Autumn predators on the plastics

Well, what can I say? It appears I have neglected my blog for far too long once again! No I've not packed in fishing, far from it in fact but, as usual, life has got in the way and some things have fallen somewhat by the wayside.

Throughout most of August work was manic leaving me with little time to fish but I did have a cat fishing social with some lads from our little Facebook group on Office lake fishery in Notts. In the event it was tough going and the only cat caught was this little fella whilst we were trying to catch livebaits!

 

 

I had a blistering run in the middle of the night and hooked something heavy and powerful which wiped out my other rod before weeding me up and shedding the hook. I was totally gutted by this as you can imagine especially seeing as it was the only run our group had between us! It's a nice lake though and I will certainly head back there next year to even the score.

The bank holiday weekend after that was a busy one too as I had organised our fishing clubs inaugural Barbel match on the river Trent and I was fishing the zandermasters lure match on Rutland water also. The barbel match went really smoothly although I was disappointed that the barbel didn't play ball after all the effort I'd put in. No barbel were caught by the competitors and only a few chub were caught. It was decided that the prize money went to charity seeing as nobody could claim it and I got some great feedback from the lads, most of whom said they couldn't wait to come back and do it again next year.

The Zandermasters match was something I'd been looking forward to for a while and was to be a totally new experience for me considering I'd never fished a match before in my life! Organised by Steve Collett in association with the lure company Ecogear it was held on the mighty Rutland water with the aim of the game being to catch the longest combined length of Zander possible.

The match gave me an opportunity to rub shoulders with some really good anglers and the atmosphere was fantastic. Our boat partners had been drawn prior to the event and my partner, Tony, was certainly no slouch in the lure fishing stakes having already qualified for this years british lure angling champs final.

I have to admit was somewhat nervous about whether I'd end up blanking and making a tit of myself in front of all these experienced anglers but after five minutes in the boat with Tony all that was long forgotten and despite the horrendous weather we had a right laugh. It didn't take us long to find a few fish either with my dropshot tactics soon putting a couple on the scoresheet up in the North arm. Tony switched to dropshot too and quickly added some fish of his own. I even managed a Rutland PB of 60cm which helped my cause no-end!

 

 

We tried a couple of other areas and although it was tough going we managed a few bites and pretty much matched each other fish for fish. By the end of the match Tony had beaten me by two fish which had edged him in front of me by 31cm. I finished with six fish for 2.37m which I was more than pleased with especially as, when we arrived back at the boat dock, we found out that half of the field had struggled to catch 1-3fish with some even blanking altogether. It was a tough day as the results below show but it's great to see Tony made the top 10 which also means I wasn't too far behind!

 

 

The match really whetted my appetite for more of the same and since then I've been making plans to fish further matches with my next one being fished in early October.

August rolled into September and throughout the whole month I've nothing but lure fish! I just can't get enough of it at the moment and my bait fishing has taken I real backseat. Part of me feels a bit guilty because I know I could be out there catching fish for the bloggers comp or kicking my Barbel and Perch campaigns into gear but the simple truth is that I'm having too much fun with the lures and I'm not ready to stop yet!

I've been trying some new swims on my local Trent and Mersey canal with some success in a bit to overcome my mental block of catching on lures in coloured water. I know I've mentioned it before but I just can't get my head around how fish can be caught on lures, which, on the face of it is very visual method in water with little or no visibility. I did catch a few Perch but to be fair the water wasn't THAT coloured and I figured that I needed to do it properly if I was to conquer this thing.

 

 

I decided to organise a trip with my mate Carl who fishes (and catches from) the eternally chocolate coloured Ashby canal to try and get a few pointers and build confidence. On the day our first port of call was the Oxford canal which was fairly coloured but still had 8inches or so of visibility which meant we found some decent early success with some nice perch, a good start.

