February update

Nothing has been happening for me recently fishing wise, I've had a few long tough days with nothing to show for my efforts. Ive had plenty of follows but the fish were just not up for feeding, I think its to do with getting into spawning mode.

I managed to end a run of blanks with a low double on Saturday after yet another long gruelling day on a river with plenty of big fish in, again big fish were seen following but just not taking the lures. I was fishing with one of my fishing buddies Paul, he got a nice double half way through the day but I had to wait right till the end for my reward.

 

I was quite tired after the long day fishing and lugging round a heavy bag all day so relaxed on the computer for abit before kicking out on the sofa, I was playing around with a photo trying to make it look interesting by cutting all colour out except that of the fish. Just wanted to see what it looked like trying to put more focus on the fish.

 

 

I've been doing more lure building this month and have been concentrating on ultralights again. I need more deep diving lures and wanted to build myself some for trolling in the warmer months. While i was at it I couldn't resist doing some shallow running lures too, perfect for the canals and shallow venues I fish.

 

 

 

I actually find it a great therapy, i can get abit stressed out at times with my busy life and the fact that i can lay back on the sofa and build these lures in such comfort is only a blessing.
Ive been playing with lots of things lately that Ive still not finished, what got me going again with the ultralights was the need in my collection for deep diving cranks for trolling. I also wanted these to have rattles so Ive been been working on that and have something that works really well at such a small scale. The bigger lures of the ones below are the ones for trolling with rattles, Ive not tested them in very deep water yet as Ive not had the chance. Ive also a pile of jointed deep diving cranks but these are still being worked on. Where ever i can fill a gap in my lure collection without having to buy anything is what I am aiming for, eventual diy self sufficiency! I like to think of it in the same light as fly fishing, making your own imitations and matching the hatch etc, although I'm not sure when i last saw a fluro orange headed minnow swimming down the river...

 

 

Today I was hopeful of the canal being much clearer so i chucked some gear in the work van so i could stop off after work. Sadly the canal was still very much coloured, although it is dropping out but very slowly. The main thing is the temperature, with it being so cold the pike will be hard on the bottom so any coloured water above them will make it more difficult to tempt them off the bottom. I thought i might be able to stir a few fish with spinner baits and my new ultralight lures with rattles but after fishing for a few hours it was time to go home. I switched to a savagear 13cm soft 4play for a few chucks on my way back and luckily managed to save a blank with a jack that really wanted the 4play!

 

I was hopeful of getting on a couple of small rivers Ive not fished at all for a few months due to the weather, but after seeing one of them today I think they wont clear in time with the river season coming to a close soon. I will give them a try but I expect it to be hard going. A shame really as i did really well on them early last year before they closed, just goes to show how each year can be so different to the last. I suppose that's what makes it interesting and after all the horrible conditions we have had for months we will really come to appreciate it when everything falls back into place.

 

 

 



Snowy determination

I've been keeping my eye on a local canal that has been coloured now for months, and it was finally showing signs of dropping its colour. I had passed over it at the end of last week and noticed it was a green tinge that looked like it had some visibility. This made me determined to give it a go after work for a few hours before the next onslaught of bad weather came in and probably would colour it up again. Throughout the morning while I was working it was getting heavier with snow but I was still adamant i was going to get an hour in at least.

When I arrived on the bank I could see that there was a good foot and a half visibility so i fancied a fish. I set off casting around with a black and silver spinnerbait, nothing was showing at all. The snow was beginning to look like it was setting in so i thought i'd fish my way back as id not even gone too far with the canal also being frozen over in most places. Not long after turning round I had a good solid take and a lovely fight ensued from an obliging jack, this was the first pike on my Major Craft Volkey which was nice. A nice light colouration and a fatty!

A quick photo and back the fish went, i was happy with that considering and called it a day while i was winning!

 

Chilly chub

I really wanted to get today for a few hours as i had allot coming up and the kids are off school next week so knew I wouldn't get out much. Typically i over slept for work and had to chase my tail all day! Usually I wouldn't have bothered going with the little time i had left before the school run, but something kept telling me to go and enjoy it even if just for an hour.
On arrival at the canal I was surprised to see it very clear, usually it is coloured most of the time, could this be a bumper day with the extra clarity? My walk to the first fishing area said no as my hands were already suffering, it was absolutely freezing. I knew this would put the perch off to some degree but still fancied some fish.

casting round for awhile nothing was taking an interest to the ever faithful Kopyto. I decided to move on abit and the move proved a good one as i found a small pocket of perch between 1/2lb and a 1lb. I managed to get about 5 and had quite a few missed takes, they were being very strange hitting the kopyto really hard and then letting go. The takes soon dried up and i made another short move.
This too proved to be a good idea as not long casting about a better fish was on, I could see in the clear water flashes of silver and eventually a nice chub came to the surface, it was a really silvery chub and my first of the year.

I was struggling with the camera by now as my hands were so numb i couldn't hold the camera properly and take the photo. Happy with that result I decided to make a retreat back to the car and get the heaters on!

Good results that aren't your own.

I'd been looking forward to getting out all week and on Saturday I had arranged to go fish a river with one of my fishing buddies Paul. The last few times he had fished the river he'd caught a good bag of pike and most quite size able, so obviously I was getting expectant of a good day. It had rained early on in the week and the rivers were up, so all last week I'd been checking the levels and towards the end of the week they were dropping nicely.

On arrival at the river we were disappointed to find the river high and flowing quite strong despite being clear. Normally I wouldn't mind extra depth if you have good clarity but in this case the downside was the strength of the flow. The lures would swing back round too fast to control them really and it was doubtful that many pike would come up into this flow. Our only option was to find areas of slacker water and hope that the pike were there.

We fished on anyway and for most of the day we were only rewarded with a couple of follows and a small jack all to Paul's savagear real eel. I was trying lots of different lures but nothing was getting any interest, Paul then kindly lent me an eel to try. We fished on for another few hours with not even so much as a follow, both feeling pretty knackered from all the walking, carrying gear and casting. We had a little bit of time left so headed back to the area we started at that had produced the follows.

Finally Paul was into a better fish after casting alongside the far bank trees, the pike must have seen it dropping just before it got dragged away in the flow. A good scrap followed as Paul had to fight the current as well as the fish but finally a good fish was netted, a nice mid double.

 

Time was now running out and it was going to be a case of a last minute fish if we were to catch anything else. Strangely this is exactly what happened as Paul was into another fish, this one looked of similar size in the water but the closer it came the bigger it looked, then when it was finally in the net we looked in and thought it was a fair bit bigger and really fat too. As we pondered on the size of it we both came to the conclusion that it could actually have been a twenty, sadly we both realised we had not got a pair of scales between us! why is that the case when you need to weigh a possible PB! Regardless of not knowing the weight we couldn't deny the fact that it was a lovely fish, all clean fins and hardly a mark on it. We also got good photos of it so Paul had the memory of the fish to look back on.

 

I didn't catch myself in the end and did feel a little disappointed but when your mates are catching such magnificent fish you have to pleased for them and that was a really good result to end off a really hard day.