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.
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