Lure fishing 14/01/13

Today I decided to spend my afternoon targeting the pike at my local syndicate lake. They may only be small, averaging around 2-4lb but size doesn't matter, catching fish of any size is all good fun.

Gear:

Rod: savage gear bushwacker xlnt 3-18g 7ft6

Reel: fox rage ultron 2500

Main line: 18lb fox soft steel.

Leader: spider wire 10lb fluorocarbon and a 10lb wire trace

Lures:

Ecogear grass minnow m and ikajaco fished on 5g size 1 savage gear jig heads.

I got the lake around 2pm and headed to the point swim in order to fish the rough ground in the hope of catching a few perch. After an hour and one missed bite which I'm sure was a perch, I headed of round the lake trying different spots as I went. 

I was fishing the ikajaco on a slow retrieve with regular 2-4 inch lifts of the rod tip, giving it an undulating action which really brings the lure to life.

I reached the dam wall and on my 3rd cast my ikajaco lure was engulfed by a miniature pike. 

I carried on round the lake and lost another pike which must have only been around 5 inches long. 

The ecogear range of soft plastics are heavily scented with their "dynamite taste and explosive scent". A lot of anglers don't think that scent makes much of a difference when lure fishing. I think they're very wrong. I've regularly out fished people fishing with un-scented plastics and when you look at how confidently the pike take these lures and how far back in their mouths the lures are I see it as hard evidence that scented lures do work. 

Later on I switched to the grass minnow m from ecogear. I fish this by casting it out, letting it sink, then retrieving it slowly just off the bottom. Again the little pike couldn't resist and I landed 2 more mini predators.

Someone was hungry!

As the sun set and the air got colder I headed home. If you haven't tried ecogear lures yet, check out their range here: http://www.ecogearfishing.co.uk

Memories of 2013 part 3

LRF multi species fun.

LRF(light rock fishing), is fairly new to the UK and is an adaptation of the Japanese ultra light fishing for aji (scad) and mebaru (scorpion fish). The popularity of this discipline of lure fishing has exploded in recent years, I've been fishing in this style for around 3 years now, I've come along way since my early LRF days but I'm still no master, you never can be, ever session I learn new things and am constantly adapting my technique. My only advice is keep an open mind, you are only limited by your own imagination. 

A small bass taken on an ecogear aqua katsu aji straight.

When you ask most UK lure anglers about light game fishing they normally imagine lures around 10-20gram. LRF is lighter, much lighter, I'm talking 0.5-8g.

 A big concern from most anglers when starting LRF is whether they'll be able to feel what's going on at the lure end. But with the right balanced gear there's no problem at all feeling what's going on, and with time you get used to the light gear.

Another concern is what if I hook a large fish, again this is not a problem, LRF rods have tons of power in the butt section with which you can give powerful fish such as bass, pollack and crash diving wrasse a lot of stick. Just remember to set your drag correctly. Just look at what has been landed on LRF gear: 8lb+ bass, 9lb+ pollack, wrasse to over 4lb and not to mention the 10lb thornback ray that was caught last year in Plymouth.

My most used gear: 

Rod:

Major craft airock solid tip, 7'9", 0.5-5g.

Reel:

Shimano aernos 1000fa

Mainline:

Ygk g-soul 6lb

Leader:

Sunline small game leader fc in 4 or 6lb

Lures: 

The lures I use the most are made by tict and ecogear, and of course the legendary power isome, I doubt they're is a fish that can't be caught on power isome.

LRF is not a species specific method I believe that with the right approach anything can be caught with LRF gear. To date I've had 26 species and last year I landed 18 species:

1. Bass

2. Ballan wrasse

3. Corkwing wrasse 

4. Long spined scorpion fish

5. Smelt

6. Pollack

7. Rock goby

8. Common Blenny

9. Gilthead bream

10. Sand goby

11. Mackerel

12. Garfish

13. Common goby

14. Black goby

15. Scad

16. Goldsinny wrasse

17. 3 bearded rockling

18. Tompot blenny

A few LRF catch photos:

Long spined sea scorpion

Tompot blenny 

Baby pollack

Corkwing wrasse

3 bearded rockling

Black bream

A lot of my LRF fishing is done while on holiday. This year I was in Port du Crousety in France for 2 weeks and if I wasn't chasing my bass on the headlands and tide rips I was spending most evenings on the breakwaters chasing the mini species.

With angling scenery like this, who could complain.

If you haven't tried LRF yet, I highly recommend it, it's not for everyone, but if you enjoy finesse fishing then I couldn't recommend it more highly.

I get most of my gear from my good friend Ben Field and his shop the Art of Fishing: 

http://www.artoffishing.co.uk

Ben is more than happy to help out if you have any questions. Or you can contact me through my twitter: @johnwheeler811

Memories of 2013 part 2

Syndicate carp fishing 02/10/13

Last year I was unable to do much fishing due to A level exams but once they had finished I rejoined a syndicate 10 minutes walk from my house which I had been a member of 2 years before.

The lake is around 2.5 acres and up to 20ft deep in some areas. There is a low stock of carp up to low 30's in the lake and less than 40 captures a year is common as the lake can be quite hard.

