The Final Count Down - Penultimate Session

For the penultimate session of the season I went down to a local canalised river with a chap that had been getting a few jacks out on lures. Being rather shallow we thought the bright, but welcome, sunshine may cause problems. I didn't get off to a great start when a bit of clumsiness saw me break the heavier of my rods just below the tip ring. The lighter of the two would have to cope. We weren't chucking big lures about anyway and it had managed pike to double figures in the past. I'd also forgotten to put a larger landing net head in the car so would have to struggle with the perch sized head.

 

 

My mate was into a little jack second cast. A lively little beast that took a bit of time to land on his light gear. My first take resulted in the tail going missing from my lure. I replaced it with the first rigged lure I found in the box and had another take as the lure dropped to the bottom. Again the tail was bitten off. A rather frustrating start. Meanwhile my mate had taken a trout, his first from this little river.

We then had a rather quiet spell as we made our way up river. A change from more natural colours to a rather garish yellow/green lure seemed to wake them up. With two coming in quick succession.  The little net coped perfectly well with them. My mate had three of similar size on a firetiger pattern.All around the 50-60cm mark and very lively. 

We then had another quiet spell before I latched on to another very close to the bank which managed to get under a sunken branch. By walking upstream I was able to get it out form underneath and into the net. While it had been stuck under the branch it had chewed the lure to death. What was left was replaced with a blue/silver pulse tail that fell out of the box as I opened it. This proved just as effective as it produced another jack a few yards further on. 

We were now four all on the pike front. Again things went quiet for me but my mate had two more before I latched on to my fifth of the day. Which had a well healed scar in one side.

That proved to be it for the day. Six Five to my mate, plus a trout. One surprising thing was the lack of chub. It was his first lure session on here with out one. The five jacks I caught meant that for the first time this pike season I had an average of more than one pike per session, just. One more session to go before the end of the season.

Perch Fishing For Pike

 Recent weather really hasn't been conducive to fishing, not for me anyway. I did. however, manage a short session on the canal initially for perch. After flinging small jigs and things about for an hour or so the perch appeared to be rather uncooperative. The scattering of small fish and a large swirl showed the jack pike were on the feed. The largest softbait I had, a 80mm white and glittering thing was put on. A couple of casts into the area and I was in. A feisty beats of 48cm put up a good struggle on the perch tackle.

Further on, above the lock, in the clearer water I spotted a similar sized jack. It wasn't a fan of the white glittery thing though. A root round the lure box and a small spinner bait was put on. I reckoned that something entirely different may persuade it to attack. The lure landed some way from the fish but once it started moving the pike was across and on it's tail. Speed up or slow down is always a dilemma. I stopped and allowed the lure to fall though the water. As I sped it up again it grabbed it. The little jack came in very easily until it was near the net. It then decided to perform all manner of acrobatics. I just managed to scoop it in the net as it spat the lure out. Slightly shorter than the previous one at 46cm.

I had another twenty minutes wandering along the canal before the drizzle started again. A robin accompanied me as I wandered back to the car. Clearly the the hope of been fed. It seemed happy with the crumbs from the bottom of the bag of cheese & onion crisps I had while waiting to see if the rain would ease off. It didn't.

Testing New Kit

As I'd recently bought a shiny new baitcasting outfit for perch fishing and I was going to be in the vicinity of the navigation for a couple of hours I took it along for a bit of casting practice. The new set up consisted of a LMAB La Moustique 2-10g rod, though, I'm not sure naming it after one of the worlds most loathed insects is a great idea. The reel is a Lew's ProSP, one of small number of baitcasters with a half capacity spool ideal for light braid. 

 

I started with a 5g jig head with a small white grass minnow. The first cast ended in a bit of back lash. A bit of a twiddle of the brakes and things improved. After half a dozen casts I was able to get to the far bank some 35m away. On the seventh cast as I jigged the lure back I felt the rattle of a perch and was in. The last three whippings are yellow to help bite detection though I'm not sure it helped.

