Obsessed

Its been awhile since Ive posted on my blog, the main reason for this is because Ive also started using Facebook. I didn't think I'd ever use facebook but used in a certain way there is lots of interesting stuff on there. I've always hated it because i didn't want people hassling me on it that Ive known in the past, I'm not one for being bothered about people that are no longer in my life, i live for the next day and that's it. The other thing i didn't like about facebook was people talking a load of crud that didn't interest me, like 'joe blogs has just eaten a packet of cheese and onion crisps' Or 'betty boo is sat watching TV tired after a long day at work' SERIOUSLY? There are people out there that really want to know about that chuff?

Anyway as i was saying that has always put me off facebook, so i took the plunge and joined but didn't join as my actual name, that will prevent people in my past hassling me and telling me what they've just eaten. Its purely for fishing interest so i only Friend people that share the interest.
Facebook lets me keep in contact with fishing mates and join fishing related groups, it also lets me do quicker posts than i can with my blog and its generally more interactive. I'm not going to give up on my blog but will probably just keep it to a monthly post, more of a round up of what Ive been doing. If anyone enjoys what i do on my blog and want to follow what i do in more depth on facebook you can find me under the name 'MAtt Seventyninejh Fish Fooler' or click the link if it works.

So what have I been up to? Basically I have developed a massive obsession to pike fly fishing, its all i want to do at the minute, Ive been catching loads of fish, way above average for what i would usually catch on the venues I've fished. I almost feel guilty for letting my lure rods gather dust.
Here's a few photos of some fly caught fish from recent sessions..

An awesome session ended early.

Typical isn't it, you have a full day to go fishing and you struggle, but when you have the odd hour here or there you bag up! But every now and then you get those bag up days all day, well yesterday should have been one of those but even then It didn't go right.
Basically i wasn't supposed to be going fishing and wasn't too bothered to be honest, but something at the back of my mind said i should get out while the rivers are decent because when you plan to fish they will be knackered again! As i was thinking of going my Mother phones to say she has to wait in all day for a delivery so i could drop the kids off, get in! I stick the fly gear in the car as my bag was already set up from my last session with fly gear and it was already getting on for dinner time so just thought I'd enjoy a bit of PFF.

It started off great with 3 pike in the first 5 casts and it was looking like it was my turn to land on a venue fishing well with lots of hungry pike to be had. I started to get action in every available swim with fish banked and missed takes. Sometimes your not bothered missing takes and loosing fish as it all adds to the action and excitement. This was great fun and just what i needed, however just as i was settling into some much needed winter sport i could feel a headache coming on, it got worse and within an hour and a halves fishing i was starting to feel worse for wear. I nearly threw up my head was insane with pain (checking out me with a rap..innit). It was too much to bear feeling i was going to pass out so had to call it a day. I could not believe my luck after banking 11 fish in such a short space of time at this time of year, with the possibilities of carrying on the action and i had to cut it short, such bad luck! I enjoyed the flurry of fish i did manage though so it was still worth the unexpected opportunity to fish.

I fished one of my new and improved flash flies, i love this fly and i had a few suggestions from my mate Martin from MScustomFlies on how to improve it further. One thing it was missing was a wider more natural profile, this was lost as i like to nip my eyes on hard with epoxy to make them bomb proof but in doing so i flattened the profile. Marts suggestions improved this however and i even incorporated a rattle.

Adapting for changing conditions

Ive been out a few times just recently so thought I'd save it till i had a bit more to talk about before blogging.
Every year our fishing is dictated by the changing conditions and it seems to get worse each year with more colour in our waters. I wanted to try and build a bit of confidence for fishing in colour because usually your heart sinks when you get on the bank and faced with horrible colour. I've fished in the past allot in colour with mixed results but usually its very tough fishing. If you think about it, it shouldn't rule out much chance of catching because pike still feed in pitch black. Obviously the quality of sport is greatly reduced because your lacking the visual side of things but its not the end of a session.

So I've not had chance to go out exploring too much due to time limitations so have had to stick with venues that are probably the worse for colour than allot of other options. Thats good for trying things out but rubbish when you want to get on better venues with better chances of catching. If that's all that is accessible though its perfect fodder for getting to grips with getting better results in those worst of conditions.

