My best days fishing by a long mile....

Earlier in the year I took a fellow lure angler John to a spot i had been fishing and done well for trout there, he ended up getting his PB river brown trout on lure. We then talked about getting together on a spot he knew of that sometimes throws up big fish, and until recently we had never got it sorted.

Through last week, John was sounding more and more confident that he was going to put me onto a nice fish, but i know in the past when you start to think about it and get excited, it never usually happens. So i tried to not think about it and just treat it as a normal outing where i would hopefully catch a fish or two.

We arrived at our first swim on the river and John sounded like he knew the place well, telling me about the depths and where I'd probably get a fish, he didn't even start fishing at first and just told me to cast into this certain spot. I think i had about 5 casts and a change from a jerkbait to a savage gear 4play got some attention when a boil came on the surface met by a solid take. Not knowing i had my drag set pretty loose, I said "don't think its anything special" then it came into view and i was completely wrong! 20lb dead and my second ever 20 on a lure within 5 casts, top guiding from John!!

We cast about the same area for abit chatting but nothing else was moving so went up river to the next swim, I was chuffed to bits with the 20 so thought I'd play around with a few different lures and clipped on one of my jerks, it was in fact the very last one that I'd kept for myself and never even fished with it.
First cast downstream and after a couple of handle turns everything went solid, the fish headed towards me and again at first it just felt average. Then it moved some water before tearing off.

 

When it came into view again, we could see it was bloody huge! looking down on a pike from above while it is flaring its gills and shaking its head in what seems like slow motion, its unbelievable how wide there heads are. John told me they had big heads on this river due to the food diet of big bream, and they certainly did have big heads. I was willing the lure not to come out and eventually it was in the net, John lifted the net and the noises he was making got me excited, then i looked into the net and could see it was quite abit bigger than my 20 and fat with it too (shakey knees time). My new PB of 24lb caught and christened on one of my foiled jerks and also caught on the rod i had just built, can fishing get any better?

 

A stunning fish in top notch condition.

I was starting to get that awful feeling when your doing well and your fishing partner isn't, its like you don't want to catch another until they've had some fortune. To be fair, John was still spending more time guiding me than fishing. next fish however fell to John, and saw him off the mark with a nice clean fish.

What happened next was the only real spoiler of the day, John got another fish on which took right under his fish after following in and John gave the lure a jerk and it took it. It bolted off and was giving a really good scrap when it must have swam under a branch, you could hear the line squeaking and see the fish right in front of us yet Johns line was pointing the opposite direction wrapped around the branch, it looked as though it was raising up in the water and i thought there might have been a chance to net it, sadly it gave one last kick and the line gave way, worst of it was it was easy another 20 and we'll never know just how big. Really a gut wrenching moment.

We stayed in the area and i missed another decent fish that took the jerk and spat it out straight away before John had another big fish, possible 20 come for his lure but not fully commit, it then sat in the margins nosing our lures but not taking before swimming off.

I cast back upstream close to the far bank and just as i start to turn the handle another fish is on... bloody hell this is crazy! In the net and weighted, 18lb i was having a brilliant day!

We thought about moving on from this area and coming back for a possible chance of getting the fish that followed and maybe even the fish that snapped John off.

So downstream we headed, the action continued for a short while with smaller pike, a couple each i think we had with John having the better one.

The action then dried up for quite abit of river despite it looking fantastic and very pikey in places, after a few hours had passed we thought it a good time to head back for the fish we had stirred earlier.

Within a few casts back at the productive area i was in yet again on my foil jerk which i had put back on after fishing downstream with a variety of different lures, I knew they liked it so clipped it back on. The fish came into view and my first thoughts were 'No, surely it can't be...' It was! another 20 and 21lb exactly. I just could not believe how well my day was going and I was really enjoying it after getting abit fed up through the week at not being able to get out as much as I'd have liked over the last month.

Love this next photo with the open mouth 

Back she goes....

 

John finished off with his best of the day that confused it when it came flying in after his lure with another following it, i don't think he realised until the first fish turned away and the second one took the lure!

We fished abit more upstream and had another mid double have a go a few times but not manage to get it.

Im still not sure its sunk in what a brilliant day ive had and its all thanks to John with his guiding and sharing his excellent river spot with me.

Jerkbaits for light baitcasting.

I finally got round to ordering my Major Craft Volkey light Baitcaster the other day so I'm looking forward to that coming (and the weather improving hopefully!) so I can give my new lures a go.
Ive been busy making tiny jerkbaits for use with the outfit and finally got round to finishing my first batch. As previously mentioned this batch was more about trying it out and getting to know the materials and process of making a much smaller scaled jerkbait. I finished them all in a basic pattern so that I could compare the slightly different things I tried with each one, some I'd like to explore more and some probably not.

These are made from Limewood, they weigh between 12-13g with hooks and rings included and they measure 2.75" long. When I get a minute and some 'wet' water I will try and take a video of there action.

