Lure Componants

Here's a truly amazing site in the USA that supplies just about every component for making your own fishing lures you can imagine.
With these bits you could make lures for just about any predator you wanted.
Ive bought the parts to make 12 Big casting spoons for Pike, along with the hooks and rings, for just £20 :-) You could spend that on just one or two over here in the UK on Branded Spoons, and Stamina's spoons are very thick awesome quality metal.

Stamina Lure Components
http://www.upnorthoutdoors.com/stamina/

Coarse trip

A short trip to our pond had some interesting lessons.

Got there late in the afternoon, chancing the dreadful weather the MET office was warning us all about, only to fish all afternoon in high humidity and sporadic sun.

There was about 6 others on the pond, which is quite a few as its not big. We set up in what we though was the quietest of the swims that were left, and threw out our usual light ledgers.

After only a few seconds, I had a Tench of 5lb exactly (my second 5lb in a couple of weeks after me new pb of 5lb 6oz)and mike had an 8lb carp.

Then bites dried up and we had to think about a change of tactics.

My margin rod had little or no action, but the small feeder I was casting about bought me a couple of nice bream of about 2lb. I also had a huge run next to the island that shot off whilst I was still clipping the bobbin on the line, and smashed me right up. The way it took off and fought has me convinced it was one of the few double figure carp that are supposed to be in there of about 14lb.

After changing position from my left to my right, Mike had a pair of carp, both exactly 10lb during the evening. Pretty good for our little pond!

We are more and more convinced about how much the sound we make on the bank affects the fishing, and how the fish appear to shoal up in very diff places at different times. If only we could work out the pattern or conditions of these times....

Coarse trip

WOW. What a trip Sunday afternoon turned out to be !

Our local pond. It was wet and very grey, but we set up at 3pm, in warmish air and high humidity, which as usual makes me hot, sweaty and grumpy.

This time we were more careful about bait choice and its combinations.
An 8mml natural flavour boillie over a handful of our small particle / pellet mix went into the margin at a little distance so as to be undisturbed.
Our other ledger rods were set up with a small flatbed feeder. The idea being that these rods were to be lobbed out to various experimental spots, to see if we could locate any groups of fish. This way we gave a small amount of high attract ground bait on the spot, without bunging out handfuls of feed all over the place. Also, the different spots and ground bait attack was a different approach from the pellet and static margin rod. The feeder had a super sweet red ground bait mix, and a dipped pineapple or strawberry 8mm boillie.

We had a good feeling about the day, so set up the keepnet to see what our efforts were like at the end.......The approach worked wonders.

We had x6 carp to 9lb, and x4 bream to about 2lb. Both of which are good fish for our pond.
We also had a very nice haul of x6 Tench of about 3lb, with a new PB for me of 5lb 6oz, and x5 Roach, x3 of them over the 1lb mark and one of 1lb 8oz.


The Tench and Roach were keepnetted for a piccy at the end, but one or two were flapping about, so the piccy doesn't have them all in, as we only wanted to take a few seconds on the picture before putting them all back.


All in all, probably the best day of general fishing we've ever had on our puddle, apart from the endless rain, and packing up in the wet :-)

Out of interest, the Air temperature was 15C, dropping to 14C in the eve, but the Water temp was 19C, only barely dropping to 18C in the evening. I'm sure the overcast conditions and water being several degrees higher than the air temp made a huge difference, alongside the fact that we were alone on the pond and kept back and quiet.

Mullet / Trout

Sometimes, we get one of those trips that seems to be a failure, only to end up being a little gem.

Last night, I finally got myself out of the house after work, and headed down to a local creek, that feeds into the river Lynher, and then onto the Tamar.

I was told by a work friend who had recently moved down there, that he had seen big mullet (up to about 6lb or so) moving up with the tide in very shallow water.
This was enough for me - I planned to catch the tide just after it started to come in, and target the mullet as they came in with it. I got down there, but soon realised that the tide was too low, and wasn't going to be in till after dark.

Walking back to the car, I remembered the tiny stream that feeds in at the top of the creek. This stream goes down through all the houses gardens in the tiny valley, then follows the road, and goes under the road through a tiny 'bridge' of sorts (more like a small tunnel of about 4ft diameter) then immediacy flows into the creek.