Over the next dozen or so casts I had half a dozen more small perch. Nothing to really test the power of the rod but the bite detection was excellent. I wasn't too sure about the skeletal reel seat and the small grip but once a reel was on it was perfectly comfortable. I then tried with a 3g jig head. This again I could get well over to the far side but it was too light to fish properly. The tow on the canal combined with the breeze and depths of ten to twelve foot were just too much to keep in contact with the lure. It would be nice, though, if manufactures would make ultra light casting rods in longer lengths. This one is 1.98m, 6'. 2.3m, 7'6", would afford better control of the lures. Still I think It'll serve its purpose.

Sunday I again had a couple of hours spare near another section of the navigation. So had another session with the new outfit. Another angler was fishing near to where I wanted to be taking the odd small perch. Using the same lure as previous I was soon into a record breaking perch, or maybe a little jack pike. The rod performed excellently and quickly subdued the little 61cm beast.  I then had a wander along away from the other angler and picked up a couple of tiny perch from near an overhanging bush. The cold breeze then picked up and I wandered back to the car for a cuppa and the big coat.

While I had my cuppa the other angler left. I changed from a jig head to a weedless setup as the spot I wanted to fish was rather snaggy. The problem with this was the hook up rate was rather low. I could feel the bites but the small perch weren't chomping down on the bait hard enough to expose the hook point. The advantage was that i didn't lose any lures. It took about an hour to land a dozen small perch. Clearly the larger fish weren't in residence. As it got close to packing up time I did manage to snag on something. A length of rope came up followed by a magnet. I suspect somebody forgot to keep hold of the end. It clearly hadn't been in there long as the was no algae or beasties on the rope.

Overall the outfit works as I'd hoped and I look forward to using it on some of the smaller canals.

Weekend on the Navigation - Now With Added Pike

 Arriving at the navigation I found cars strewn everywhere. According to the web site  there wasn't a match on so I assumed it was the new moon rush for the pike. Turned out it was, sort of. It was a PAC get together. I saw one pike come out and believe another had been caught.

I headed in the opposite direction flinging all many of large lures about with out any sign of a pike. As I returned towards the car for a cuppa I met a couple of anglers I'd met before. One of whom had a small pike first cast. I had my cuppa and headed back with a lighter set up. A variety of lighter lure were chucked about with little success until a mighty thump on a Jerkster. Consider how hard the lure was hit the pike came in like a wet blanket. I chinned it and lifted it clear of the water. It was then it decided to put up a fight. The lure went one way the pike the other, skinning my knuckles as it went. A fish of 5-6lb but a pike at last. Time was now running out. As I headed back to the car a bait angler had a fish slightly larger than mine. The two anglers I'd met earlier had had nothing else.

The next session headed further down the navigation. The swans seemed quite happy paddling about the flooded field. While over the other side some twitchers were playing spot the duck, or something. It was a warmer more pleasant day than previous. I started off with a spot of perch fishing under the bridge and eventually managed to winkle four fish out. Little perch like that shouldn't be so hard to catch.

AS I was having a cuppa contemplating whether to fish for perch or pike another lure angler turned up on the opposite bank. He seemed to be having a bit of a problem with his baitcaster. Whether he was new to it or what I don't know. As I finished my cuppa a few fish scattered ahead of a large swirl. I already put a SG Da Bush spinnerbait on with the intention of trawling it along the edge for pike so cast beyond the swirl.  The bait had probably travelled some ten yards along the edge when it went solid, then swung out into the cut. The pike put up a very spirited fight before giving up and allowing me to chin it. A 90cm fish of 8lb 10oz.

I then spent the next hour or so chucking the spinnerbait about but didn't see another pike. When I got back to the bridge a cormorant was happily sunning it's self on the far bank. I flicked the lure over which hit the stone work and had the bird dive into the water. I looked up and down for it to reappear which it did along way down. I'm still surprised how far and how fast these things can swim underwater.

