Summer surface fun

I didn't get chance to get out for a long session, but with Saturday night TV booked by the family, and me not being interested one bit in Ant n Dick or Britain's got No Brains, I was only ever going to do one thing. I headed for the river to fish a new swim only to find it was up a few feet, really coloured and debris floating down. I had twenty minutes but it didn't feel right so I moved off, I'll go back another day. Stuck for options late in the day I decided on a small pond I used to fish as a kid. I figured it would be weedy and not very fish-able but wanted to see what it was like anyway, A walk around here for an hour or so in the fantastic evening sun was better than going home to TV.

The pond was weedy and a few casts in I already knew there was only one option left and that was a bit of surface fishing. I didn't really have the right gear with me, I would have preferred some slightly lighter line than my 30lb power pro. I stuck on a small popper and it wasn't long before I had a follow and a missed hit. It was only a small pike but it brought all the memories back as I saw the bow wave coming up behind the lure. This is where I spent my time as a kid chasing pike and this is all I did. I only ever used a surface popper and the fun I had was fantastic. You didn't always get the biggest fish, but a few jacks crashing in to your lures was right good fun. I only ever caught one double on the small popper though. A pb 27lb fish which i've still not managed to beat to this day. Imagine the look on my face that day as a kid, used to catching jacks and then a massive beast crashes out from the depths! That was some fish.

No beasts today but I didn't care it was all good fun. There was the sign of the odd larger fish about but none really seemed interested in the surface baits. It was a bit warm anyway for anything too big from a shallow still water. I only managed a couple of fish but did manage to capture a bit of action on film for your amusement. Check out the short video for a couple of missed fish and a pike which isn't quite going to beat my pb lure caught record, not for a few years anyway. Summer surface lure fishing is great entertainment, go have a try if you've never done it before.

 

2012 pike tally 
Doubles 28
Total 163

Largest 22.5lb
Twenties - 2
Bonus Perch 7

Sixteen more sleeps

I've not really ventured too far yet in my piking travels. Since I got the bug big time last year I've stuck to just a couple of spots. Reading the magazines, websites and forums it's clear there's a big world out there and plenty of places to go chuck a lure or two. Right now though I'm happy sticking with what I've got and I'm in no rush to go to Chew or even some of the other rivers local to me which are rumoured to have some good pike in. It's a bit like Christmas morning, but I'm in no rush to go and open all the presents because then Christmas is over with, except for the belly full of food and the falling asleep in front of a James Bond film. I'm opening each present really slowly and enjoying it and when I feel I've had my fill of that then I'll go open the next one and see what's inside.

Inexperience causes fish deaths

The river season is nearly upon us and I'm looking forward to getting back on my swim where no one else will be fishing. As a kid all my pike and chub fishing were alone, I'd just go off on my own and come back when I wanted or when I was hungry. Looking back, I took that peace and tranquillity for granted back then. Today on my closed season venue, which also used to be free from other anglers when I fished it as a kid, I can't get on it without at least two or three other anglers being there, and that's on a good day. Recently I've seen as many as thirteen people fishing this small pond with most of them fishing for pike. That's not good at all for the pike that are in there because many of them are going to be caught time and time again and unfortunately with some of the type of fisherman frequenting this place, some of those pike are going to be killed. On my last outing I came across a dead pike in the margins. I've also been told there's another dead pike on the opposite side of the pond just this evening.Two dead pike in less than a week, a hot sunny week when every idiot and his mate were out with 8lb line and not a pair of pliers between them. It seems that for every decent angler out there there's a couple of idiots also and for every novice angler learning their trade with good intentions there's another couple of plonkers starting up who care nothing for the fish. The only hope for waters like this one are that someone can take it on and make it private fishing to keep these prats off.

