Riging stingers

Just recently Ive been playing around with rigging stingers and for one of may favourite pike sized kopytos Ive settled on a rig that does exactly what i want. Basically once you start using bigger sized soft plastics they get pretty chewed up from being in a pikes mouth so i wanted to rig them in a way that they would break away from the stinger out side of the pikes mouth which would mean they last allot longer.

I want to get away from using jig heads on larger sized soft plastics because i just don't like to lace my lures with hooks, the thing that appeals to be with the smaller sized shads is the fact that you only need a jig head and pretty much get a good ratio of hook ups and its better for the fish and easier to unhook. I could fish my bigger sized shads with just jig heads but i feel id not get a very good ratio.

So basically i wanted a rig with just one treble placed in the right spot to increase hook ups, this is my rig below unattached.

This comprises of a treble, a nose weight and a pin, the nose weight adds some weight obviously without using a jig head and it is also screwed into the nose of the lure to basically hold it. I then clip my stinger and nose weight direct to my trace clip, the stinger wire is held inline with the pin and then the treble is just lightly hooked into the lure. When a fish takes the treble and pin pull out and the lure swings away out of the way of the teeth. The photo below shows the rig attached in place.

Of course doing it this way is not essential at all but the little things Ive done work in a way that it works for me, i like a neat presentation, the fish don't care but i enjoy it more if i do a better job of it. I like the addition of a pin with the stinger, not only because it neatens things up, that's an after effect, its main purpose is to keep the stinger inline so that the wire does not rid up the side of the lure bringing the treble offline, why is that important you ask? Theres two reasons, firstly if the treble isn't inline it can sometimes cause the lure to spin or not fish right. The second reason is because if the treble rides up one side and the fish takes from the other the rubber lure can actually impair the hook up so for those reasons i like to keep the treble exactly where i want it. 

I really enjoy messing about at home with rigs and stuff, i have plans to make my own nose weights, allot better than the few i have made so far, these were just trials and trying things out. Below is an example of a nose weight i made using a bullet weight and stainless steel wire to form a corkscrew and spike. After making this first one i also made a few with the line tie at the top like a jig head, ensuring that the lure balances right.

I got out today to give the rig a go and it did exactly what i wanted, i actually a great little session with 10 pike banked and on all occasions the lure remained outside of the pikes mouth, the hook up rate was also very good, often fish being hooked in the scissors making for easy unhooking. I caught some nice fish with really orangey coloured backs, i didn't get a photo of the best of the day, a low double as just before my camera fired off it started to kick off so i was out of shot when the camera took. I then noticed i was being watched, so thought it best to put the fish back than mess about setting the camera up again.

I had a few casts with the fly rod too and hooked a really strong fish that tore off to the other side of the river before unhooking itself.

A change of plan ends being a great day with a new PB

Myself and Neil had a day planned on the boats with Pete and Andy for awhile, the plan was to fish a river myself and Neil had not fished by boat before, things didn't go to plan for various reasons so Pete came up with another plan at the last minute. We were happy to go along with Pete's idea as it was a day on the boat and a day to meet up with Pete whom I'd not seen for some time so it would be a good day out.

It was to be my last booked day off work of the year and i didn't even benefit from a sleep in as i was up ten minutes before I usually get up for work at 4:10am I drove over to Neils and we were on our way to meet Pete and Andy. On the way we discussed our chances as through out the week temperatures had been rising then overnight dropped right down and there was a hard frost, hopefully his wouldn't put the fish off too much.

 

The boats were in the water and ready to go for around about 7:00am, there was already some guys fishing from the bank and they were landing a few pike on live baits which got us thinking of the day ahead. After a short while Neil was into our first fish of the day, an angry little perch that was sticking its fins and gill covers out in disgust at being caught. Its tradition now to take a photo of the first fish on the boat and despite neither of being superstitious we didn't want to risk any bad luck by breaking our trend. Neil followed this perch with a jack that was hooked in the tail which meant it fought like a twenty!

