Recce day

As previously mentioned one of my aims this year is to explore new waters. Yesterday I was out fishing with my mate Neil and we decided to check out a few areas knowing that it might not result in the best of fishing but when finding new places to fish you have to accept the rough with the smooth so to speak.

Our first spot was a river and we knew it wasn't in the best nick but we wanted to try this area with dead baits which would have been a better option in the coloured and flooded conditions. We tried a few areas and sussed out some promising looking spots and parking which would all improve our time there next time we wanted to try it. Nothing came of the fishing but we expected that with the conditions. It was not late morning so we set off for our second area.

On arrival at the second area, again the river was up and very coloured but we expected that and set about with the baits again in a slack area that must hold a fish or two. It wasn't very long before my float was bobbing slightly then looking as if it was going to go under, sadly the fish must have dropped the bait as nothing more happened. While this was going on Neil was in the process of baiting up another rod and getting the right depth, he cast out and no sooner had he sat down when his float started bobbing and moving about. He waited til the best moment to strike and a fish was on. We were sat high up on a bank and getting down to net a fish was a bit dicey, i went down with the net and got his fish in but it was a decent double and it didn't all go in with the back end hanging out as it was in the shallows, Neil could not get the right angle from up the bank to direct the fish in anymore and the fish kicked and came out the net. A moment later the hooks came out and the fish was gone. a real shame as it was a nice fish, I'm not sure what we could have done better and it wasn't really any ones fault, but being the nets man i did feel like it was mine.

Nothing else happened for some time so we tried another spot before we made the decision to move areas again and try a canal spot this time that might be a bit clearer and give us a chance with lures too.
It was a recce day so we took a lure rod each and a bait rod so that we could test the water out on different methods. Casting the baits out to the far bank we started to jig about with ultralight set ups to see what might be about. having being sat down all day i thought I'd have a little walk and said to Neil that I was going to try abit of walk trolling as it had produced for me in the past when unexpected and saved the day. No sooner had i finished telling Neil and walking off my rod hooped round and a fish was on! Looked like a small pike but it shook its head and hooks pulled. Surprised that the method worked i set off again, a few more paces and again a fish was on. This time i got it in and we were both surprised at how fat it was, it was like a little barrel, obviously feeding well.

Neil came over and we started to cast around this area more and i think the very first cast from Neil and he was into a fish, they were in great condition and fin perfect probably never been caught before. We started to get that buzz now where a fish is expected on every cast.

Surprise, surprise I was in again! A better fish this time and again a lovely conditioned fish and fat as a pig they must have been gorging on something. Maybe a shoal of bait fish which would have been keeping them packed into this area?

I had another fish soon after which was the smallest of the day, what a mad 10 minutes!

The fish then started to dry up other than another take awhile later that felt like the best of the day, sadly it came off but that's fishing for you. 

A great result in the end but more than that we had some new places to try another day when conditions were better. 

Last day on the boat

Things have been very hit and miss lately and Ive also been very busy with other things so my fishing has kind of been on the back burner which explains why my blog has been quiet. I have been out fishing now and then but the results have been shocking and nothing really to shout about. I have been doing allot of building and rod building though so I'll try and find some time to update my blog with all that stuff too.

So at the weekend I got out with Neil for what would probably be the last day on his boat together this year. I was really keen to get out with him at this time of year as I've only been out in summer when its mainly trolling ultralight lures. In winter things really slow down and its not a case of numbers of fish anymore, but hopefully a few bigger ones.
The plan was to troll big lures and stop whenever we found good spots and chuck some dead baits out. This approach is brilliant because your fishing all the time and giving yourself lots of different chances to catch. while looking for good dead bait spots your trolling baits.

I've never actually done any dead baiting so i was keen to see how that went down, i could imagine the excitement actually sat watching a float and waiting for it to disappear, not knowing if it was a 3lb jack or a thirty pound monster!

So we met up and got the boat in the water pretty early as the sun was just making it light enough to see what was going on. When finally in the river it wasn't actually too long before Neil had a fish trolling which was great as we had a good chance of catching more. We always take a photo of our first fish no matter what the size, its now tradition so it now feels abit like superstition if we don't!

 

We picked up a few fish trolling throughout the day, in fact i think most of our fish came to trolling. I also managed to get my biggest trolled fish so far with this really good conditioned fish, it was proper stocky and look at the size of its fins!

 

We found a good spot to try abit of casting and for the first few casts we both picked up a fish and missed a few takes. That was fish to both trolling and casting, the day was going great and we still hadn't sat it out for abit and chucked baits out yet.

 

We found our spot early in the morning but decided to pass it and come back to it later. that time finally came and i think at that point we was pushing double figures of fish which was a good result in the freezing conditions of winter.

It was a great change of pace anchoring up and chucking the baits out, we had a rod each and cast a bait both to the back and front of the boat, the plan was to sit and wait for 30mins before trying another spot. I soon got itchy feet and decided to throw lures around while the baits were sat doing nothing. It was bound to happen, and i managed to tangle my dead bait with a lure DOH! i reeled it all in and as i was untangling my lure from the line on the dead bait rod, the float started to bob about right at the side of the boat! fantastic..... then from the side of me Neil says his float is going too! I wind down and strike and a fish is on! Neil does the same and its double hook up time. Nothing huge for either of us but great to both catch and at the same time, how strange. That was fish to all three methods now and we were really enjoying the day out in the cold.

 

My first dead bait caught pike

 

We set up the baits and cast them out again, while they were in station we both cast lures off the side of the boat, as there was always a chance and it kept us feeling like we was doing something. Neil was drawing up from over twenty foot of water when a pike flashed at his lure as it hit it right at the side of the boat under the surface. It was a big fish and all hell broke loose, this was a net job and after hearing Neil say it was only just lightly hooked i netted it first chance i could, i looked across at my float as i netted Neils pike and it was sailing under the surface! Then Neil informs me his float is away as well, now were in a pickle, a big fish in the net and two more on the deads. I strike my fish but it comes off pretty much straight away, Neil does the same and his also comes off. Its all abit manic now and we still have a fish in the net that is potentially a really big fish, we still hadn't fully seen it. Now being in a position to deal with it, i lift it out into the boat, on the mat it looks huge and we think somewhere between 16-18lb it was really fat so we thought it would go to the latter end of that guesstimate. Lifting the scales it sails round to 17lb really quickly then just stops dead, minus the net that would make it about 15lb, neither of us think that's right so we try to zero the scales and try again but the scales have now frozen and wont zero or anything. We didn't get a proper weight in the end because we couldn't trust that the scales were working before they locked up. The fish doesn't even look what size we suspected in the photo, but never mind it was a fantastic fish and really topped our day off brilliantly.

 

We trolled our way back to the launch picking up a few more pike to take us to 13 for the day. It was a day of a mixture of things so it felt pretty much action packed and we were both really happy going home with what we had caught on the day, can't ask for much more than that.