Family of swans

I've noticed that the fishing is getting tougher and the bigger fish haven't shown to my usual lure tactics. I know there's a couple of low doubles that have been caught by the local tench fisherman, all falling to worm. Maybe this is a sign of the fish being pressured who knows. To be honest though, personally I'm not that fussed about the big fish right now. I'm happy just catching, fishing with a lighter set up, smaller lures and just enjoying the fishing. I've been up as early as 3:45am on the bank and i've stayed as late as an hour and a bit after dark. I've been enjoying watching the wildlife, the swan sitting tight on her nest while her mate stands guard and then a few days later turning up to find half a dozen little uns tagging along behind them. That number today though is already at five, who knows where that sixth signet went, maybe a monster pike! I also love the sunrise and sunsets. They're a spectacular time of the day most people never even see. When I'm stood out there all alone at dawn or dusk, the sun either peaking up from the ground or disappearing behind the trees I always enjoy those moments. Sometimes us fishermen and especially us bloggers often rattle on about these things that make fishing enjoyable and we seem to want to drill it in to everyone else when mostly they don't seem to care and just think we're doing it to justify being out and not even catching anything. No worries, you sit at home and watch Corrie and X-Factor and miss the real entertainment just outside your front door.

Carp feeding in the flooded shallows

Sunset - A special time

Savage Gear Ghost silver lip lure

Don't worry, I haven't been blanking. All that soppy stuff wasn't to hide the fact I'd not been catching, I do genuinely enjoy the rest of the stuff that goes with my fishing. Of course another pleasure is the fish themselves together with the takes, the misses, the tail walking and the battle. I've managed to pluck another half a dozen or so pike from this water in just a few hours of lure fishing. Again nothing large, not even a low double to speak of but I've enjoyed every single fish. I've also missed plenty, which at first was frustrating, but as I watched and learned I realised that many of them were small pike. Hard to tell at first but sometimes I could make out the fish and sometimes I could make out the lure been shaken about in an erratic motion, but there was no flaring of gills or flash of a shank of a fish, it was just the tiny head of a small pike trying to kill my 13cm lure. The crystal clear water helps you spot and determine what exactly is happening on the other end of the line, polaroids help with this also of course. Some of the catches have been quite comical, often with me not even realising I'd hooked the fish and thinking I'd missed. Tonight I felt a hit, struck and then cursed my luck as I felt no fight on the other end. I then spotted my lure zip past where I was stood out in the water, a good twelve feet away from where the hit had taken place. I had to quickly wind in all the slack and catch up with the runaway pike, amazingly it was still on and still had a good fight left in it, jumping clear out of the water three times before finally landing it. I've also caught and lost fish right on the end of my rod, just six feet away from me stood out thigh deep in the pond margin. Seeing the pike in gin clear water stalk and then hit at pace is worth the entrance fee alone and even missing a take has me beaming from ear to ear. That sight alone is truly awesome.

One of the bigger fish

 Despite the presence of more anglers than ever on this pond I've still managed to wangle out enough time to get a few fish out and have some fun. But I am now looking more and more to that date which is fast approaching. I can't wait to get back on to the river again and not have to worry about other peoples trash, noise or if there's going to be another dead pike in the next swim. I'll also be looking forward to catching a better stamp of fish. Those river fish when I last saw them were in tip top condition but the jacks I've had from this pond have been a little worse for wear and much much smaller on average. A quick calculation tells me that from January to March, despite the shocking weather, I managed to catch around 18 pike from the river, with 11 of those being doubles, one of those 17lb and that monster 22.5lb fish. Now I do know that there are big pike my local pond, I've had a few in the past but since fishing here in late March to now on the last day in May I've managed to catch around 25 pike but not one of those has been a double with my biggest being around 7lb at a guess. That fact alone before I'd just worked it out again right now, was what made me stick with the river last year having never fished it before in my life. After around a dozen or so fish I noted the average size was knocking on seven or eight pound and nothing smaller than around four pound was caught, compare that to my pond and it's glaringly obvious which is better. That's why I stuck it out and that is why now I'm counting down the days. I do enjoy all the fish I catch, I've enjoyed my closed season fishing and I've also realised I'm not out to catch a monster every time, but I can't deny the fact that a nice chunky seven or eight pound fish is more thrilling than a tiny jack or skinny four pounder. I lost count of the fish last year that I didn't even photograph, shockingly I even had low doubles put back without a fuss or snap of the camera. My river spot spoilt me for sure. I can only hope that it stays in such a healthy condition and the idiots keep well clear. Fifteen days and I'll feel like a kid on Christmas eve again.