 

 

The pike were like rockets, hitting the surface straight away at 100mph after being hooked, Andy caught a few for there boat before Neil added another to ours which went like stink. At this point I was still fish less and was chopping and changing between drop shot and jigging kopytos, then finally got a fish in the shape of a 2oz perch! 

 

 

No sooner was i putting my magnificent 2oz perch back than Pete was into a good fish on the drop shot, a cracking perch that went 2.6lb, Pete was very pleased with that as it was a new method he was trying out and was allready really enjoying the change. I still saw allot of fluff whizzing about all over the place though!

 

I then heard over my shoulder 'im in' and turned to see Neils rod bent over again, Neil then casually said "It must be a pike" followed shortly after by "No its a bloody big perch, get the net!" Only a big perch gives you that excited panicky feeling and the need to swear profusely about the net.

I didn't really get a proper look until we had it in the net in the boat but my reaction was 'Whoa' I've been fortunate enough to have a bit of experience with 3lb perch and even more fortunate to have had a 4lber, despite this being a few years ago now I instantly thought Neils fish was going to be close to that exclusive weight, and this was confirmed when the scales went round to 4lb 1oz

What a fantastic fish and i was chuffed to bits for Neil and it was about time we got to share a PB together. Congratulations Mate! A stunning fish.

 

 

 

It was game on now and I switched over to jigging kopytos more as this was producing more for Neil, that's the good thing about having two on a boat, you can fish different styles and see what is producing then switch over to the most productive method on the day. It was evident this was the right decision as eventually i joined the party with a fish that actually pulled back. They were in super condition and most had very vivid colours and strong contrasted bars. We were catching a few by now and they were all mostly over a 1lb which was a great average.

 

 

The next bit of action came from Neil again who was on fire today, firstly he lost a fish which he thought felt like a good pike, we didn't want to think about the prospects of it being an even bigger perch but after a few more casts he was in again in the same area and had this bulky 3lb 8oz perch. What a day Neil was having!

 

 

I took my time putting in an appearance put slowly through out the day i was going from strength to strength building up a good tally of fish with my best being a couple of 2lbers, the biggest being 2.10lb. I switched later in the day to drop shotting again and found a few shoals that produced a little flurry of fish.

 

 

 

As the day went on we were getting colder and colder and even putting my savagear coat on over my other jacket wasn't keeping me warm enough, i don't think i could get anymore layers on. It didn't help that for most of the day we were sat in the shade and wishing for the sun to make an appearance.

Pete and Andy had gone for a sleep midday and left us 'young uns' to it. We met up with them later on and it was evident things had really slowed down so we made the decision to pack up and go fish a big slack on a river that we had received a tip off about allot of good fish being caught. We all fancied this so that was the plan for the last hour. Before we left Neil added another fine fish to our tally.

 

 

 

The plan didn't really go to plan so to speak and nothing much was caught on the big slack, in fact we didn't catch allot at all between all four of us, other than 'golden balls for the day' Neil getting a small pike and perch. Pete had a nice pike on which sadly came off close in and he was disappointed to have lost that one.

 

On reflection the pike didn't really make an appearance at all with just 3 to our boat and i think a similar number to Pete and Andy. We couldn't help but feel the sudden drop in temperature had slowed things down but we still wasn't disappointed with how the day had gone. It was a perch day more than anything with some cracking fish caught and a New PB for Neil so we couldn't have asked for much more. Thanks again to Pete, Andy and Neil for the day out and good laughs and Congratulations to Neil for the fantastic 4lb perch.

One to remember

Saturday was supposed to be a day on the boat with Neil but typically it rained heavily Friday and wasn't worth the risk transporting all the gear to find the river up and coloured. Instead we decided to play it safe and explore some canal spots.

Neil was in first cast and was off the mark with a small pike, he shouted over "I've got a warm pike" I said "Ya wa?" I went over to see what he was referring to and he told me to feel the pike, it really was a warm pike! just touching its skin you could feel as if it was burning up like when your ill and have a temperature, very strange.

