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.