2012 pike tally

 Doubles 11

Total 43

Largest 22.5lb

That Friday feeling

I've been itching to get out with the lure rod again, especially more so after my nightmare drubbing at the hands of my family elders last weekend. But fishing had to be put on hold, at least for a little while while I crammed in some final revision for a three hour management exam at work. I should have been studying since September but kept putting it off, often for the thrill of pike fishing instead and I always said to myself that the exam was a long way off. Well last week it dawned on me that the time had come so any thoughts of going fishing had to be forgotten about until after Thursday. A bit of a shame really since I have been on afternoons all this week and so I would have had plenty of morning time to get out fishing. I think I did pretty ok in the exam anyway, so on my return home Thursday evening I scoffed down my chicken salad and chips and then dashed straight for the drill. As I got set up, working out the fiddly instructions for the new window blind which now seems to be an annual thing in our house, the missus asked me "are you going fishing tomorrow?" Damn, does she know me that well?

 The rest of the evening saw me sorting my lures out. Giving them a tidy and sorting them so as to easily fit in a couple of extra purchases to my collection which had recently been snapped up second hand. I still didn't know where I was going, either have a bash on the local canal or some small flood ponds. I set the alarm for stupid o'clock, but the dog waking me early spoilt my sleep and so by the time the alarm went off I was a little too sleepy to get up and snoozed for over half an hour. That meant there was only time for a pot of tea and the breakfast had to be left, there wasn't time. As I was setting up on the flood ponds, having decided to go there only the second I'd started the car in the drive, I was glad I'd not had the breakkie as a local lad was wondering up towards me. I think I'd pipped him to the peg, even though I would be staying mobile today, I was here first so was going to give it a go. I cast in my rainbow lip lure and first cast I had a take. I struck and felt the fish for a brief second but no hooks set. Then I noticed the pike had a white blob on it. It looked as though it had been attacked by another pike. For the next ten minutes every time I brought in the lure I could see this blob following. I changed lures but couldn't get it to take, eventually I ignored it and just carried on regardless, It wasn't a monster anyway. In the same spot, I managed to have another follow and take from a small jack and yes I managed to miss that one too. By now having gone through a few lures I'd decided to settle for a smaller SG lure, 13cm Ghost silver pattern. It seemed to work well and since the water had an extra foot of water in from recent floods, it meant I could work it above the weed which often causes me so many problems here.


 

6lb 11oz pb tench from 2009

I then spotted another angler on his way to me. This chap also seemed to want the peg I was in and as he approached, tackle still in his car, we had a brief chat. You meet all sorts of characters on the bank, some good some bad and this chap, who turned out to be called Steve, seemed like one of the decent fishermen. Having an idea he'd wanted this peg I offered him it. He happily accepted and nipped back for his gear. He was after the tench. There's some nice ones in these ponds, my own pb comes from them, not this actual peg but one close by and there's rumoured to be some even bigger ones in too. I ended up chatting to Steve for a bit and we exchanged a few stories and it was nice to talk to a decent bloke who also knew a bit about fishing. Throwing a handful of small pellets in and delicately dropping his bait on top it reminded me of many a barbel anglers approach to fishing and as our conversation lengthened he told me he did a bit of barbel bashing too, no surprise. It's a pity the weather isn't yet quite right for the tench as in this short session of his before work he didn't manage to pull one out but no doubt he'll be back, especially if we get a bit of sun sometime soon. All the best for you and your missus Steve when the little one finally shows up. It seems the baby is as overdue as that sunny tenching weather!