I peeked over the wall next to the car, and saw half a dozen small fish scatter back under the road. I also spotted an 18 inch black eel of about 1lb or so slither away into the darkness.
My trip wasn't over then :-)

I tied on a tiny swivel, then 2ft of 4lb line, then a size 18 barbless hook. I pinched on a tiny pea sized lump of bread, and just peeking over the edge of the wall, lowered it down.

After a while I wandered if I was wasting my time, then I had that familiar pluck on the line. I had several little knocks like that, but wasn't hooking anything, and wandered about hook size and bait etc. Then I clearly hooked into something, and the little fella went mad, but lifting him out the water, he fell off. This happened 3 more times, and I realised that a micro barbed hook would have been a better idea.

With the light failing, I deiced to try the other side of the bridge, to took 4 paces backwards and looked over the edge. It was pitch black. The wall was higher here, about 4 ft, and surrounded by foliage, so I just lowered the bait down and let it trickle under the road to see what would happen.....dink...dink..... hello !
A couple more times, and then the rod plucked and I lifted into it. The exciting fast twiddling coming up the rod told me I was in. I lifted and realised that it wasn't one of the tiny fish Id seen earlier. There was splashing below, and I lifted before he fell off again. Over the wall came a wriggling fish to my hand.

I was very happy indeed. A lovely little brown trout, and a nice way to rescue a spontaneous trip that appeared to have failed.

I slipped him back, smiling like a fool.


I noted that these trout must be very tolerant of brackish water, as the tide comes right up to that bridge, and they cant swim up the stream, as it turns into a very shallow trickle.

Coarse trip

Another late afternoon /night on our pond.
Targets - Tench and Roach.
Arrive 3pm. Very Sunny, warm/ hot, and humid.

On Mikes recommend, we went to the far end, were the carp could be seen cruising in packs about 6 strong, Mike reasoning that the tench etc would be there too. I disagreed.

We didn't catch, and so mike agreed to move. We had got the choice of swim wrong and ended up moving swims at 7pm to where I said originally was better.
We then had 4 carp each, and a few snotlings (yukky damn things), and just like last week, I had a 3lb 4oz tench at about 11 pm. Very nice.......But no Roach....


One of mike carp was taken off the surface on his Match float rod - that fish led him a merry dance, right through all our other rods. ONLY recommend when you have space to play!
We then sat in silence as I grumped and we re-rigged the ledger rods from the 'knitting' he created.... :-(

One thing I noticed, was that although the carp were feeding well, and they fought very well indeed, they must have expended far more energy than in colder weather, because the amount of time it took for them to recover in the margin was noticeable longer than normal.


Not exactly the great catch I had last week, but its an interesting note, that yet again, we end up catching a good bag of half decent carp, when we are targeting smaller species.

By the same token, we've come here on occasion targeting the carp and caught some big roach, and on very 'carpy' tactics too. Catching a Roach and Tench on boillies of respectable size can be quite a surprise.

This can mean two things. Fishing is totally random, or, we should rethink our heavier carp tactics.

We know from experience and knowledge gained that margin fishing is good, (especially in warm weather) , but what was also a surprise was just how close in we ended up fishing. Literally dropping the baits over the the edge growth, about 8inches out, in about 8 to 12 inches of water. As long as we stayed back, and stayed quiet, whispering our chat instead of vocalising it, we caught.

Id say that the lessons learnt were....

- Use your instinct on choice of swim. Its more powerful than you think.
- Fish in close. Don't be afraid to fish one rod stupidly close in. It'll surprise you, especially into / after dusk.
- Be quiet. I cant emphasize this enough. I'm a Very strong believer that a huge amount of blanks could have been avoided if the angler paid more attention to keeping his mouth shut, his radio off, and his footfall cautious. Banging about on the bank will only catch you unlucky or stupid fish.

Coarse trip

....well well, the fishing fairy smiles upon me at last !

Sunday was originally planned for us to go down to another reservoir after pike, as its near the end of the cold season.

But best laid plans and all that - the weather was very warm indeed, about 16 degrees, so we stashed the pike rods at the last minute and grabbed light course gear, and headed down to our local pond for some tench and roach.

There was a couple of other people there, so we had a look round and decided to go with instinct rather than knowledge, and chose an open bank, with good margins either side of us.

A light baiting with small mixed pellet in the margins was ledgered over.
It was certainly my day today. I had a new PB roach of 1lb 12oz :-)

I had....
Roach of 1lb 2oz
PB Roach of 1lb 12oz

x2 Carp of about 8lb

x4 Tench of about 2-3 lb
Bream of 2lb
Tench of 3lb 2oz


Mike had.....
A Tench of 3lb
A Carp of about 6lb off the surface in true John Wilson style :-)

Overall a great day and a good decision to change plans at the last minute.

