Strange Time on the Cut

I've noticed that Friday's tend to be the windiest day of the week over the last month or so. This can be a bit a nuisance at times especially when lure fishing. Trying to cast close to the edge with out the braid getting blown over the bankside vegetation or drop a light lure into a gap on the far bank is rather fraught. As I was using quite heavy lures to start with this wasn't so much of a problem but the wind was also blowing debris about as well. Still I persisted. Following suggestions from @UTSurfaceMike I was starting with a spinnerbait which soon attracted a pike which followed the bait for a yard or two before turning away. This happened five times over the next hour or so. One even shot out of the the lilies creating a bow wave as in followed. They never had another look at it though.The pike were anything from a pounder to a good double. It didn't matter if the sun was out or not, or what colour bait was used.

On the way back I tried a couple of surface baits and a jerk bait The surface baits were attacked a couple of times by small jacks but I never managed to make the hooks stick. Spotting three large perch I clipped a spinnerbait back on. As it passed in front of them, a couple of feet away,  they turned tail and disappeared. This happened again with two slightly smaller perch, but a couple no bigger than the spinnerbait accompanied it in. Between the pike and perch things were looking a bit bizarre. There were quite a few shoals of roach swimming about now. Anything from 3-4" up to hand sized. This made me think the predators may not be active. Time for cuppa and a rethink.

After a leisurely cuppa I headed back, but this time I also had a perch rod with me. I'd rigged it up with a mono leader and a small white HTO bug. When I got to the bridge I flicked it into the water to see what it's action looked like. I hadn't even got the bail arm over when a jack shot up and grabbed it as it fell through the water. A bit of a battle ensued on the light perch rod as 65cm of very fit jack shot about before been safely netted. Thankfully it was lip hooked. Another attempt to see the action of the lure resulted in a perch, the intended quarry. To be honest the lure didn't seem to do much as I twitched it through the water, but a little jack thought it looked edible. This one had engulfed the lure and damaged the mono so I switched to a steel trace. I'd put the mono one on hoping it would allow the lure to have more action, but as it appeared to do very little and the jacks were on the prowl I thought steel would be safer. A bit more jigging along the edge of the barge moorings resulted in a couple more perch and another little jack.

As bites had dried up I wandered toward the next bridge casting the little bug about. The only take I got was from a tiny tiny little pike about 6-7" long.  It hadn't actually been hooked but had hold of the paddle at the back of the lure. As I went to swing it in it came adrift taking the paddle with it. I couldn't find another one so swapped to a small pearl white grub. A few swims further on I spotted a large perch which snatched the lure as I twitched it past. It didn't put up much of a fight as it was spawned out. Even though it was 40cm long it was very hollow, as expected, and only weighed 2lb 7oz. Still a very nice fish. I'd unhooked it in the net and thrown the lure to one side. When I went to move the rod a little perch had attached it's self to the lure. Not quite the brace shot I'd of liked but still.

The fish Around the next bridge seemed to be nearly all roach apart from a couple of skimmers. A bit of jigging along the brick work produced another small perch and a another tiny jack.

The big girls were obviously not feeding but It still turned into a reasonable session even if one or two of the fish were rather fluky. Quite why the perch were scared of the spinnerbaits, or the pike were following them but not attacking I'll really don't know.