As Steve packed up I got back in the swim and threw my lures around. Yes, back came that battle scarred pike again and yet again just following and not taking. I moved on to the next swim and started throwing my little lure about. It wasn't long before I had a take and this time I had the fish on, and then off. It darted about six feet right in front of me and then the hooks came out. Another small jack but it was a shame not to have one by now. But plenty of signs of promise as at least I've seen some fish today. The water being crystal clear made it pretty easy to see what my lure was doing and I could clearly see if anything was interested. Time to move on again, keep mobile and cover some water and hope to drop on a fish. As is often the case, first cast in my next swim and a pike smashes the lure again only this time not only did I hook in to it but after a brief scuffle I actually landed it. Boy that is a nice feeling again. A fish of around six or seven pounds and one which brought me a nice smile. The commotion of the battle and ferocity of the take made me think back to last weekends faffing about for carp and the difference in fishing experiences. Blanking aside I can forget that bit, it happens in any type of fishing, but this is why I felt so down after last weekend. I missed the thrill of the take, the fish smashing into a lure, crashing out of the water, violent head shakes and tail walks. I love lure fishing.



No time to rest and I cast back out and again a pike hits and I miss. I felt it but the hooks just didn't set. I'd already checked my hooks and knew they were sharp but had I not done so I'd have been giving them a sharpen by now. I ventured around to the other side of the pond and start working my lure. I'm kind of in the corner of the pond, and it looks absolutely perfect for pike. Reeds along the edge fashioned in such a way that anything swimming in to this corner is sure to be smashed by a hidden predator. As I approach, the resident pond grebe is filling his face with silver fish, I'm excited for the cast already. Boom, we're in again. Another jack crashing out of the water and then steaming off, boy these fish can fight. A lady dog walker on the banking behind paused a while to watch as the fish thrashed around. I played it cool like you do, and pretended it was nothing special, but it was nice to have an audience for once, even if it was just her and her dog. A few more fan casts of the swim and with no more action I move on another twenty yards to cover the next bit of water and yes, here we go again. Another pike smashes into the lure, flipping out of the water in and almighty explosion. Wow this is fun fishing. Same drill, cover the water again and move and as I move to the next swim it's another watery explosion. Fish number four in less than an hour and as I'm playing it my phone rings. I ignore that, I can ring them back when I've unhooked the fish but by the time I do their phone is now engaged. So I chuck my lure out again and wham, fish number five, this is absolutely crazy! A quick chat to my old man on the phone who is heading for Scalm Park again for the weekend and then I'm back chucking my lure about. Last night as I was sorting my gear out I explained to the missus, who then pretended to be interested like I do when she's talking to me about decorating or whatever, that this particular lure holds the record for most fish in an hour, a total of seven pike. It's also a lure that I haven't even used that much, that bigger lip lure is the one with most time in the water. Boom!...well not quite a boom but it is a hit. A violent fight ensues but only from the pikes point of view, as I easily pull in my smallest pike for quite some time. A cute little predator that brings the hourly tally to six, just short of my record. I'm happy with that. After a frustrating last weekend fishing followed by a week of study and busy busy week at work that Friday feeling felt even more jolly and as I headed off to work for my final afternoon session of the week I had that buzz back in side me. At work I was thinking about pike fishing, I was trying to figure out where the big girl might be hiding, I was back thinking about all things Esox and I liked it.

Savage Gear Ghost silver lip lure

2012 pike tally

 Doubles 11

Total 29

Largest 22.5lb

Spring in action

 With the rivers closed, and the probability of most pike having their thoughts on reproduction I've had a bit of a time out from pike fishing. I've pretty much stayed away from all things fishing, internet forums, magazines etc to try and keep my mind from it and started a few DIY jobs at home, which are still no where near finished I might add. Today I decided to get out and just have a walk, rod in hand, and see what is happening out there in the natural world. 

Deer in the distance

A big part of the enjoyment of fishing is more than just the fish. I get a buzz from the pike smashing the lure, catching a quality fish, the sight of a pike following and turning away or striking and missing makes me even more hungry to fish. It's great when you can have a monster session and come home with a smile that lasts for weeks. With not being able to go fishing for a while, today I was just glad to be out and among the peace and tranquillity of some local ponds. I even left the barge rope heavy braid at home to try and keep me away from even targeting the pike. I was hopeful of a perch or two but knew the ponds can be a bit weedy, even at this time of the year, so wasn't sure if that would work against me. The sight of a deer in the distance on my walk to the venue gave me a smile, it was good to be back out again.

