Two days in a row its been sunny, whats going on! I've read somwehere that september is supposed to be nice and warm all month so maybe a chance for the fishing to settle down after on and off rain for most of the year!
I set off with the fly out and after trying a few swims i was finding it abit awkward with all the loose weed about and the tight swims, i'd also spooked a jack pike in just about every swim i'd walked into so could'nt resist going back to the van and switching outfits so i could have a go with the weedless frogs and get some pike off the top hopefully.
It didnt pay off as after about 2 hours i'd not even had a take, the venue i was fishing was usually very good in summer for frog fishing but then again it is usually covered in duck weed for most of the summer which gives the pike confidence to come off the bottom with it being a very shallow and clear venue. This year the duck weed has'nt grown at all due to all the rain and lack of sun.
I was nearing the end of my time and remembered i had left a few boxes of flies in my bag so took the few minutes i had left to try out one of the weighted flies i'd tied which i thought i'd be able to cast on my fixed spool outfit.
The fly was inspired by something i'd seen in a fly magazine, the author of an article had added a tag of red materail to the back of his fly using a few strands from the centre of the fly itself. I thought this was a good idea and assumed that with the cone effect the material was tied in, it would wiggle behind the fly.
I set about tying myself something similiar but opted to also add a fish skull to it so i could fish it deeper.
You can see from the photos above the idea of the added tag, i think if the tag was more flared and maybe more rigid it would wiggle more. I'm sure theres lots of room for experimentation anyway. The first thing i'd probably do is try one without the weighted head, the addition of the head would mean the fly would swim up and down rather than side to side.
Anyway back to the fishing.... I had a few flicks out with it to see what it looked like in the water, it had a nice swimming action up and down and allthough the tail tag didnt wiggle as much as i'd hoped it did have abit of extra movement on its own so did add something to the overall fly.
I get it a long cast to the other side of the canal and worked it over the cabbages before letting it sink down into the boat channel of the canal, i then jigged it along and back up the near margin by lifting the rod tip and working it abit quicker... FISH ON! A fish took it as I was working it back up the margin, would you believe it all that time with the frogs and the first cast with the fly and it produced a fish!
It didnt end there either, the next 5 casts produced another fish and a follow, had i finally found a method for fishing the boat channel when the cabbages were in the margins? Im assuming the fish hide in the boat channel out of sight with the canal being so shallow and clear its one of the best places for them to hide.
They can be so vividly marked across the back they can often look like green mackerel in the water!
I think you're right about them hiding in those cabbages, makes sense to me. Especially the smaller ones who are hiding from the boats and the larger pike.
ReplyDeleteThats what i was thinking, i think the reason you dont catch many of the bigger pike is because they are right down in the channel where you cant always get a lure effectively, ive tried with weighted softbaits before but its a nightmare with all the silkweed. I found the lightness of this fly to be great for just letting it float down and then jig it back up, while at the same time it has a large profile.
ReplyDeleteWish i could stop images rotating back round, that bottom photo is supposed to be portrait but for some reason its showing on its side!
Presumably you've rotated it before uploading to blogger?
ReplyDeleteWhen I first fished the canal the weed wasn't there, and I was using waders to get in to the margin and then you could work the slightly deeper channel in the middle and I had a couple of fish around 8 or 9lb. As soon as the weed started filling the shallow channels I was then struggling to cast up and down the middle channel and then I packed in trying, settling for just having a bash nearer the lock. Your flies seem a good idea, time in their faces!
Yeah i'll see how it goes next time i get a chance.
ReplyDeleteWhen it weeds over i tend to just fish floating weedless frogs, this is the first year in awhile that it has'nt totally weeded over, last year it weeded over with duckweed but it didnt last that long, the year before that it weeded over quite thick and stayed for a good few months, i had some unbelieveable takes that year. the duckweed was so thick the pike must have only seen the shadows above, and to penetrate the matt of duckweed they would have to hit it hard, so much so that they would come clean out of the water! And of course there was no indication of when this was going to happen so it could even be right at your feet as they could'nt see you and you could'nt see them.. proper new pants needed fishing!
I'm not really set up to fish it properly in summer. Spent too much time on similar venues with heavy set up. Looking to get some lighter gear sorted next. I want an UL set up first. I was thinking i'd give it a bit of time through winter though to see what happens.
ReplyDelete