 

 

Pretty soon though a couple of boats went through and the water went pretty mucky but Carl assured me the fish would still feed. The perch were quickly conspicuous by their absence but they were soon replaced by a string of Zander, obviously switched on by the turbid conditions. Visibility was reduced to around 4inches by now.

 

 

The boat traffic soon became really busy and the visibility was reduced to zero as was our bite rate so we decided to up sticks and head to the Ashby canal instead. I was immediately disheartened to see that the water was as chocolate coloured as it possibly could be with zero visibility but Carl said press on so that is what we did. Half an hour later I was just chatting on my phone whilst casually bumping my dropshot on the bottom under the rodtip, at that point two boats passed each other right in front of me and I groaned inwardly at the futility of my chances when all of a sudden there was a kick on the rodtip and I found myself connected to a Zander! Well bugger me, the biggest of the day too!

 

 

How that fish found my lure I will never know because visibility was absolute zero and I can only assume the vibration of the weight hitting the bottom must've brought it in to investigate. My confidence was transformed and although it was soon packup time I already had plans to try other similarly coloured canals.

The following weekend saw me hit the Oxford and Ashby canals again aswell as the Grand Union and despite all being coloured I still caught a fair few fish. I quickly found that the dirtier the water the slower the bait needs to be fished.

 

 

In between my canal trips I was also having quick sessions on my local rivers with the dropshot gear and absolutely slaughtered them on natural coloured baits.

 

 

September also saw me back on Rutland again twice possibly for the last time this year but as usual it didn't disappoint and although the fish weren't huge there was plenty of them and the last trip in particular was very productive indeed. That will have to wait till next time however as time is short as usual and I must go, tight lines y'all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Back to some proper fishing - part 3

........ A text from my buddy Phil enquiring as to whether I'd be up for an after work lure session brought the obvious response and soon enough I once more found myself trentside. After the exciting session with the surface poppers last week I was keen to use the method again, Some of the takes we had were truly spectacular and really got the old ticker racing that's for sure. We decided to try a shallow section with the surface gear first for chub and jacks and then planned to move to a slower deeper section with the shads in the hope of a zander or decent Pike as the light faded.

I wussed out and put a large spinner on first just to get some instant action and was greatly encouraged when the action really was instant and I caught a Perch first put-in. Having broken my duck I quickly changed to a surface frog and a couple of casts across a shallow riffle brought an explosive take with the culprit looking very chub-like. It soon managed to shake the hook out though but I wasn't to be put off and a couple of swims later I had another hit which was more akin to a carp taking a dog biscuit off the top, a gentle swirl accompanied by a sucking sound. This proved to be my first Perch on a surface lure and at a tad over 2lb it was my best of the (short) season so far.

 

 

No more fish looked at the frog in that swim but a change of lure told me I'd found a group of half decent fish because I quickly hooked and landed another one which went 2lb12oz on the scales, a long fish with considerable winter potential I feel.

 

 

Several more smaller perch to around a pound followed as I worked my way down the field and before long it was time to head to the deeper area.

After a few minutes of bumping a shad slowly around in one of my favourite Trent zed swims I had a positive tug and struck into something which buried the lure in amongst the rocks in seconds and came off. Phil too reported a follow from a zander in the next swim along so we were in the right area.

One swim I came upon was only inches deep and fish could be seen bow waving on the shallows. I twitched a shad across them and after several bow waves shot across the gravel towards the lure I caught a small perch. There was still loads out there but I was struggling to hit the taps and pulls so I switched to the spinner again. First cast and a large hump in the water appeared behind the lure before it got smashed by a lively jack. The next swim brought the same response and another slightly larger fish tail walked it's way into the net .

 

 

Another lost pike and a couple of small perch landed later and it soon became apparent that the light was fading fast so we decided to work our way back to the car. I had another pike in my next swim and decided to call it a day,

 

 

Phil manage a couple of zed like pulls but no hookups and we then headed for home. So there you have it, my first week of the season, lots of fishing, not quite what I expected but I certainly enjoyed it all nevertheless, tight lines all.