We picked up a few small perch before moving about, I found a few small fish that were knocking my Kopyto as it was coming in, after a few casts without hooking one I was about to lift out when a big perch came flying up from the depths and hammered the kopyto. I didn't really even fight the fish as it was already thrashing about on the surface so in a hurry i bent down and netted it. A nice big framed 2.6lb perch glowing in the early morning sun rise.

 

We then went through abit of a quiet phase with not allot happening other than a few small perch and missed takes here and there. We walked a good length of canal before finding an area around structure where there was lots of small perch, we had a few of though before it dried up and again we had a walk to another area that had allot of structure.

On the way there was a little ditch that i had seen a few tiny pike in before, I joking said to Neil "watch this" and plopped my kopyto into the massive 3" depth that was actually the deepest part of the ditch! As soon as i moved it a tiny pike came shooting out of some weed and hammered it, unbelievable! Micro pike always have a little charm of there own, pike in miniature or in Neils words "Like a pike but smaller". Just to prove it wasn't a fluke i went and caught another too.

 

After reaching our next spot we soon realised the perch were not on it here and decisions were made to go fish another canal and try some new spots out, on the way we had a quick hour on a small river, and the first thirty minutes was abit action packed, we had follows and a few missed takes all in one small area. I managed three pike in total that were stunningly marked and coloured, they gave a really good account of themselves too on the ultralight gear and at time just wouldn't give in stripping lots of line. The water was slightly colour tinged so i opted for a black spinnerbait which they seemed to like.

 

 

We fished one last spot on the first canal before moving to 'plan B' I was stood next to Neil and we was both grumbling abit about a cruiser that had just been through at ridiculous speed, we nick named the captain 'Turbo Tom'

Neil was working his kopyto down the side of a wall when a small perch came flying up as he was about to lift out, it just about jumped out trying to get the kopyto, as it went back in in made a splash and as it did so we both spotted a big perch come up from the depths to investigate the commotion, Neil quickly lowered his Kopyto back in and both the small perch and the big one went for it, they both moved so fast it was hard to see what happened but we both thought the small perch got there first. The hoop in Neils rod suggested it didn't and after a battle he had a lovely 2lber and we were both chuffed to have got a decent perch each before moving onto our next canal spot.

 

On the next canal we had abit of a tour stopping off at various bridges and features, some of which we hadn't fished before. It was evident that the perch on this canal were well and truly up for it. Each time we moved area we found more and more fish and it wasn't too uncommon for us to get around 20 small perch in consecutive casts. Not only were they really going for the lures but they were really aggressive and fighting way beyond there size, they were even pulling the kopyto's off the jigheads and a few times we were getting fish hardly hooked just hanging on by the kopyto's tail it was that far down the throat.

We had a couple of odd fish, one of Neils had an almost red dorsal fin which doesn't actually show up well in the photo below but it was quite strange and a nice fish too. Not long after i had a perch that had a really strong pink colouration to it.

 

After the hectic action form the smaller perch we had another move and hit abit of a quiet patch, not many takes just the odd one here and there. All of a sudden everything locked up and i had that brief 'oh a snag' moment until i realised it was a fish. Another big perch and I was positive this one could have been close to three pound, it was a long and deep fish. We weighed it and it only went 2.6lb, it was certainly a 3lb fish frame wise it just hadn't packed on the bulk yet.

 

 

We moved again and had a good flurry of small perch before we decided to move to the last spot of the day, before we went we thought we'd have the usual 'one more cast' what happened next will be something to remember as we laughed so much.

