Mission Accomplished

Hello Again,

A friend of mine (Sam) has been trying for a decent pike for a while on a lake that we both fish, He has caught quite a few pike when out on his boat, but unfortunately none of them have managed to make double figures. Without going into too much detail he has had a bit of a rough time this year and during one of our conversations it was clear that beating the 10lb barrier was something he wanted to achieve.
I decided that I would knock Sam a couple of lures up and invite him out with me on my boat to some of the areas that I have found productive.
Here is one of the lures that I made for him:-

This one is a surface lure, he seemed really pleased with it and I hope it brings him some good luck.

We started off in a small bay, with absolutely no success. So after half an hour or so we decided to move on, after a while Sam asked his usual "are you confident?" after a little chuckle I assured him that we would get some action, as conditions seemed perfect.

We were both fishing surface lures and unfortunately Sam got a bit of a birds nest on one of the casts, I was watching his lure as I brought mine away from it to avoid the two lines becoming tangled, when a decent pike launched itself at the lure. By what seemed like some act of divine intervention, at the exact moment the pike struck Sam had managed to sort his reel out and hit into the fish.

 "Is it on?"  "err Yeah" was Sams reply. For one awful moment we thought he had lost it as the fish swam straight towards us, but Sam did a good job of quickly gaining line and tightening up on the fish. The pike was still down deep but by the healthy bend in Sams rod it was clear it wasn't one of the many Jacks that inhabit the venue.

The look on Sam's face was priceless when he saw the pike coming up in the water, but with a powerful flick of its tail it headed back into the depths taking line from the tightly set clutch. Now Sam's face turned from a joyful look to a somewhat panic stricken realisation that this could be the fish that he had waited so long for. I don't think that I helped matters by proclaiming that it would "definitely be a double". After a few powerful lunges and a spirited, if short lived fight, the pike was safely netted. Sam looked both relieved and delighted, after a quick snip of the hooks with the bolt cutters ( always better to sacrifice a hook or two than delay unhooking the pike) Sam could finally hold his prize.

At 14lb 9oz it was a PB for Sam and by some distance. The fish was a lovely dark green colour with vivid yellow markings. I felt like it was mission accomplished and I am really pleased that I could help Sam to catch his PB. Well done mate hopefully she will be the first of many.

Late update

Hi,

Just a quick one, and a bit of a late update. I have just received a picture from a mate of mine (cheers Sam) of a pike I caught a couple of months ago. This year has been a struggle with the pike fishing as I enjoy fishing for the pike with lures, but unfortunately I have been suffering badly with tennis elbow. This has led to me doing very little lure fishing. On one of the few trips Iv managed to get out with the lures I managed this one. Its not the biggest pike Iv ever caught but it is by far the most pleasing. At a tad over the magical 20lb mark it had me beaming. Iv been fishing this water for a few years and though I have caught plenty of pike from the lake the better fish have eluded me. It was a target of mine this year to catch a "20" from there on a lure, and first trip out this year I cracked it with this one...happy Days

Got the bug

After having a little success last time out targeting coarse species on the fly I thought I would give it another go.

Again armed with my three weight and floating line I set off,  this time to the local canal. The target species today was to be roach or rudd.....to be honest I would have settled for not blanking. I started with the same fly (balloon caddis) that I used last time out. This is quite a bulky fly and I think it may have been a bit too much for the smaller mouthed fish that I was aiming for. After a fruitless half hour or so, I decided to change fly. I switched over to a small cdc fly that I had again tied myself.

This fly brought an immediate change in fortunes, within a couple of casts a small rudd came to have a look and promptly snaffled the smaller more subtle fly.

Another new species ticked of the "fly" list. The fly went out again and within another couple of casts another similar sized fish fell for it. This time a roach.

Now, dont get me wrong these are not monster fish, but I was really pleased to be catching on my light fly outfit and although you couldnt say that they put up much of a scrap they did put a pleasing hoop in the light rod. Bites were coming thick and fast all from roach and rudd of about 4 to 6oz with over a dozen gracing the bank. I was really enjoying just catching steadily on the dry fly, and after all you cant beat "enjoy". In the past I have become a little bogged down with catching larger fish, so much so that at times it had become more of a chore than pleasure. This was back to fishing purely for fun.

Unfortunately this spell only lasted for about an hour before the wind picked up and made keeping the fly static all but impossible. I was now struggling to cast and though you cant tell from the pictures things had become rather blustery. I only had an hour or so of fishing time left before I had to head back home for child minding duty. The Clash song sprung to mind "should I stay or should I go". I decided to stay, but swap over to a sinking fly. I quickly tied on a small pink bug with a red glass bead for a head, again tied by yours truly.

It would be interesting to see if the fish were as keen on the sinking fly as they were in the dry fly.
I needn't have worried after switching to the little pink bug sport was hectic with shoals of small roach and rudd racing towards the fly. It was just a matter of watching the fly slowly drop through the clear water and then strike when it disappeared into the fishes mouths.

I lost count of the number of fish that I caught, all were very similar in size the only difference being roach or rudd.