I had the usual things in mind which was to fish slower, closer to the bottom, black or really flashy lures, lures with vibration, weedless lures for fishing along the bottom etc..

Results came but it was bloody hard work, often covered in mud, freezing cold and nearly blown off your feet..

I was starting to get a bit fed up as it just felt like i was putting allot of effort in with not allot of reward, and it was frustrating not being able to fish where i would have liked. I was catching the odd fish here and there, which wasn't bad given the conditions, but i wanted some better sport.

I tried bouncing lures along the bottom with weedless crays, the trouble with that is i didn't have the right weight weedless hooks that i needed to fish effectively, plus I'd prefer a much bigger lure to give a bigger more visible target. I'm thinking of making my own big weedless softplastics to try this theory out.

I caught a couple on spinnerbaits which makes sense, and i caught a few on my shads which were not the best lure for the job really, i caught on a black one though on a last cast in very cloudy water after going through many other lure types/colours which was satisfying. 

I then started to think about it a bit more, and realised there was one method i had been missing, and that was fly. In theory i can imagine fly has the potential to totally obliterate lures. The trouble with allot of lure types is that they sink so you have to keep working them to prevent them hitting bottom or snagging etc, this means often you will be working lures at a varying speed. The trouble with that is that at this time of year pike are hard on the bottom, more often than not i would think they will not be prepared to tear off and chase after something if its moving too fast. Also with the heavy colour if you work too fast your not giving the fish a chance to see, sense or catch up with your lure.

So what does fly offer? well you can fish them much slower often even pausing them and just letting them suspend, you can just imagine a pike sat on the bottom with a fly slowly undulating over its head, i bet it would be hard to resist such an easy meal!

Giving it more thought, my theories also fitted in with a few lads i know that have been catching recently, firstly a mate is catching quite consistently on fly, but a few lads have also been catching on squirrely burts. The thing about burts that got me thinking is that they enable you to pause giving the fish more chance, add to that the enticing nature of the grub tail fluttering away, it kind of matches the appeal of what a fly would offer.

I have plans to make my own pull baits similar to burts but not got round to it yet, so i thought I'd get out and give the fly theory a go.

I can't really conclude anything from my session on the fly because the conditions were pretty bad, obviously it was bad conditions i was trying to get to grips with but these conditions were the worst id fished recently so wouldn't be fare to compare these results to previous sessions where the conditions were bad enough but not as bad. 

I chose a same venue despite not doing very well on it previously, this was on purpose, i wanted something to compare. Despite the degraded conditions and not expecting to do very well anyway, i still had two fish on which was quite surprising! A great result but still early days to say whether or not the fly made the difference or not.

 And lastly, i often get photos which i don't use mainly for one reason or another there crap, but i was bored so played around with a few recent crappy photos and came up with some nice images, a bit like graphic art style.

Steady Morning

Today i was up early again and heading for a river spot, Ive still got pike on the brain at the minute and have really ignored the autumn perch fishing this year which is a shame. You can't help what your enjoying though and sticking with what you really want to do, besides its not as if i don't catch enough big perch so I'm not really missing that much.

I'm also really enjoying my fly tying and have been tying and catching mainly on my blended flash flies. I just love the look of them and the pike don't seem to mind either.

The morning started off great with two fish in two casts and they were really good takes, i was kind of up a highish bank looking down and saw the pike following the fly into the shallow margin as if it was herding it there. Then just as the fly got with in a foot of the margin the pike surged inhaled the fly and turned at speed, i love takes like that. I ended up with 8 pike with the scabby looking fish below being the best of the session. It felt like id been fishing for ages despite probably only getting water side at about 8:00am but when i checked the time after my stomach started rumbling it was only 12:00. I thought I'd head back to the car and fill my face. I don't usually take a break from fishing i just fish till i drop, the only time id really eat is when heading back to the car to change spots etc. It was nice to just take time out to sit and have a bite to eat and a rest, in fact i was so content with how the morning had gone i didn't feel like i needed to fish on so scrapped my ideas for venue two and just headed home. Its quite a hard slog fishing day after day all week and really its often not as enjoyable as you'd think, i do prefer when you haven't fished for a day or two and you have the desire to get out.

