To be honest I ran out of ideas and as the stalemate continued for a few more seconds, I even considered letting the lure drop to the deck to see if it would pick it up.  While I was busy hesitating the moment had gone and the fish melted away, not to be seen again.  Then a text alerted me to the fact that I was now pushing it time wise when the wife sent me one of her gentle reminders (bless her).  So I had to leave it there even though I knew I could have easily winkled a few more fish out given another hour.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a few more before the flood

Saturday morning ...



pin eye

Caught a jack on the first cast of the day right down the edge under my feet.  It had a strangely small pupil, so it'll be easy to recognise if I meet it again.

 

 

 

Second fish came in the next swim from under a tree, near bank.

 

 









Third fish from the sand bar swim again along the downstream edge, he missed first cast and practically swam into my feet, but not to be put off on the second cast he nailed it.

On the way back I checked out a new area a mile downstream that I've never cast into yet.  Only had time for a couple of exploratory casts into the large slack pool one side of the river but nothing stirred, never mind I know there will be something there. Looking for another double now maybe this will be the spot?

Seeing double ...

On a small stretch of river nearby there are a good head of pike, mostly small jacks but I have encountered some slightly bigger fish on a couple of occasions. I only ever lure fish for them here and up until now the largest fish I have landed is a mere 9lb 10oz but I know I have come close to sneaking a double out a few times.  I know full well it would not be anything significant even if I did land one but it would give me a certain sense of satisfaction to get double from one of these few swims that I regularly visit. After all we can spend our hard earned money travelling further afield to larger rivers or venues to fish for the big fish that these places hold, and I often do just that, but it's equally nice to have somewhere within a five minute drive from home that you can pop down to quickly and catch a few fish from, whatever size they are. In other words a double would be a pretty good fish from here.

Recently I bought a couple of new lures from a local tackle shop that were selling off their last few savage gear 4play jointed lowrider and lip lures. I bought the last two in 13cm a burbot brown lip lure and an orange/yellow low rider. This would give me a gaudy bright one and a more natural looking colour.  I've used the soft 4plays before and new they worked well but this would be the first of the hard lures in the range I have tried.
The first go with the orange/ yellow about a week ago produced a follow from a reasonable looking fish definitely one of the bigger pike but I couldn't get it interested again after that initial response.

Today I started on the burbot and cast it in the same spot to see if there were any fish around, several casts later I decided to swap it for the yellow as the light was starting to drop a little and the water although quite clear was darkening with the start of the evenings shadows. I soon decided to move up to the next spot at the head of the run where there is less streamer weed and a cast across the river can be drawn back unhindered. As the lure reached the middle I slowed the retrieve slightly to adjust to a more twitching action. Before I had time to continue a fish swept up and t-boned the lure across its flank. After a rather short but spirited fight I bundled the fish into the net before I knew where it was. And so with that it was done, finally I had bagged my double from the river at 10lb 15 oz and a new lure caught PB.

 

Starting on a lifetimes journey?

Whilst sorting out my lure box and making up some new traces,  my little lad suddenly started showing an interest in the lures and asking what they were for.  I talked about what they did in the water and suggested that he come with me for a short session to see if he is going to show a liking for fishing now he's a bit older.  He wasn't that interested last year and he'd not really been too keen on going so far this season up to now, but when he said he'd like to go and see me catch a fish on a lure I was pleased and wondered if I might make a fisherman of him yet?  So yesterday afternoon after a promised trip to the park first, the deal was to then pop down to the river for half an hour before we had visit the supermarket for a few bits for tea.

As I managed to finally coax him away from the swings and slides the heavens opened and it looked like the fishing trip was scuppered. As we drove back I could see the clouds were passing over and it was only going to be a quick shower so I headed to the river anyway just to have a look if nothing else. The river was in fine trim when we got there and Jacob was still keen so we carried on despite the damp grass under foot. We were only trying the swim nearest the car,  just a very short walk and we were ready to fish.