Neil had his last cast and got a small perch, I was stood right next to him and thought i'd have one last cast to get one last fish, Neil also had yet another last cast and we drew the kopytos back through the shoal within a foot of each other, I purposefully tried to match Neils retrieve speed to see if we could get a double hook up at the same time from the same shoal. Neil hooked up then shortly after I did too, we laughed about it and tried to do the same again casting out and running the lines only a foot apart. Neil was in again, but this time i didn't get one, right at the end of the retrieve Neil was about to lift his fish out when we spotted a few big perch chasing in, Neil shouted "quick chuck you lure back in" In doing so, it was hammered straight away by one of the big perch, Neil quickly unhooked his tiddler and as i was netting my perch he chucked his kopyto into the melay. Straight away he was in and another big perch on! It all happened so fast and i netted both fish in the same net! What a brilliant result and we couldn't stop laughing about how it had happened, we made sure we got a photo together with our fish as its not often that kind of thing happens although saying that we have discussed it many times about the fact that the rest of a shoal follows the hooked fish and we should try and cast close to a decent fish to pick off a sibling, somehow it just never times right and until now we haven't had the chance properly to put the theory into action.

 

Onto the last spot of the day and we were both grinning and going over the double hook up thing, its something we will both not forget.

The last spot was pretty much the same with hectic action from smaller perch, by the end of the day we must have been close to 200 fish between us due to the fact it was like shelling peas fishing into the vast shoals of small perch we had found. The day wasn't over yet though and we had one flurry of excitement to come.

I flicked my Kopyto out along the margin and near to a boat, i felt a few good tugs as a perch was chasing and hitting my kopyto, it didn't hook up but i knew it was a good one by the feel of the powerful tugs. I cast back out and sure enough Another big perch was on.

 

Knowing they can be in shoals of same size i told Neil to have a chuck and sure enough another good perch took the kopyto.

 

 

 

We stood side by side casting into the area when Neil got one hell of a take that ripped his rod round, it was definitely the best fight of the day as it held low and we didn't see it for a bit. I wondered at first if it was a pike but Neil knew it was a perch by the feel of the head shakes. It surfaced and we knew it was the best of the day. Although we catch plenty of 2's and some 3's they still always look and feel like really huge fish, its true what they say about perch 'A big perch is the biggest fish of all'

The scales went round to 3.1lb which really made Neils day.

 

Within a few more casts yet again I was into a fish and again it looked a better one, at first I thought it was in the same league as Neils last fish but after picking it out of the net I could see it wasn't quite as big. Still at 2.7lb it was my biggest of the day, and what a day it had been, certainly one to remember for some time!

Fry feeders

I consider now leading up to November to be the best time for perch on lures. The fry have grown on enough for them to be a good meal for the predators and it is now they will be making the most of this and feeding up ready for winter.
I popped out for a few hours last night to try a new spot for perch, well i say new, i have been before but not for a couple of years. The action was pretty hectic from the start with not many retrieves ending with out either a fish on or a take, all small perch to start with but great fun seeing them following in the hooked fish in huge shoals! I could have fished all day in one spot and i soon stopped counting how many i had caught because it was getting irritating remembering what number i was on, it was that good. On the other hand, as good as it is when the fishing is like that you are soon wanting more when it starts to feel a little easy.

 

I decided to move about more and see if i could find a shoal of better sized fish or just pick the odd bigger one up, moving away from the hectic action was difficult to do though as i started to fish areas with no activity. Eventually I found a few better fish, but it was a case of fishing through the shoals of smaller fish and getting the bigger ones worked up so they bully there way in front.

 

Absolutely awesome fun on the light tackle, the perch really seemed to be fighting well too. Looking forward to the next few months now with hopefully some really big fish to follow.

A day afloat

Ive not being doing a great deal of fishing at the minute and it always feel strange when i haven't. A week can soon feel like a month! The kids are just about to go back to school so i should be able to find more time again hopefully.

On Friday I had another day on Neils Bote trolling and casting for pike and perch. We both had a trick up our sleeves that we thought might add a different dimension to our day.
To be fair the river had still not fully got over the rain from the week previous and although the levels were fine the colour was still running through and it wasn't ideal. We started to pick up a few fish here and there which was actually a surprise as we thought it would be more of a struggle.

Neil with the first of the day, a trend that is becoming so familiar, I'm sure he brings the same fish along and clips it on when I'm not looking!

