First Czech nymping session of the cold season

Things are slowly downhill now for winter and the temperatures are all ready starting to plummet, for me this usually signals the time when i start to think about grayling sessions with ice and snow on the ground and bloody cold legs!
Although not quite that extreme yet it was still cold overnight and was a good time to get out and have a go Czech Nymping for the first time since last winter. I met up with my mate Steve and between us we must have been pushing 40 fish, with Steve taking the higher majority, Most were of a good reasonable size and your soon reminded of how hard these fish fight for there size, even when you eventually get them in your hand there still fighting, they remind me of eels the way the squirm.

It was nice to be out in the river catching and trying a few flies out. Look forward to many more sessions into the colder seasons.

A string of perch save the day

Making the most of good fishing while it is good makes sense really so the other day I went in search of some big perch again. I find this the best time to target perch as they feed up for winter.
I was disappointed once again when i got on the bank to find it really coloured, this time much worse than I've seen it for some time, probably less than 6". This clarity doesn't really bode well at 16 odd feet down so I'd have to hope the fish were switched onto there other senses.
Things were slow as expected and i only managed to find 3 small perch in a couple of hours, but this was about to change. I must have landed on a shoal of bigger fish as i had 3 good sized perch in short succession. The best was probably close to 3lb so this made up for a few hours of struggling.

 

Another crazy pike session.

I was out today again fishing with small kopyto's hoping for a fish or two, things were very slow and allot of water was fished with not allot of activity. i dropped a few fish but really nothing was showing, not even the pockets of small perch.
With an ever increasing back pain from all the walking with a rucksack on, It was decided to head back. Finally a fish was on and a lovely conditioned pike was landed, thinking back to my session the other day, I cast back out to the same spot. Low and behold another fish was on and a better pike was on the bank, another cast and another pike! That was 3 pike in 3 casts to the same spot in the same swim. The 4th cast didn't produce but the 6th or 7th did and yet another fine pike was on the bank.
That was to be all the action I would see for the day, a crazy spell of pike from one swim and the rest of the day with allot of nothingness.

I went home half pleased with the days events but was pleased when i looked back at the photos and saw what really well conditioned and clean pike they were.

New PB pike on a crazy day

I was out the other day in hope of some good perch with my mate Paul, we fished some area with not allot showing and kept moving up the canal in search of more features to fish.
Eventually we came to an area that was producing some fish and had abit of fun with some small perch before Paul finally locked onto a bigger one, it gave him a great run around on the light tackle and when finally netted and weighed it went 3lb 2oz

 

After more smaller perch we headed abit further up and I was into a better fish at last, thinking I was into the mother of all perch I took it steady and for once I was actually disappointed to have caught a pike as I'd hoped it was a large perch, never mind it was a lovely feisty jack.

 

We some more time in this area and things started to get a little crazy, we were getting takes from pike left right and centre in only a small area and all of them where like peas in a pod. I think in a very short space of time I had taken 4 and Paul had taken 3 and we had lost a few off too. It was crazy fishing not only because of the thick and fast action but mainly due to the fact that we were targeting perch and had opted for our lightest set-ups having a maximum rating of only 3grams, very soft and whippy actioned they were certainly put through there paces with these pike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was soon time for Paul to go and I had decided to fish on, we had only took the one big net and I was left with just my trout pan net for the perch so i had to stick to areas that i didn't think I'd have the risk of hooking into a pike, the banks were not easily accessible to get to the waters edge to chin a pike so I'd struggle in most places to land one without the net.

I fished on picking up a few more perch before a boat came through so decided to call it a day and walk back, half way back i came to a clearing where the bank was clear with good access to the water and there was a bench behind me, I don't know why but i suddenly thought 'I can use that bench if i get something worthy of a photo' So i thought I'd have a quick and what would probably have been my last cast. It looked a really perchy swim and i had a good feeling about it, half way across the canal and all went solid, Christ another pike i thought! It felt a better fish but started to get closer to me, in fact it was swimming right at me. Holy cr*p!! it swam right in front of me, I saw it and it saw me! It bolted for the middle of the canal, i let out a little shriek as it was huge.
realising i didn't have a net I decided the best thing to do was jump in, so i did, the water filled my wellies but I didn't mind i was in for a mega battle, remember I still have the 3gram rod...
At one point i had to tighten my drag up abit as the fish had nearly emptied my little symetere 500's spool. An epic battle, finally I got the fish in close and went in for the chin, typically i had to chin it left handed (I'm really cack handed on my left side) my hand disappeared into its gill! safely on the bank i rushed to take the photos so abit disappointed with them as the tail was curled around and it was dimly lit and raining. Not the best but i got a snap and didn't want to mess about much. I stripped off quickly and chucked my hoodie in the canal and made a make shift sling out of it, which actually worked really well...