I started off with a new 13cm lowrider to see if I could get any takers but after a few retrieves with plenty of spins stops thrown in for good measure I was still waiting for the bang ! Like all new lures you need to give them time before you reserve judgement, they don't all work first cast.  Jacob in the meantime was looking down at the lure box and asked if he could pick the next one. He liked the medium Big S in perch pattern which he liked to call the ' platypus one ' (as in Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb cartoon  of course, ...I know it took me a while too !)  I couldn't get the Big S to produce a hit so it was soon time for the next contender. 

It was "the snakes" turn now ( 20cm real eel)  and after a few runs through the eel did the job and produced this little tyke saving me the feared blank and putting a big smile on Jacobs face as I lifted it out of the net for him to see.  Jacob even took the photo for me, not too bad for his first go.

" It was this big "

I was pleased to be able to show him the fish and even though he wasn't quite ready for a go on the rod himself yet he didn't complain or want to go home after five minutes so progress was definitely made.  I was able to show him how I unhooked the fish and let him see the teeth and red gill rakers explaining how they work.  It made me feel quite good to be teaching him about nature so close up in a way you could never get from books or TV.

After the fish was returned it was time to go but as I picked up the net to shake it dry I noticed a little silver glint in the bottom.  Expecting it to be a little roach or chub fry I was pleasantly surprised to find it was neither but instead a perfect little stickleback fry. Amazing to see these little fish living in this once polluted river . They were which were pretty much where my love of fish began back in the stream near my house growing up where we would collect them in jars with our little nets.  I've not seen many since those days so it always brings back fond memories of summers spent wading up and down the brook in Elmdon park with my little net, trying to collect more or bigger sticklebacks than anyone else. I can vividly remember that netting the bigger ones was always more pleasing than just getting loads of little ones, I guess the specimen hunter was always in me from the start!  It was also nice to be able to show Jacob another fish species and one that is not often encountered by many nowadays it seems ? Not sure if that's because they are getting rarer now, or just because we don't get to wander around up to our knees in brook or stream with just a net and a pack of jam sandwiches for lunch anymore ?


This morning (Sunday), I headed out on a cool dawn to get a couple of hours in before breakfast. Not much to report in the way of fish really suffice to say I walked a mile or so along dew soaked pathways and tried lots of likely looking spots but the river seemed moody and with a tinge more colour in it today than the day before, the fish not responding to my efforts.

The only fish came at the end of the session when I heard a splashy lunge from something upstream of me.  I headed up there and cast the real eel to the spot.  Within two turns of the handle the fish engulfed the lure and bolted off through the ribbon weed like an exocet missile.  After one of the most spirited fights I've had from a fish of this size, it was nice to at least get one on the bank to end the morning session with.

Ah the old unintended two finger salute shot !

So far this week ... exploring

 

School summer holidays will be soon over and so the wife and kids are away for a few days through this week.  Left to my own devises (or is that vices?) I've been out over the last couple of evenings after work exploring some new stretches of river and reacquainting myself with some old ones.



New water to learn all about

....and old scores to settle !

Walking along just chucking a lure in here and there is an excellent way of finding out what lies underneath the surface of the river. Vital clues can be gained of where the fish might be lurking to give themselves away by a hook up or even a follow and a missed chance, or just a small detail of the swim that might make you return to that spot, it all goes in the memory banks waiting for the moment to be recalled at some future date when required. You can tell a great deal about each swim you care to investigate, where there are snags to be found, or even just a sense of the depth and bottom substrate can all be ascertained in a few minutes of jigging a small lure slowly along the bottom. Of course all this information can then be used for all your other styles of fishing and not just for lure fishing. Today I searched the river and found a few areas of gravel that are just perfect barbel swims. I wouldn't necessarily know they were there by just looking at the surface, but now they are logged in the memory ready for my eventual return to a bit of barbel fishing.

With a few more free evenings left yet, I might even be able to fit in something other then lure fishing this week, who knows?

Meanwhile, here's a selection  of this weeks photo's to end on.



 

Not quite a massive perch !
 

Harsh beauty