 

We carried on heading up river and on the way we both lost off what felt like better sized fish with only seeing a glimpse of them before coming off. We had built a tally of around about the early teens when we reached a spot we knew always held fish and this is where we intended to bring out our secret weapons!

 

Neil wanted to give live baiting a shot in this spot as we generally pick up better pike and good sized perch here. We saved a few ideal sized perch from earlier to use as bait, as soon as Neil cast one out it was snapped up in seconds, after a good fight and nearing the boat it then came off. Another bait when out in a similar area and again with seconds it was gone, sadly the same happened again and the fish was lost. Neil really wanted to land one of these fish as he was using a really old set up he had from younger days and wanted to land a fish on it for nostalgia. While he was casting into a few different areas, i was running my soft shads through the swim and had two pike, one on a 3" yellow dragon phantom shad and the other on a 4" savagear cannibal shad. Not massive pike but great fighters on the light gear.

 

 

A little later as my takes had dried up, Neil put another livo into the hot area and once again in was sailing away in seconds, hopefully this was going to be third time lucky and it turned out it was as the fish stayed on. We got a photo with the rod and reel in view for memory sake.

 

My plan was to give drop shot a go in this particular area as usually we do really well for perch here and often get a few big ones, we always notice that the takes come on the drop too so i wondered if drop shotting would find us more fish. there was no perch showing an appearance to normal tactics so i thought I'd leave it till on the way back to have a go hoping the perch would have moved in.

 

The day got slower and slower and we really struggled at times to find fish on the troll, we had a few little spells of catching small perch and a few pike by casting lures to walls and other features but in general it wasn't proving to be a good day after the promising start we had in the morning.

 

On the way back I got my chance to try drop shotting in the hot spot, and despite there still being no action on the kopyto's i had to have a go with the drop shot. The thing about drop shot is that it needs a proper set up and lots of patience. I only have the latter in very minimal amounts and i didn't want to keep changing set ups or take another rod for it. The night before I came up with the idea of making a hook rig that i could just clip on and off if i wanted to change to drop show quickly. This was basically just a hook with wire passed through the eye and then twisted to form an eye at both ends of the hook eye. This enabled me to clip mu lure off my trace and clip the trace onto the dropshot hook making an 'up trace' as protection from pike. On the bottom eye i then had mono tied to a weight.

I worked this in the hot spot for a few minutes before eventually i saw the rod tip bouncing away so gave a brief pause before striking into the fish. I was chuffed to get a perch and on the right day i think it would really hammer some fish.

 

Neil then thought he would catch the smallest fish of the day on a kopyto!

 

That was pretty much it for the day, we had a tally into the mid 30's so we did ok to be fair, sometimes I think you just want more when your used to catching more. We both always enjoy it no matter what and this time was all about trying a couple of different things that might really make another good day an even better day if it is more successful.

Abit of a mixture

Through the week i got a phone call from Paul River Piker asking if i wanted to fish one of his spots that produces big fish. I had planned to go out straight from work, so thought id go fish a few spots then go over to meet Paul.

I started off on a small dyke chucking frogs for jack pike, Ive been really enjoying this recently and despite there not being much chance of a decent fish, the hits from the jacks are fun alone. Its like Large mouth bass fishing in the states, the jacks are so lively and hit the frogs hard then continue to jump and tail walk. I just love the noise they make when they hit the frogs its very audible as well as visual. I had about 5-6 altogether before time started to tick on and it was time to put plan B into effect.

 

I had my ultralight rod strapped to the side of my bag for when i reached a canal spot, so i switched over from my frogging outfit and had a go for some perch. The action was pretty steady and i was picking up plenty of small perch. I was running out of time so i didn't walk too far and just enjoyed the change in method.