Can't wait to chuck them on my new rod at jacks, perch and chub.

Four sessions in

On Saturday I had my first session of the year in pursuit of pike. With my local venues still slowly sorting themselves out I've not had much in the way of realistic chances of having a good session on the pike, so have spent the last three times out after the perch.

The rivers have been in really good nick over the last week, and i have to say i panicked abit on Thursday when it decided to rain, i thought my chances of getting on a river would follow in the same vain as last year, colouring up and flooding just as i was due to fish them. Luckily the rivers where still in good condition come the weekend, well at least the big rivers were.

I started off on a small local river that i have waiting to get on for some time now, it is fed from drainage off the fields so it suffers for a long time after good downpours, and last year was pretty much a downpour! I was hoping the river had cleared by now like the bigger rivers had but i got there to find it hadn't. Not to be put off and to make the most of the new year, I thought I'd try my luck before moving on. The flow was quite steady which made working lures in shallowish water quite difficult and i couldn't work the lures where i wanted them for long enough, I tried in vain but couldn't find any fish.

So I was now heading for my second spot, a much bigger river. On arrival I was pleased to see it clear and a good level so i set about chucking big lures about, knowing that there was monsters about! I fished around for over an hour with nothing to show before I phoned to arrange a meet up with Paul from River Piker. I headed back towards the car so that I was easy to find when Paul arrived, it came close to the time we had planned to meet and I'd just switched onto a savagear 4play rainbow trout liplure. I was working it slowly as it swung back into the side of the river when i was met with a solid take, I did the usual look up at the rod tip to see signs of a fish on but nothing was showing. I was basically winching in what I presumed was a log or a fertiliser sack as i was getting no feedback what so ever, when to my surprised up pops a pikes head! It gave a couple of really pathetic head shakes before i slipped the net under her. Oh yeah...that's right.... NOW you decided to wake up! It was more of a wrestle than anything as it thrashed about in the net. I'm glad the bank was high and I couldn't chin this fish as the hooks where not in the best place and I dare say if it had kicked off like it did with my hand being in close proximity to those hooks, I could have been in trouble!

A quick photo of my fish pike of the year and back she went, nothing special, just a fat lazy pig of a pike and one to remember being my first of 2013

 

A couple of minutes later and Paul turned up so we headed off up the river in the other direction to see what we could find. There was less features this way and not allot to give away any locations of pike or prey so it was quite hard going and probably like trying to hit a needle in a haystack so we headed back to the car area to try again there. Not long after getting back I had realised i had left my net a long way back up the river so we had to drive round to get it back! This more or less made us decide to call it a day on this bit of river so Paul headed back to one of his local spots for a last hours fishing and i headed home towards a canal for a few chucks.

 

I still had the 4play clipped on so set about chucking that into likely looking areas of the canal, nothing was doing here either and it was quite dimly lit now so i thought I'd switch to one of my very brightly coloured Tailbaits.

 

 

This change of lure did the trick as i got a good solid hit that didn't connect and i looked over to see a big swirl where my lure was, this was encouraging so i continued casting and working the tailbait. Not long after I got another good hit and a pike was on, despite it being a smaller fish than the river fish it certainly had more energy and fought well for its size, it took the jerkbait right in which you don't see very often with jerkbaits, especially with it not being a good sized fish.

 

 

That was pretty much the end of the action for the day, I went home feeling satisfied despite fishing for a long time and only banking two fish, at this time of year its just nice not to blank. I'm doing OK at the minute with 4 sessions in and not yet having a blank!



 

Regaining Confidence

Just recently the fishing has been abit poor with less than good conditions, you start to lose confidence at this time of year as the blanks start to look more likely and often than not its not very nice being out in the elements. Sometimes you can go out and have a blinding session and other times it seems devoid of fish, this is what you have to put up with in winter.

Today I visited a little river tributary where I go to get away from it all, being in the middle of no-where its not often you see anyone else. I pulled up to find it starting to flow back into the main river and quite heavily coloured, again my confidence wained as i was in need of a half decent session.

I had nothing better to do so thought I'd give it a bash, and within 3 casts I was into a nice stocky jack. great fun and it actually took some line on the jerkbait outfit. I was using an old jerkbait I made a few years ago that has always done well in coloured water due to the combination of flash and black, maybe I should make some more as within a short while I was into another jack.

 

 

 

I moved away from the area I started and walked a couple of miles to another spot that usually produces, but by now the river had started to flow quite strong as it drained off into the main river. I spent abit of time fishing then headed back casting along the margins where the fish might have gone to get out of the flow. I had another few jacks one of which was a lovely little jack with a really nice colouring.

 

 

 

I saw many tracks in the soft mud at the edge of the bank, and thought the above tracks looked like otter, there is also a fox print in there too if you can spot it!

 

So all in all I really enjoyed my couple of hours and went away happy with getting 5 fish in the very coloured and difficult water, its funny how your confidence can soon be regained after just one good session.