 

 

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Back to some proper fishing - part 2

....... The next evening I found myself on yet another different area of Trent in pursuit of a Barbel. It was quite late by the time I arrived and I didn't get much time to setup before dark. Straight away I was getting taps on the rodtip so there was obviously fish out there.

I didn't have to wait long to get an idea of what they were however because within minutes a large bream rolled out in the middle where my baits were, then another and another, the place was alive with them!

It didn't take me long to catch one, a typical Trent stamp of 6-7lb, and realise that I would be struggling to catch a Barbel amongst them. It was too late for a move so I resolved to stop till around midnight and hope a whiskered beast would be able to bully it's way through.

Of course it wasn't to be and after catching a more than respectable bag of several Bream to 8lb2oz I packed up still frustrated at the lack of barbellage. Looking at my records I now realise that I've never done great for Barbs at this time of year and my best results by far have come in late august through till early October, I'm not giving up just yet though!

I decided upon something completely different for my next trip as I'd recently acquired permission to fish a very private estate lake. I had no idea what to expect and even the gamekeeper couldn't tell me a great deal other than he reckoned there might be some carp and tench in there. The only way to find out was to fish it I guess so I planned a short Saturday afternoon session on there.

Armed with bread, maggots, sweetcorn, worms, ground bait and pellets I think I had all bases covered and upon arrival I settled into a nice looking corner swim fishing off a boat jetty. It was overcast but very muggy and a lot of Rudd could be seen milling around under the surface. A couple of balls of groundbait introduced alongside a overhanging tree soon turned that area of the swim into a jacuzzi as the tench homed in on it.

A good plumb around revealed that the lake was no more than 18inches deep all over and after casting a grain of corn into the jacuzzi it didn't take long to get an enquiry. A small Tench was soon swung to hand and that was followed up by several more and some Rudd aswell.

 

After around half an hour I finally managed to hook something a little more substantial which turned out to be a small carp. Well so far the lake certainly wasn't what I was expecting, it was stuffed with fish but they were all small!

 

I could see some bow waves and other signs of larger fish moving out in the middle of the pool so I decided to setup a small bolt feeder rig baited with a large pellet in bid to catch something better.

I placed the rod down on the edge of the boat jetty and before I even turned away the tip was pulling round! After a spirited scrap another little carp was soon netted.

 

And so that set the tone for the next 3 hours, cast, catch, net, rebait, cast, it got to the stage where I wasn't even putting the rod down, I just held it till it pulled round. It was still very shallow in the middle because every bite resulted in a splashy swirl out where I'd cast to.

 

I even attempted to fish two rods at one point but gave that up as a bad idea after three double hookups on the trot! The place was absolutely heaving with small stunted carp.

 

Eventually I ran out of bait and although I'd just had one of the maddest few hours fishing of my life it was a bittersweet end because I was almost expecting such an old estate lake to hold some really special fish. I'd enjoyed my trip on there though despite small carp not really being my thing, every one pulled like a demon and every one had a perfect mouth and was in great condition, certainly a lake to rival any commercial I've ever fished.

Anyway, having had my lake fix, I was soon back on the river with the lures for my most recent trip .....

 

 

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Back to some proper fishing - part 1

So that time of year has come around again and the rivers are once again open for business as usual. The start this year has been somewhat hit and miss for me but I've certainly landed a few fish albeit not always my intended quarry!

Opening day was the usual massive anticlimax and although conditions were seemingly perfect, the much anticipated Barbel never materialised. We were joined by Steve Collett and cameraman Ian who both came down to do a feature for the anglers mail . A lot of thought goes into setting up the various shots and it was fascinating watching the pros in action.

 

 

I did manage a bream of over 7lb and three Chub to 5lb and I lost something which felt suspiciously like a Barbel or a Carp to a hookpull so odd catch a few. I was a little disheartened after building my hopes so high for some Barbel but nevertheless it was great to be back on running water again and getting a few bends in the rod.