Rifle Pike

The start of my week off work saw me out with my mate Mart, hes mad keen on fly fishing so it was great to get out with someone that shared the interest. We don't often get out together as Mart works night so fishing time is very limited and doesn't match when I'm free. We decided on a new stretch of water, when I'm off work and have more time to fish i like to use the opportunity to fish places i can't when I'm only able to grab a few hours. Things started off slow but eventually Mart got into a fish, I was pleased at this as Mart has recently moved and doesn't have the local pike fishing he used to have. The pike only just stretched out a little longer than the fly he was using but a fish is a fish! I missed a couple of takes before mart was in again and this time a better fish. I wanted to try mixing the photos up a bit as lots of photos all looking the same can get a bit boring, so here's a standard pike photo and one done in a 'rifle' pose, super condition fish.

 

We walked quite a bit of water with no action other than a follow from a big perch to Mart and a follow of a good pike for me, eventually i hooked up and was glad to get of the mark with a rifle... erm.. i mean pike.

We caught a few more smaller pike and Mart nearly tempted more decent perch but that was it, definitely more hard work than reward, i think that's the longest Ive fly casted for and I'm bloody knackered. Was great to see Mart though and chat about fluff and fancy hooks.

Onto day two of my week off, not sure what my plan is yet but I'm on my own for this one and cannot make my mind up where to go, watch this space...

Some for the moaners...

Apparently someone has been moaning that I'm catching too many fish, I don't really know the details, and I'm not really that bothered but its good to know my blog gets read at least. I hate that side of fishing, all the moaning and bitching behind peoples backs borne purely out of jealousy. I suppose i must be doing well if Ive sparked off some jealousy, not a bad problem to have i suppose lol.
Those moaning probably come across multiple postcode regions to fish my local waters and then bitch about what I'm doing on them, classy eh! Wouldn't surprise me if there also posting the fish its taken them years to catch on the biggest social media platform on the world bar none, then moan about a few photos i post on a small probably hardly even read much personal blog, oh the irony. I'm guessing its either someone local that is jealous I'm doing well cos there doing shit, or someone coming from further away trying to lay claim to waters they don't own jealous cos there shit, either way, your shit!

If your reading, massage your green eyes on some more fish, and check in now and again (probably to spy on what I'm doing if truth be known) as there will be allot more to come so get over it and try harder...

Flash, bang and wallop..

This week Ive been tying some flash flies, the first one pictured below was tied with a whole mix of different flash materials to give it a really textured look, i loved this fly and was keen to get out and try it.

It did the business and i banked an early fish before loosing another off and then missing a take. I was happy with that though as the weather on that day was horrendous, chucking it down with strong gales. I didn't was glad i was rewarded for going out in such conditions.

The following day i went back to the vice and tied a few more but instead of just chucking the materials together i tried to create a different blend for the belly, mid body and the back to create a subtle roach kind of look. I love this fly and it looks great in the water. Definitely a favourite of my flies just recently.

I popped out today to try the fly but was disappointed with the coloured conditions. I suppose at least the flash would cut through it a bit. It was a bit of a struggle compared to other sessions recently but i managed a nice fish in the end to get my fix!

First taste of Winter...

What the flippin heck happened Sunday night then? It went from summer to winter overnight! we didn't even get an autumn. I had to check the date and everything as it was such a sudden change, not just the weather either, even the light seemed different.

I was driving about at work Monday in the horrible wind and rain and all i wanted to do was go fishing, I have a weird thing about putting myself through the worse conditions just so i get that nice feeling when you get home, dry and sat warm with a nice hot drink thinking about what you caught. Then it all seems worthwhile. Nothing stops me fishing and I'll purposefully go in horrible weather just to prove to myself that I'm dedicated, its fishing after all and nothing gets in the way of that!

I did however have to change my plans, i really wanted to get out and try some recent tube flies i had tied but knew it was going to be hard going with the blustery weather, so chucked my light baitcasting set up in the car at the last minute as a back up plan. I quite enjoyed it actually as a change from what Ive been doing recently and its always nice to get a rod out you've not used for abit.