At one point I was bringing in a 3oz perch when a big perch came rushing in after it and snapped it in, half of the perch was in the bigger perches mouth! It must have been around the 3lb mark, it let go of the perch straight away. I started to try and flick the small perch off the hook by letting the line go slack but it wouldn't come off, typical! then the big perch kept looking as if it was going to swim away only for it to turn and shoot at speed at the smaller perch, this time though it just kept whacking the kopyto in the smaller perch's mouth trying the steal it. I had to try and get the small perch out quickly and get the kopyto back in the water but as doing so the big perch swam away! brilliant to watch though and Ive never had a perch take another perch before.

 

In the evening I went over to fish with Paul, I went trying not to think too much about big pike but knowing the kind of fish Paul regularly pulls out it was hard not to. After a few follows and change of lures I got a take on a rainbow savage gear 4play. The fight started off very strange as the fish must have been swimming right towards me and i was having to reel to catch up with it so it felt really small. Then all of a sudden it got heavier so at first i wondered what i had on, not too long after it surfaced and it was neither a biggie or a tiny pike but a modest jack, a nice coloured pike though. I wasn't too bothered that it wasn't a big fish as I'm always happy to catch and not go home on a blank.

we carried on fishing the area and Paul gave me the guided tour, explaining where he had caught his big fish from and letting me know where all the snags were. a few times i snagged up as the river was very low and momentarily i clenched my ass cheeks thinking i was in!

 

Nothing more came of the session and it was clear that they were not really on it so we cut our losses and headed home. Thanks for the tour Paul...

A lure and fly day..

Yesterday saw me mixing it up with lures and flies again looking for a multi species day.

 I started on a canal with bother the ultralight lure gear and a fly rod to cover any bait fish i might find. It started off well picking up lots of small perch, I thought about just enjoying a bag up day and seeing what kind of tally I could get too. The trouble was i kept seeing fish rising and switching between the fly rod and lure gear. This started to get abit frustrating if I'm honest.
It was nice to mix it up though and pick up a few roach on the dry fly to add to the perch on kopyto's

 

A bit later on I managed a bleak, they are quite sizable bleak at this venue and Ive had some really big ones in the past.... big for bleak anyway! there actually a nice little fish and take flies really well, last year as i was walking the towpath i could spot them swimming and rising in front of me and put a dry fly about 2 foot in front of the direction they were swimming, it was great to watch when they responded and came up for the well placed fly.

 

I'd started fishing after work at about 1:30 and knew i still had into the evening to fish, so had planned to move on from my first venue at some point. My phone went and it was the Mr's saying she was going out so if i wanted, i could stop out as long as i wanted. As if i needed permission! With a couple of drinks and a pile of crackers with me to keep me going I headed off for a small river to try and add some different species to my tally. I was thinking about starting on small cranks for the trout, chub and pike, then in the evening i would switch to dry fly and enjoy some proper trout fishing.

 

Its amazing sometimes how venues change so much in so little time, last time i was here, which would have been a matter of weeks not months, there was none of this weed growth. Some sections were really thick with it.

 

I had some good days on this stream in late spring and its slowly got quieter and quieter, I was primarily catching trout but did see quite a few chub. My only thoughts are that the trout were more hungry and aggressive earlier in the year, feeding up after the winter. It could be that they have just moved up river as i didn't see a great deal either, the thing with wading small streams is that even if your not catching your getting a sense of what is about as your right there in the water with the fish. The stream was crystal clear today and really low which also didn't help. As it turned out i fished quite allot of the river before i finally got a fish, a smaller one than i am used to here but they are all welcome and each one is individually marked and has its own character.

 

After missing a few bigger fish when they just snapped at my bean lures and then were never seen again, I made the choice to move further upstream to see if there was more fishing located there. By now it was getting into the evening and the whole place took on a totally different atmosphere in the bright lowering sunlight. In places it was nearly pitch black under the tree canopy.

 

As it turned out my last fish of the session was to be my biggest, still only average for the venue but after a lot of disappointing hours wading I was pleased with that fish. A shame i didn't get some of the big fish i saw along with a pike that i landed but dropped back in while getting my camera out.