 

 

I headed to the river soar the next morning with the lure rod and after catching a Chub on pretty much my first put in I was hopeful of some fast and furious action.

 

 

The fish however had different ideas and the Perch in particular were conspicuous by their absence. By the time I had worked my way down to the bottom of the field I'd only added a small tail walking jack to my tally with very little interest from much else.

 

 

I decided to try a nearby weirpool in a last ditch attempt to build a half decent bag and was rewarded with several perch and two more Pike, the fish obviously preferred the faster and more oxygenated water in the muggy conditions.

 

 

That evening Phil and I were back on a different stretch of river which, based on past form, is usually a dead cert for a barbel. Just on darkness I managed to lose a fish in a snag after a truly brutal take which nearly pulled the rod in. I could feel the line grating through something from the off and it didn't take long to lock up solid before suddenly everything fell slack as the badly damaged line parted. Just as I was cursing my own luck a call came through from Phil telling me he'd caught something special and was in need of assistance. I grabbed my camera and headed upstream to find that Phil had indeed landed a beast, all 14lb11oz of it! Always good to get those PBS in early mate, well done!

 

 

The following day we went out with the lure gear and were joined once again by Steve and Ian for another feature. I won't delve into the events too much because it will come out in the feature but we did have some good action on surface poppers and Steve caught a very special fish indeed.

 

 

The next evening I was back on the Trent on my own and still determined to catch a Barbel. The taps on the rodtip as darkness fell certainly had my confidence through the roof so you can imagine my disappointment when my first proper pull of the evening turned out to be another Bream!

It all went quiet for a while after that until around midnight when I struck into what turned out to be a decent Chub of 5.8. With all the obvious spawning activity across the river over the previous few days the fish proved to be hollow and I'd certainly like to reacquaint myself with it come the winter time.

 

 

I packed up shortly after but I already had plans for the following evening ..........

 

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Smooth operator

To say I've not been fishing much of late is an understatement, for some reason I've just not been able to muster up any interest in fishing my local lakes. Once again this closed season I've not had any kind of campaign to get my teeth into although I think this is more down to not having a new and interesting water to fish than actually losing my mojo. I could fish my usual local waters but to be honest they bore me to death these days and I'd rather not fish them at all than fish them half heartedly.

A couple of blogs ago I mentioned the canal and it's horrible colour due to the massive increase in boat traffic. Now the colour has always been a real confidence killer for me when fishing lures on the cut but some other anglers don't seem to bother about it at all and fish on regardless. The other day I was headed to a local club lake for a bit of rubber chucking and my journey there took me over the canal. Even though it was tea coloured I decided to have a few casts anyway just in case and was surprised to get a thump from something on only my second put-in.

Nothing else was forthcoming in that swim but I decided to fish a little more persistently and a couple of spots later I was rewarded with a nice perch which absolutely smashed my tiny pink shad. It looked well worthy of some challenge points anyway although it was some way short of the hoped for 2lb.

 

 

After that I moved onto the lake where I managed to pimp out a few micro-perch on the dropshot before heading home.

My next trip out was an impromptu visit to the beach at chapel st leonards in pursuit of my first Smoothound. A chance comment after seeing a post on Facebook about Smoothound the week before started the ball rolling for another of our little group get togethers. Now this was set to be an interesting one because, although we were all seasoned freshwater anglers, we hardly had any beach fishing experience between us let alone tackle for the job! The week in the run up to the trip was spent frantically sourcing suitable tackle and reading up/watching every available snippet we could find about catching smoothies, it was all very exciting.

The big day finally arrived and at 5.30am the East Midlands battle bus containing Myself, Andy, Dave and Phil set forth in the direction of Chapel and hopefully some rod bending action. We made it to local lad Big Phils house at around 7.15 and met up with him aswell as Lee and Martin. After a slap up brekky courtesy of Phil and his good lady Louise, our intrepid party headed to the beach via the bait man at Chapel point to pick up some extra supplies.

