At the end of 2015 I decided that what I really needed for 2016 was a blog. So off I went angling, and blanking. In fact, after several trips, I haven't caught a fish at all this year. This makes writing an angling blog rather awkward. Perhaps I should write about the lessons I've learnt from blanking, after all there have been plenty of articles over the years extolling the virtues of this. Sadly I've learnt nothing I didn't already know. Fish just aren’t very very cooperative at times, if ever. Perhaps I should of tried for something other than pike, given how badly my pike season has been so far. I flung all manner of exotically priced bits of plastic at them. Served them up the finest poisson cru. Sadly to no avail. I did however get my self a rather nice new bait-casting outfit for Christmas, so I'll offer up a review of that.
With a few bob saved up I decided I'd squander it on a new 'pointy stick and windy thing". I've been upgrading my predator tackle over the last couple of years as much of it was in a rather sorry state. The last item needing replacement was my bait-casting outfit. I knew I needed something longer and stiffer than the old 5' 9" pistol grip rod and had been contemplating a fixed spool outfit when somebody with similar taste in rods to me recommended the Quantum Smoke PT-A range. As luck would have it those nice people had Bobco had two of the range in stock and with their New Year Sale coming up I opted for the 7' 4" SKC747XFA and an EXO EX101SPT reel to go with it.
When I picked the rod up from the shop I realised I should have read the spec with more care, as it was a one piece rod not the two piece I'd imagined. The guides were also tiny, a lot smaller than I'd thought they would be. About the size of the guides on a quiver tip. The rest of the spec was OK though. Casting 12 to 45g and rated for 12 to 25lb line, fast actioned. Just what I'd wanted. The only surprise with the reel, despite reading several favourable reviews of it all emphasising it's light weight, was how light it was.
Having loaded up the reel with 45lb braid I had a few practice casts, over grass, with a variety of weights to set up the brakes to my liking. A couple of stops on the brakes and a few twiddles of the end float soon had the set up and behaving nicely with a variety of weights from 10g to 40g.
For my first trip out with this set up I picked a local lake that, to be honest, I'd never caught a pike on a lure from in winter and I can count on you hand the number I've seen caught despite seeing a large number of angler throwing lures at it. On top of this my lure angling this winter has been pretty dire. I spent a couple of hours throwing crank baits, shads, soft 4-plays, fat vibes and small jerk baits about, all of which the new outfit handle with aplomb. The only lure to prove problematic was a small, 7g, spinnerbait. Careful thumbing of the spool was required to stop it over running as I just could get the brakes set up for it. A lighter, 5g, crank bait cast without problems, but light spinnerbaits a a bit like trying to cast a kite at times so I wasn't surprised. Sadly the pike proved as uncooperative as ever.
One nice touch on this rod is the position of the keeper ring, under the hand grip as opposed to above found on most rods. As the outfit balanced nicely when held just above the handle you don't have the problem of trebles hooks near your fingers. This proved a boon when moving to different swims and having to negotiate errant brambles and fallen branches.
The next day I decided to try a pond that normally produces a few jacks to lures. Having paddle up what looked like a stream where the path used to be I arrived, at what was now a hippo wallow instead of the normally clear pond. With a couple, of field drains and two ditches feeding into the pond it wasn't really surprising it should look like this. Never the less I gave it a go. Putting on the noisiest, gaudiest lure I could find. I didn't last long though. Due to the lack of cold weather the lily beds had still to die back fully and a lost of rubbish had been swept through the ditches into the pond. At least I got a bend in the rod from a couple of sunken branches. I gave up and moved onto another lake.
The new venue was nice and clear, despite been stream fed and looked promising. Again, though, the fish proved to be rather uncooperative. So I still have to get a proper bend in my new rod, but I did enjoy using it and it did prove to be a major advance on the old and now retired outfit. The longer length balanced with a nice light reel made it pleasurable to use and more accurate to cast with. I'm quite looking forward to using it again next weekend. Definitely money well spent.
When I picked the rod up from the shop I realised I should have read the spec with more care, as it was a one piece rod not the two piece I'd imagined. The guides were also tiny, a lot smaller than I'd thought they would be. About the size of the guides on a quiver tip. The rest of the spec was OK though. Casting 12 to 45g and rated for 12 to 25lb line, fast actioned. Just what I'd wanted. The only surprise with the reel, despite reading several favourable reviews of it all emphasising it's light weight, was how light it was.
Having loaded up the reel with 45lb braid I had a few practice casts, over grass, with a variety of weights to set up the brakes to my liking. A couple of stops on the brakes and a few twiddles of the end float soon had the set up and behaving nicely with a variety of weights from 10g to 40g.
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| The new outfit |
For my first trip out with this set up I picked a local lake that, to be honest, I'd never caught a pike on a lure from in winter and I can count on you hand the number I've seen caught despite seeing a large number of angler throwing lures at it. On top of this my lure angling this winter has been pretty dire. I spent a couple of hours throwing crank baits, shads, soft 4-plays, fat vibes and small jerk baits about, all of which the new outfit handle with aplomb. The only lure to prove problematic was a small, 7g, spinnerbait. Careful thumbing of the spool was required to stop it over running as I just could get the brakes set up for it. A lighter, 5g, crank bait cast without problems, but light spinnerbaits a a bit like trying to cast a kite at times so I wasn't surprised. Sadly the pike proved as uncooperative as ever.
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| Keeper ring below the handle |
One nice touch on this rod is the position of the keeper ring, under the hand grip as opposed to above found on most rods. As the outfit balanced nicely when held just above the handle you don't have the problem of trebles hooks near your fingers. This proved a boon when moving to different swims and having to negotiate errant brambles and fallen branches.
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| Mud Glorious mud |
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| Path or stream |
The next day I decided to try a pond that normally produces a few jacks to lures. Having paddle up what looked like a stream where the path used to be I arrived, at what was now a hippo wallow instead of the normally clear pond. With a couple, of field drains and two ditches feeding into the pond it wasn't really surprising it should look like this. Never the less I gave it a go. Putting on the noisiest, gaudiest lure I could find. I didn't last long though. Due to the lack of cold weather the lily beds had still to die back fully and a lost of rubbish had been swept through the ditches into the pond. At least I got a bend in the rod from a couple of sunken branches. I gave up and moved onto another lake.
The new venue was nice and clear, despite been stream fed and looked promising. Again, though, the fish proved to be rather uncooperative. So I still have to get a proper bend in my new rod, but I did enjoy using it and it did prove to be a major advance on the old and now retired outfit. The longer length balanced with a nice light reel made it pleasurable to use and more accurate to cast with. I'm quite looking forward to using it again next weekend. Definitely money well spent.
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