Getting the drop shot bug...

I kept thinking it was Christmas eve today as it felt like my last day at work even though it isn't, this lead me to rushing my work and i ended up getting home a half hour earlier than I usually would. So on the way home the first thing that crossed my Yorkshire mans mind was 'mek the most of't opportunity before Christmas and get ya sen aart fishing'

I grabbed my gear and shot off in the car, it would still only leave me with about 2 hours before having to pick the kids up but that would be fine in the cold weather. As i got out the car and walked to where i wanted to fish i felt the cold straight away and with the wind it felt really biting. I thought i was going to struggle as I'd gone for perch. Then 'drop shotting' crossed my mind after a few discussions just recently and convincing myself that with such cold temperatures the method would work better than just jigging giving the fish more time to move to the bait.
I scratched around in my waistcoat for suitable bits to make a rig, it wasn't perfect but i had enough bits to get me going, i had fluro (no pike water) A reasonable sized hook, a bullet weight and a few lunker city fin's lures. I'd forgotten how to do the knot that enables the hook to sit horizontal off the line so had to kind of bodge a knot which left the hook sitting 'sort of' horizontal. I then just simply tied the bullet weight onto the bottom of the line about a foot from the hook as i wanted to fish close to the bottom.
It wasn't long before i started getting a few knocks and managed to hit one eventually which was a small perch, it felt really small as i was winding in from a deep spot and i kind of hoped it was a ruffe that i know are here  :roll:  i think to really have a chance at one of those i need to scale down much more.
anyway the fishing went from good to great as i started to get more interest and i was really getting into the method, in the past i was unsure whether i would have the patience for it but with this much interest and the excitement of watching the tip rattle or even thump round kept me busy. I was getting some really stunning perch with really bold black bars, not sure if the cold weather contributes to that but there not usually like that here.

I caught this perch that had an interesting mark on it, nothing that hasn't been seen before but thought it looked like a peacock bass 'false eye' so took a quick snap

I must have had about 20 fish and also picked up a a few better fish with one pushing if not 2lb, its a funny year as the perch fishing is still quite reasonable oop north when they usually disappear and can be hard to find, the pike fishing has also been rubbish!

I've now got the bug  :D  and want to do it abit more properly, i also have the excuse to build myself a dedicated rod now. I was using my 5'6" st croix rod that i had recently built and despite not being the best for the job it has a really sensitive tip so it was easy to fish with and did the job quite reasonably.