Two sessions. A pike on each. Not brilliant but things are getting better. With another storm on it's way I'm not sure where's go to be fishable later in the week. Somewhere will be and hopefully the fish will get bigger and better.

Killing Time On The Navigation

Found myself in the vicinity of the navigation with a couple of hours to a kill and a bit of tackle in the car. I only had a small box with a few lures in and there was a steel trace on the line for some reason. No mono so the steel trace, though not ideal, would have to do. I did think of removing the clip from the trace and tying it direct to the braid but I'm not too keen on braid straight to the lure.

First lure out of the little box was a blade lure, and excellent search lure. This produced a small perch after a couple of casts. This was quickly followed by another before it went quiet despite wandering quite a distance.

By now I was I was in a area with a lot of weed near the edge with lots of little perch about. A change to a little white shad quickly produced a small perch. While several were happy to follow it to the bank, or even stare at it while I jigged it about no more attacked it. A change to a small green tube got similar results until one took a lunge at it and was hooked. A blue sparkly shad had similar results again but this time two took a like to it.

The only other lure in the little box was a small Salmo hornet which I hadn't bothered with so far as it isn't the easiest to fish in the small areas around the weed. Now, though, I was at a point where the channel narrowed and I was able to to cast long the out side of the weeds. This made for some fun sport. Although not particularly big I was able to catch quite a few perch with some very solid hits at times which had me thinking I was into a larger fish. A couple of dozen fish and as many hits again so passed the time.

An entertaining couple of hours once i fathomed which lure they preferred. I not sure why there was so little enthusiasm for the other lures, maybe the Hornet made a lot more noise.

On The Navigation Ⅵ : Wasps, Jacks And Snails

I had intended to try again at this fly fishing lark, but the recent thunderstorms had lifted the rivers a tad and didn't fancy trailing out there to find the unfishable. Instead I made the sort trip to the navigation. This too had been effected by the rain, and the boats, causing it to be a bit more coloured than usual. With it a bit coloured I thought a bit of noise may be a good idea so started with a Salmo Ratlin Hornet and was in straight away. A fairly average water snail had managed to hook itself.

A few more casts later and a fair old thump heralded a fish in shape of a perch. A couple more casts and what felt like weed turned out to be another perch. Things then went quiet for the next fifteen minutes or so.

Some small bait fish scattered close to the bank so I changed to a small bluish shad that had been working reasonably well in previous weeks. I was hit almost immediately by a lively little perch. A few more casts just resulted in a few rattles and tail nips before a little killer cucumber followed the bait in. It did this a couple more times before I changed to a Salmo Minnow fished quite aggressively and nailed it first cast.

 

Another half hour's fishing produced nothing despite several changes of lure, so I retired for a cuppa. A robin quickly turned up as I opened my packet of crisp but didn't seem to like salt & vinegar. I did spend some time pointing my camera at a puddle where martins were occasionally collecting mud but they never turned up while the camera was pointing at it. As I finished my cuppa a largish bat fluttered along the edge of the little copse. Given it was nine o'clock and bright sunshine this was a bit odd. I had a look in the copse to see if there were any more but didn't see any.

 

I spent a while chucking lure about under the bridge to no avail, but a Z-MAN TRD TicklerZ in some sort of green colour produced half a dozen perch from the middle of the canal a bit further down before bites dried up. I worked my way back with the Salmo Rattlin Hornet again with out any signs of fish.

A change to a Fox Spikey Shad produced several tail nips before a rather scruffy little jack grabbed hold. Despite it's tatty appearance it put up a fair old struggle. This was followed by another equally energetic little jack a few casts later.

I fished on for another forty minutes with a sign of another fish despite several changes of lure. By now it was rather warm and very bright, and I had thirty minutes to get forty minutes away. As it was an accident on the main road gave me an excuse for my tardiness.