 

This was my 3rd session since I had re joined at the beginning of September. On my previous sessions I had 3 fish, one mid double, a 23 and this 27lb 10oz. All mirrors.

I spent an hour walking round the lake, no fish showing..... Nothing new there I thought. 

So I headed round to a swim the fish pass through when moving from the "handle" to the main body of the lake. This swim has produced for me before in similar conditions and seemed an obvious starting point.

rods out, bivvy up, brew on, sorted.

Now the waiting begins.

At about 7pm I had a take on my left hand rod from what felt like a decent fish I played it back towards me only for it to roll over and the hook drop out yards from the net, I was gutted, that was clearly a 20lb fish. With the way this lake fishes I thought I had blown my chances and was now heading for a blank... 

The rod went back out and the curry went on the stove.

The bait I use is made by Burton Bait Rollers, a small company that has just entered its second year. They produce exceptionally high quality baits at very reasonable prices. 

http://www.carpand.co.uk/bbr/

At 9am the next morning just as I was about to top up the swim with a scattering of boilies the left hand rod was away. Please don't come off....

After a short powerful scrap the fish was in the net. No blank for me.

She went 24lb 1oz and after a few quick self take photos I slipped her back. Not the best photo in the world, oh well.

A few words on tactics: 

The swim I was fishing has 3 spots where most anglers fish to, they're obvious, 2 holes in the far bank tree line and the lily pads. These spots get fished heavily and fish are going to be wary of them. So, I do something they're not so used to. Bait the main spots but fish a hook bait off the spot, as if it's a stray boilie which missed its target. Works for me.

Rigs:

All my rods were fished with the same rig, 10inch long nash missing link 20lb in silt colour, size 10 long shank fished blow back with silicon and a short piece of shrink tube over the eye. Hook bait was an 18mm boilie and 12mm white home made pop up in matching flavours.

The day passed without action and the forecasted storm began to appear. The lightning was spectacular, there was no way I could sleep with thunder and lightning above me. I wasn't expecting action during the storm as takes usually come just after rain. But I was wrong.

At 11pm my middle rod tightened slowly, the fish was powering away up the handle. I applied a huge amount of side strain to turn the fish away from the overhanging and submerged trees. She turned and was soon powering around in the open water, staying deep as large carp do. I tired her in open water then guided her the the net. I turned my head torch on and looked down into my net, that's the 30 I thought. After unhooking her I slipped her into my retainer sling and left her in the deep margins for weighing and photos in the morning. 

I didn't sleep much with the excitement. Catching a 30 in a lightning storm is an awesome experience and one I will never forget. Here she is 32lb on the dot.

I'd caught my 5th fish in 4 sessions and it was the lakes largest fish, happy is an understatement. 

I packed down all my kit and pushed the barrow round the lake and up the hill to my car, a new PB, caught in a lightning storm, that was pretty special.

Memories of 2013

Canal lure fishing 28/11/13

With the river being so coloured after recent heavy rain myself and Jamie decided that the canal would be our best bet to catch a few of the resident pike on lures.

Those of you who know me will know how much I love lure fishing! 

We arrived at the canal about 2pm to find the pike smashing shoals of silver fish on the surface. This is common for this time of year as the pike drive the silver fish shoals down from the shallows to the deeper water where the pike spend the winter. Watching a 10lb+ pike launch itself half out the water sending spray and small bleak and roach flying has to be the most awesome sight in UK freshwater predator fishing!

When the pike are so preoccupied on small roach and bleak they are notoriously hard to tempt on lures. I reckoned my best chance was to "match the hatch" and use a 4.5inch Big Hammer shad in Keith's classic colour rigged on a 10.5g 5/0 AGM shad jighead. (Image below). 

Available from AGM: http://www.agmdiscountfishing.co.uk

Where as Jamie opted for the Midnight phantom (below). Which has been a very successful lure for both of us in coloured conditions. 

We began to work our lures across the canal, myself opting for a sink and draw retrieve high in the water column in what I believed was the "kill zone". Where as Jamie chose to jig his shad across the bottom in 8-10ft of water.

Jamie was first to see action from a small jack which removed the tail of his shad without being hooked.... With the shad well and truely ruined He swapped to a 10g Abu Toby, and on his first cast hooked a small pike of around 4lb, happy days.

An hour and a few lure changes later with both of us getting frustrated at being able  to see the pike but not hook them we returned to the lock gate to give it one last go before dark.

Second cast I let the lure sink down, 5 turns of the reel handle, twitch, twitch, pause..... BANG! FISH ON!! 

My Fox rage Ultron Finesse rod bent double and the drag on my Ultron reel singing away. This is what it's all about. Using light gear and enjoying the fight. The fish put up a good scrap on this and was soon netted and placed down on the unhooking mat.

And here she is.

A lovely low double. (My fish light policy means I never carry scales with me). 

A few quick photos and then I slipped her back, seeing fish swim off unharmed is a great sight. 

We fished on till dark with no further success, but we were happy, both having fish and just watching the pike on the surface was worth it. 

We left the canal and headed home, the journey always seems quicker after a successful session.