I had a bit of fun with some jacks and decent perch, no trophy fish but they are all enjoyed, Ive never been a big fish hunter. I don't concern myself with all that, i just like to fish and catch and what comes along is a bonus. I'm not even a fan of big lures, not bothered about going big to catch big, it might increase your chances but personally i get no enjoyment from that, for me its all about the method. I'm not going to knock those that like to fish big, that's what they enjoy so that's right for them, i don't believe in knocking anything anyone else does, each there own really. I used to dislike the idea of drop shot when the craze took off thinking it wasn't for me but its another method and i like to try these things out for myself before condemning them. Its not something I'd do all the time but it definitely has its time and place, i proved that to myself this winter when people around me where struggling and I was giving it a go and pleasantly surprised to be catching in excess of 50 fish in the grip of winter!

I got a bit of a surprise when I'd gone out to target perch on the fly the following day, thinking id hooked the mother of all perch i suddenly realised the fight was not perch like at all, i love surprise catches especially when there trout from canals!

Today i just couldn't resit getting out again, anyone would think i was addicted! My kids had after school clubs which gave me an extra 15mins so thought I'd use that to drive abit further away. 

I was back on the fly for pike with an outside chance of a big perch, i chose to fish a 4" fly so if i did find a big perch it would likely have a go. When i got my first take it was clearly not a perch as the line shot out my hand, it was a nice double and just what i had hoped for, i was looking forward to getting this on the bank and getting a nice photo, so i set the camera up ready while still playing the fish. I then did something daft which left me standing there feeling like a right Rodney! Every time the fish came close it would see me and fly off at a rate of knots, i kept getting it closer so thought as soon as it was close enough I'd just slip the net in front of it so if it bolted, it would bolt into the net. Well that's just what i did, with a big smile on my face i went to lift the net up and it was light as a feather. What had happened was id actually missed, but the fish had brushed against the net which unhooked the fly without even feeling anything, What a bloody wazzack! 

Spitting feather for the next half hour i was eventually into another fish which also looked a nice fish but smaller than the first but at least it was a bonus after that first mistake. I took my time with this one learning my lesson for rushing the first.

Now thinking i was going to go all out for the pike i stepped up my fly size slightly to improve its visibility, the fly i chose has a little story behind it. On Friday i had been using it and had a decent short session but as i was packing up i must have dropped it, knowing this, i went back Monday thinking someone would surely have been fishing on the weekend and picked it up. They hadn't and i found it again!

After a few casts i saw a huge perch come for it but turned away as it saw me, i bobbed down and recast quickly and it came again, i ran out of water so started walking along the margin and the perch was following but not taking, flippin typical! I thought the best option was to quickly change for something smaller and hope it came back again, sadly it didn't so back went on the bigger fly.

Now getting closer to having to leave i got once last bite of the cherry when another decent fish took, thankfully this one was the best of the session and a good one at that! I've caught a few doubles recently on fly and not weighed any of them as i mentioned earlier, its not something that concerns me greatly, having said that again, I'm not actually sure now what my fly caught PB is, would be nice to know but I'm not going to lose sleep over it when i have a nice photo of a cracking fish as my memory.

Recent ties

Thought I would stick up a few more recent flies, I've also been really wanting to give tube flies a go. I like the idea of them being versatile in that you can change the hooks if they get damaged, another thing that appeals to me also is the fact that you can position hooks further back in the fly for bites where the fish are just nipping. The best example of how this is done is by Nicklaus Bauer, his tube flies and rigs look brilliant and i love the look and style of his tube flies.
I was bored yesterday so thought I'd knock up a device for my vice to hold a tube and try and tie a Bauer inspired tube fly. As previously mentioned I'm still building up my collection of materials so i don't have everything to do a good job of these but I'm pleased with what i have done. The heads are a little on the small size really this being down to the lack of materials for that job. I don't usually fish this big (12"+) as the waters i fish don't hold a decent number of bigger fish so i don't feel i need to fish big. I'll be interested to see what results i get with them though, whether or not i still catch the same amount of smaller fish, if the hook ups are good and if the material wraps round the hooks at all.

I got out the other day too for a few hours and caught on the bait fish flies pictured below, I'm building a serious addiction for PFF now!