Fishing in tight was the key, and possible just being in the right place at the right time, but I think we are getting our small pellet mix right for Tench and Roach, especially when we use small boillies as hook baits, to keep from hooking the small nuisance fish, of which there's lots in our local puddle.

Mikes Afternoon

Working part time as he does (mumble mumble bloody part timers..mumble mumble), Mike sometimes has the chance to fish on weekdays.
He did this last week, and had a rather cracking day.
Here's his story....

--------------------------
An Interesting quick trip to Our little Pond

Wednesday is a half day at work and the warm sunshine provoked a craven desire to fish . No fuss grab the holdall, bait bucket and trolly bag. 2.45 arrive at pond.
A brisk summer breeze was blowing straight up the lake. Tony, a fellow angler, was set up on the dam wall sheltered from the wind and was just in the process of landing a 10lb mirror. After exchanging pleasantries I headed up to the oak tree and settled to fish with the wind over my shoulder.

Small amounts of pellet and sweetcorn were placed in a couple of spots in the margin to my left. A simple lightweight rig presenting 2 grains of real corn on a size 12 was lowered into place.
I settled into float fishing about 6m out in just over 2m of water. Corn and pellet alternating as hook baits small amounts of pellet and corn being catapulted in a tight zone around the float ever 5 minutes.

First fish, a skimmer to the float, then a classic screamer announced the arrival of a 9lb mirror carp to the ledger rod
The session continued with 5 more bream [slimy bloody things - mark] to the float rig and a fine pair of tench of 3lb 8oz and 4lb 2oz to the ledger.

At 6.30 I decide to try my favourite big roach bait on the float rig. A cut down boillie to the shape of a pellet. Seconds later a 12oz tench fell to it - a very good sign the tench are breeding well.
Four minutes later the float slipped away and I struck into what I first thought was a tench but the unmistakable dink dink fight and the size of the bend in the rod started the adrenaline flowing.

In the net was the most special fish I have caught in recent times. Perfect and in no sense a hybrid. Weighed once, weighed again, witnessed and photographed by Tony.



A 2lb 4oz roach. A fabulous specimen for this part of the world.
Exactly the same as The Newton Abbot Fishing Association record that has stood since 1978.

One more fine tench of 4lb 2oz closed the days catch and at 7.30 (possibly responding to a sharp drop in temperature) the bites dried up and it was time to retreat home.

It had been the finest spontaneous session in many many years and a true expression of the term “seize the day “ and to that maybe a reminder of a simple fact you can plan all you like but you cant beat being in the right place and following instinct.

Mike.
--------------------------

Thanks Mike :-)

Resevoir Pike

Last weekend saw us looking at the weather calming down a bit, and so while its still cool, we ran off to a local reservoir to bag us a pike.

We had rented the only boat on the lake, and arrived at lunchtime, so I could spend the whole afternoon rowing Mike about the 33 acres (being an old duffer, hes got a dodgy shoulder...)

We tried all sorts (fresh and sea deads and lots of lures) but to no avail, and truth be told we didn't feel 'in the zone' or particularly zen in our approach. It just wasn't a 'fishy' day - know what I mean? Sometimes you just don't feel in the groove.

After blanking all afternoon, and losing 4 dead baits to just flinging off on the cast, we ended up rowing back to the 'mooring' - a shallow gravely bit and a tree :-)
As we had about 45 min of light left, we dropped the anchor about 10feet off shore, and just lobbed our dead boats in the margins to either side of us.

We sat there just before dusk not talking, and just listening to the bird life settle.
I think what made the diff here was that we were very quiet, and didn't move about. I dozed off lying across the seat, and we had occasional chats in whispers.

Then Mikes bite runner ran off at a good steady pace, very clearly a fish and not the boat gently swinging against the rope in the breeze.
A very short fight, and one good solid splash later, and I was brave enough to reach down my (gloved) hand and get a finger under the gill flap, and look like I knew what I was doing as I lifted it into the boat and down onto the waiting mat.
It was very cool to have caught on a lake that is known to be very hard to catch on.
It fell to a dead roach, and weighed 9lb exactly (though it looks a lot bigger) and had teeth I wont forget in a hurry.
We continued to fish until there was just enough light left to punt back to bank, but had no other action.