We headed around a mile down the beach from the point and it was all but deserted save for one poor unsuspecting angler who was totally unaware of the rabble that was about to descend on his tranquility. The tide was in, the sun was out and the wind was off our backs, good conditions for it we hoped! We walked to a suitable area a proceeded to get setup with everybody opting for squid as a starter bait due to it's ease of use.

Well it didn't take long to get stuck into some fish because we started getting thumps on the rodtips straight away. Phil scored first with a small but perfectly formed Smoothound which was the first any of us had seen let alone caught, mission accomplished!

 

 

Dave, Andy and Lee all stepped onto the scoresheet next with similar sized fish and it was proving to be a productive session. Phil had another and then Dave hooked a more substantial specimen. It pulled hard on the 3.5lb test pike rod he was using but it was soon tamed and the first big one of the trip was beached.

 

 

I must admit to being somewhat jealous of all these fish getting caught and was wondering when my turn would come. I'd been a little unlucky as I'd had two drop off but a change to a lugworm hookbait soon brought a change in my fortunes. The rod tip banged over hard then the line fell slack so I wound furiously to make contact with the fish and battle commenced. To be fair on the gear I was using it didn't stand much chance but it still had be back winding a couple of times. Pretty soon a nice smoothhound, certainly the biggest of the day so far, was wriggling up the beach and my day was complete, I didn't care if I didn't get another bite because I'd caught what I'd gone for.

 

 

 

After that the tide began to go out and sport died for everybody. It soon became tiresome moving the gear down the beach every 20mins but we were still hopeful of some more fish. Sadly, other than a couple of flatfish including my first Dab there was no more action forthcoming.

 

 

We decided to hang around until the tide came back in in the hope that the smoothies would come back in with it but when the flood tide did eventually come in it brought with it so much weed and rubbish that fishing was nigh on impossible so we gave up on it and headed home. All in all a good day out and yet another successful trip for our little Facebook group. After my LRF success the other week plus this, I think I shall be heading to the coast more often especially as I'd so love to catch a Bass. It's the one sea species I've tried for more than any other but so far one of its kind has eluded me, not for much longer though I hope!

 

 

 

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LRF - I could get into this!

May bank holiday came around and some friends had invited me and my better half to a wedding in Cornwall. The idea was to drop the kids off at the in-laws in Torquay, stop the night and then drive on into Cornwall to a b&b near port Isaac, with all that sea around it would've been rude not to take a rod along!

Now, light rock fishing or LRF as it is better known has grown massively in popularity in recent years as more and more anglers discover the sporting opportunies that the mini species which can be found in abundance all around our coastline can offer. The best way I can describe it is ultralite lure fishing at the seaside!

Usually for me, a trip to the sea involves me packing my beachcasting gear and ordering some lugworm at the venues local tackle shop but this time around I really quite fancied a dabble at the whole LRF thing as I'd never tried it before and I was hoping that it would add a whole new dimension to my already varied lure fishing exploits.

I did a bit of research on the internet with regards to lures, tackle and suitable venues and soon enough something like a plan was formulated. It felt quite odd packing such light kit for sea fishing and I have to admit to being quite dubious as to whether it would be up to the task!

Padstow harbour was to be my first port of call as I figured fishing vertically off walls into calm water would be the easiest thing to start with as it allowed me to exert the most control over the lure without having to worry about currents, rocks and tides too much. My research had told me that the first thing I needed to fish there was a permit from the harbour master as I was told I risked a hefty fine if I was caught without one. Fortunately the permit is just a formality, it's free of charge and valid for life plus I got some tips from the harbour master as to the different spots to try and the ones to avoid.