I did spot a couple of large bream cruising by and dropped the fly in front of them, but they showed no interest at all.......there is always next time.

So after just a couple of hours I had gained loads of confidence in catching coarse species on the fly, it was really effective and made for some terrific sport, with plenty of fish caught and quite a few missed. Some of the rudd were really engulfing the fly....I will have to tie up a few more of the little pinks. I really enjoyed my couple of hours down the cut, and will definitely be back for more, at first I thought the wind had ruined things but the enforced switch over to the bug actually improved my catch rate. So thats chub, dace, roach and rudd ticked of the "fly coarse list" in just a couple of sessions.......hmmm what next?

Fly Time

Iv been really getting into my fly fishing over the last few months, this is a new branch of the sport to me so at the moment I am definitely in the "novice" category. Having caught a few Grayling and trout and having had some really enjoyable days fishing the dry fly on the river Dee and finally starting to get some success, the fly fishing bug has bit hard.

Unfortunately the game fishing where I live is next to non existent, so without a long drive the opportunities to fish for the wild brown trout will be few and far between. With this in mind I decided to set off in search of other species that may be interested in taking the artificial fly. In the past I have fished a stretch of river not too far away that has always been kind to me with plenty of chub and barbel. I decided that I would try to catch my first coarse species on the fly and the chosen target was the chub.

I arrived at the river after work for a short evening session, I started off fishing with some streamers that I had tied up ( now a novice fly tyer too ). Having caught tons of chub on crankbaits from the river in the past I thought that this would be the best form of attack. How wrong could I be, the river was very low and clear and every time I happened upon a chub and got close enough to cast the fly at them they spooked and shot off out of the swim. With the river only averaging perhaps 18" deep and being very clear I was struggling BIG TIME. This scenario of walking the river, seeing a chub, casting at the chub, spooking the chub continued fro a couple of hours. Even though the surrounding were stunning and there was not another sole to bee seen on the 2 miles or so of river that I had walked along, I was starting to get a bit frustrated.

It was off with the streamer and on with a small balloon caddis dry fly ( I had tied five of these the previous evening) After working my way down the small meandering river I spotted what looked like a decent chub just holding in about 1ft of slow moving water. I cast just upstream of the chub and watched as the fly drifted back towards him. At first he didnt seem interested but as the fly neared him he moved towards it...alas only slightly. I put in a second cast, again upstream and let the fly find its way back to the chubs lie. This time he lifted of the bottom slowly and had a really good look at the fly...but didnt take it.

By this time I was actually getting a bit nervous, after hours of spooking chub, this one didnt know that I was there and was actually starting to look like he may take the fly. Third cast into near enough the same spot and the "bushy" offering drifted back towards the chub. This time he rose in a more determined fashion and in what seemed like slow motion he sipped the fly of the surface and began to sink back into the depths. I struck with my new 10ft 3# rod and then all hell broke lose. The chub screamed off heading for a submerged tree trunk that was clearly visible mid river. I hung on and eventually turned him, after a few more strong lunges form the fish I was starting to get a semblance of control. After a short but hectic fight I netted the first "coarse" fish that I had caught on the fly...I couldnt have been happier, even more so with it coming to a home tied fly. It wasnt the biggest chub iv ever caught and I didnt bother weighing it but would say it was somewhere between 3 or 4 pounds. Never the less I was very happy to get off the mark.

And the home tied fly that the chub couldnt resist

Not the neatest of flies and a little battered, but for a newcomer to fly fishing and tying I was happy with the outcome.

I continued to use the dry fly for what was left of the evening and managed to grab another new fly species with a nice dace. Just before last light  and on the way back to the car, I found a pocket of faster water and saw something splash. A quick "one more cast" resulted in a grayling of about half a pound. I stayed fishing in the fast water until I couldnt see the fly anymore and managed about half a dozen nice grayling.
All in all it was a good end to what started off a difficult session.

Hello Everyone

Hello Folks,

I have decided to set up this blog to share some of my exploits, and also to act as a reference to look back on my own fishing. I used to keep a record book of each years angling with pictures glued in. To be honest I would find that easier as I am some what of a technophobe. So it will be a learning experience trying to use the puter.

Anyway I have always coarse fished but just recently I have started fly fishing, this has coincided with my visits to Wales, fishing in beautiful scenery for wild fish. To be fair it has been a struggle switching over to flicking little flies around after almost exclusively throwing big lures around for the last ten years or so.

My casting leaves a lot to be desired and I have tonnes to learn with regard to fishing for wild brown trout and grayling, but despite the steep learning curve I have managed to winkle out a few fish. I am slowly learning the names of the flies and little by little my casting is starting to improve.....though i imagine if I was watching myself I would think it looked pretty ugly ( the casting, that is :) I have even started to tie my own flies and surprisingly caught on them.

The highlight so far has been the grayling I have managed quite a few with this being the best so far.

The pic doesnt really do it justice as my hand is covering the fishes belly, but this was a really well built stocky fish......It may be a while before I better this one, but I will enjoy trying.