Salmo Slider in jack pike catches the jack pike

On the fishing front I didn't do too well. No sign of the perch no matter what I did. Spinners kept picking up the weed but I could manage to navigate some small lures not too bad. I even had a bash with some surface poppers just to see if I could tempt a hungry jack pike but no luck there either. I stuck with it, keeping mobile to hit as much water as possible and figured fishing up against the reeds would work surely. The pike love to hang out in the reeds and especially the smaller pike, staying out of sight of the big girls and waiting in ambush for something small to pass them by. I spotted some action in the distance, a pike was chasing something. It wasn't a big one but I cast at it anyway with a pike lure. I couldn't tempt it to take my lures and after a while gave that one up. Working my way back I did think about going straight home but opted to give it a bit longer. Working my way in to an awkward peg to cast along the reeds I spotted the slightest bit of movement, a disturbance in the water and so cast straight at it. A bit of commotion and I was in to a fish. Using lighter line meant I couldn't bully the little jack so when it went for the reeds I had a bit more of a fight on my hands. It then dived for some sunken weed and that's where the fight ended. No I didn't lose the fish, it just gave up. Head and eyes covered in weed it just wanted to hide and so I was able to just pull it in the rest of the way. Yet again another jack pike fell to the Salmo Slider at this venue. No monster but I wasn't after one. The pleasure of being there was enough and the fish was a bonus. Not too long later I managed another jack of similar size, which I unhooked in the water since this one wasn't entangled in weed. I'm happy with that, two jacks are better than nothing, shame I didn't find those perch.

So apart from the fish, and the deer I spotted on my walk to the pond I managed to rack up a fair few sightings. It's not always easy taking photos when you're lure fishing because you can guarantee something happens while you're reeling in. The best bet would be to sit and chill for a while but I'm too busy wanting to fish. Despite that I did manage to get some photos of the wildlife.

 

The swans are always easy to to snap. They are so photogenic and seem to know they are being photographed.

Surprisingly the grebes weren't too tough to capture. Usually quite distant they did come a little closer. 

Little Kes wouldn't keep still, well not when she was close to me anyway. She always seemed to be on the other side of the pond and I couldn't quite get close enough. However when I was walking back to the car she practically hovered over my head, but yes you guessed it, the camera was in my bag at that point!

 

Busy as they are, you can often get close to the coots. As you walk to the pond they'll scoot out of the reeds but once they realise you're no danger they get on with doing whatever it is coots do best. 

 

There's often so many ducks around I don't give them much viewing but these two caught my eye. They were quite far away but they puzzled me a little. The female seemed to be following the male for whatever he had in his beak. I couldn't say for sure but it looked as though the duck had caught a fish! Not sure if you can make it out in the photo.

Now this one was easy to get. There was no way this beast was going to outrun me and so I clicked away.

I wanted to capture the heron in flight as it came in low over the trees but I didn't spot it quick enough so had to settle for it perched on a platform on the opposite side.

Something else most people seem to miss out on seeing. Pretty much every session can be magical in it's own way and when you finish off with a sight like this, while most people are sat watching TV in doors I might add, it makes the whole experience something to remember. Tell most people you only caught two tiddlers on a cold spring evening and they wonder why you bothered and put it down a s a failure. Most of us fishermen though know there's so much more to our sessions by the waterside.

2012 pike tally

 Doubles 11

Total 23

Largest 22.5lb

Houdini pike

Last week Fisky predicted when my fishing on the river would be best, he said they'd be feeding like mad and that evening I managed an hour and got three fish including the seventeen pounder. So when early this week he told me that Thursday would be the day I was already looking forward to it. From Monday I was tracking everything such as weather and moon fazes, even trying to get the seagulls to shit on me for luck, and as the week progressed it looked more and more like the man could be spot on with his predictions. I decided against a crack of dawn start and leisurely got up, nipped to the shop for some bread and milk etc before getting back in the house and having a nice pot of tea and some toast while I had a quick catch up on the internet. I flicked through my usual sites and did the mandatory weather check which while was a little gloomy, would be pleasantly warm and the rain would luckily stay away.