 

That sorted, I was soon tentatively dangling a tiny jighead baited with an ecogear aji-must alongside a moored boat completely unsure as to what to expect. My initial confidence soon began to wane however as, despite trying several spots, I never had so much as a tap.

 

I checked the time, it was nearly 10am and the harbour area was really starting to fill up with tourists. I didn't have too much time left myself as the wedding was at 2pm that afternoon and I had to get back to the b&b to get ready. I was just contemplating giving it up as a bad job when I noticed a couple of kids across the way chuck a load of fish bits in as they packed up their crabbing gear, the small fish topping over the 'loosefeed' was what really caught my eye and I was round there like a shot. I couldn't see anything on the surface upon my arrival but a couple of sharp taps on my first put-in really got my heart going even though I missed them. Next drop I connected with a fish straight away and swung in my first LRF-caught fish and my first ever Sand Smelt, I was most chuffed!

 

I managed a couple more afterwards to prove it wasn't a fluke before time got the better of me and I had to be gone. Although I was pleased to have caught, from what I'd been reading I really was expecting a bit more in the way of small bottom dwelling species such as blennys and scorpionfish. I figured a change of venue might be worth a go next time out.

After the wedding and subsequent reception shenannigans the previous night we headed back to Torquay feeling somewhat jaded and decided to blow the cobwebs away with a stopoff for something to eat at Brixham on the way. Obviously I'd already planned this little adventure beforehand as it allowed me to checkout the dangling opportunities around the towns breakwater! After convincing the missus I needed to take my rod along for our walk to the lighthouse I was soon having a cast around a likely looking feature for 'research' purposes (of course!)

 

In the all too few minutes I managed to squeeze in I had several good pulls but really couldn't connect with them so was non-the-wiser as to what the culprits were. I resolved to return at first light the next morning for a proper go prior to our long journey back to the midlands. That afternoon I also popped into the tackle shop in Torquay to pick up a few bits and ended up buying a slightly heavier 3-12g rod as I felt a little undergunned with the 0.5-7g I had been using. The currents off the breakwater were much stronger than in the harbour before and it was also extremely rocky.

The next day I was back, this time with my daughter Charlotte in tow, both of us proper determined to catch something. Once again I was getting lots of unhittable taps and decided to scale everything right down further and switch to dropshotting as opposed to fishing jigheads.

 

Straight away I was getting taps and still not connecting but after spotting some small wrasse darting in and out of the seaweed and rocks at my feet I decided to drop the lure on top of them to observe their reaction. They were on the bait instantly and although they were having a good go it became obvious that the problem was my bait and hook size. I swapped the size 8 for a 12 and the 1.5inch sliver of marukyu isome worm was reduced to half an inch. First put-in gave me a pretty little wrasse and I knew I was onto a winner!

A succession of small wrasse followed and it was really interesting watching them approach the bait and almost bristle at it in much the same way as perch do. It was also fascinating how they just appeared from nowhere every time the bait was lowered down amongst the rocks, the camouflage on those things is incredible. Charlotte was quick to get in on the action too and I ended up having a job prising the rod off her so I could have another go myself!

 

I spotted a few much larger shapes moving about further down the rocky slope and after much coaxing with a larger bit of worm I managed to hook one which looked around the 3lb mark. Now this thing really pulled and I struggled to stop it getting down into the rocks whereupon it promptly smashed me up, gutted! I couldn't hook another despite my best efforts so decided instead to stick with their smaller brethren.

Apart from a solitary goby all the fish we caught were wrasse and from what I can make out we caught three different species of them, Corkwing, Goldsinny and Ballan.

 

After a couple of hours I'd well and truly lost count of how many we'd caught but it had been a great trip for both of us. On my part it had given me loads of confidence in the whole LRF approach and for Charlotte it had given her lots of dropshotting practice to build on and obviously we both really enjoyed ourselves. Forget the bait fishing in future, whenever I visit the inlaws it's going to be LRF all the way now!

 

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