The result was my first 20, with my scales being in 4oz increments i just called it 21lb dead as it was there abouts.

 

Absolutely chuffed to bits but to be honest still shaken up about the experience! 3gram rod! What a rod i have to say!

i jumped back in the canal with the fish and spent a good amount of time with it before letting it go, and when it did go it had one more moment of making me sh*t myself, I had it by the tail and was reviving it and thought I'd slip me hand under its chin to support it more as my back was aching leaning over, as i put my hand under it bolted off at an almighty pace kicking up water everywhere, I fell backwards, luckily onto the edge of the bank!

shame I didn't bag a big perch but after the days events i don't really care!



Quest for a lure caught Ruffe

Never being one to turn down a challenge or shy away from the most difficult areas of fishing to catch a fish, I was inspired the other day to seek out a new challenge.

I was lure fishing for perch on a favourite canal when along floated a fish on the surface, looks like a perch? I thought nothing more of it then 10 minutes later this same fish came floating past again in the opposite direction, this got my attention and after having a closer look I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a Ruffe. Now i can only vaguely remember catching a few of these in my youth so just seeing one dead or alive was a nice sight. It had only just died by the look of it and still held an amazing array of colours, most of which don't show well in the photo below.

 

 

Obviously my next thought was going to be "I'd like to catch one of these......... on a lure!"



Nothing wrong with a challenge but with the numbers of these fish diminishing I'd imagine it to be a very difficult challenge indeed.
My first port of call would be to ask any bait anglers I see in the area to see how many if any get caught on bait, this will give me an idea of numbers and rarity in that area.
The next thing I would do is go fish some areas with worms and hopefully catch one or two, if this is the case I'll have abit of an idea of areas they frequent. I could then target these areas with small artificial works jigged on the bottom slowly.

I would never assume it to be that easy, but there is always a chance and its exciting to try something new, for now thought the biggest challenge would be breaking away from the big perch hunting as its the best time of year for it and I'd like to get a few 3lbers before the cold sets in.

Welcome to my Perch Blog!

Its seems all I'm posting about at the minute is Perch! Throughout the year i go through lots of phases of fishing certain venues or techniques, or targeting specific species. You have to make the most of what you can find so when conditions etc are right its always best to go with an approach that will provide the best action for the time.
In summer I do allot of pike fishing with surface lures, in winter I do allot of grayling fishing on the fly, in spring I target the pre spawn pike with jerkbaits and swimbaits, my year is always revolving, at present its the best time to get good results with big perch so that's what I'm concentrating on.

Today I was abit optimistic about the colour of the water with all the rain we have had and seeing the rivers just about holding there banks, and in some places not! Its amazing to see just how much water has fallen this week! despite the water being very coloured I did ok and caught into double figures most of which were a good size of fish.

The method that worked today was a very slow jig with lots of pauses, its great fun watching the rod tip like a quiver rod and suddenly seeing it rattle away or thud right over as you jig the shad up. I'm beginning to think I've missed out on allot of fish over the year by not thinking about what I'm doing. I've stuck with my usual retrieve style for too long and blamed not catching as many as usual on the fish not being interested. In reality the water has been allot more coloured and more often, so it should have made sense to slow things right down and give the fish longer to find the lure, this is why jigging works very well as they see the lure and react to it allot quicker than when your just retrieving constantly and pulling it away from fish before they have fully locked onto it, which is then lost in the coloured water. The last two times I've spent more time jigging slowly I've caught allot more fish.

Here's a few photos from today including a mussel which took a fancy to my kopyto, or was it the other way round!

 

 

 

 

More success with Perch

Over the last few weeks my focus has been on locating the perch that have been very quiet this year, I've had to do allot of searching in new places and allot of walking to get there but have done ok. I've managed to find some nice ones too along the way, but more importantly i've had some good fun with the smaller fish too, sometimes when your struggling with other methods, venues or fish species its nice to have time out and just bag a load of small perch and enjoy the wealth of attention your lures get as they pass through the shoals of these little hungry chompers!

Allthough I like a nice big perch now and again, i'll never tire of catching and photographing those fin perfect little aggresive ones.

A few from over the last week or so.