I clicked the river levels link just to check and see how my river was. We've not had much rain round my end but then that doesn't matter, it's what's been happening elsewhere that counts, up in them hills. The river has been up a foot or two and back down again this week already which has put a damper on my fishing but when I clicked this morning to my dismay the river was up around a meter on it's normal level. Well for me and my lure fishing that is a disaster because my peg, which is about 60 meters from the weir, turns in to raging monster. I have caught before using baits tucked right in the edge, but the constant battle against the flow back and forth and the tree branches, beer barrels and everything else makes it not worth the hassle.

Time for a different approach. With the river closed season fast upon us I've already been wondering where I should go when that time comes. There's some ponds local to me that don't get too much attention and I have had some decent fish out including my pb. But I don't fish it much and when I have recently it has been full of weed. It's so shallow the weed seems to get more and more each year to the point that sometimes I wonder if there is actually any water left in the pond. I was hoping the recent lid the ponds have had would have knocked the weed back a bit and I could get to fish but after the first few casts I found out this wasn't the case at all. Any diving lure was a waste of time, spinner baits dug in to the weed and even shallow baits wouldn't really work. I was pretty gutted I couldn't get to use my rainbow lip lure here and realised why as a kid I only ever used surface poppers. I figured on one last try with my larger lures and decided to put on a 12cm floating Salmo Slider. It's a new lure to me and I've not caught with it yet on the river but then since it's more of a surface lure I didn't really expect I would except maybe in the summer. If I could keep the lure up in the water away from the weed I might have a chance of catching something. Another good thing about the slider is you can cast it quite far, much further than the SG lip lures. First cast I managed to get it out about 60m virtually to the middle of the pond and within ten seconds of retrieving, the lure darting one way then the other, there was an all mighty commotion as a pike broke the surface and smashed my lure. It wasn't much of a battle since it turned out to be around 5lb but the take was fantastic.

 I netted the fish out because it was easier then me trying to reach down for it. I don't like using the net for jacks because you often get in to a tangle and that's exactly what happened. I quickly freed the pike leaving my hooks tangled in the net, that reminds me I keep meaning to get a new one, and decided I'd take a photo of the fish even though it was only a little one. Since I was in a tangle I thought the easiest thing to do was to sack the pike while I sorted my mess out. The fish seemed fine and I securely tied off the cord. I took a couple of minutes to get my gear sorted while the jack had a little splash and a wriggle and then got the mat and camera ready. Returning to the sack I untied the cord and lifted up the sack. Where the chuffing hell has the pike gone? All I had in my hand was a wet sack, still with the draw strings tight but no fish inside. I thought it must have somehow managed to bite through my sack and quickly checked for the hole. I couldn't see one at first so looked again, and again. How the chuffing hell did the pike get out? I still couldn't see a hole. The only thing I can think of is that when I sacked the fish I didn't even get it in the sack and instead just wrapped it up somehow, what a cock! Either that or this pike was the long lost relation to Harry Houdini. I chuckled to myself and got back to fishing glad that I hadn't just managed to lose a massive pike. If nothing else, at least from now on whenever I sack a fish I'll be that little bit more careful.

The next two hours passed without so much as a sniff which was a bit of a shame but at least I managed to get out for a few hours before work. The bird life is fantastic and I'm surprised there weren't any of the twitchers about. They missed the heron, kingfisher and all manner of ducks, some geese, the annoying swans and constant battles of the water hens. While at work I watched the river level slowly  drop as the day went on. It still didn't really look fishable but If I'm lucky and that graph above continues to drop then I might be in with a chance of an hours lure fishing on the river tomorrow. I really don't fancy watching Jeremy Kyle and the rest so if there's a glimmer of hope I'll be out even if it's just for half an hour.

2012 pike tally

Total 10

Largest 17lb