Return of the mojo?

There's nothing like catching to make you want to catch some more. So after my first session of the year I was keen to have another try. When I pulled up to the gate another car pulled up behind me, and the angler was in a hurry to get to his swim. It wasn't where I'd planned on going so I wasn't bothered. It was, unfortunately, near a swim I planned to end up in on dark but not wanting to be seen there I had to change my plans a bit.

 The rest of the pit was free so I was spoiled for choice. First off I dropped in a swim that looks as pikey as hell but has only thrown me one small jack to a lure. I'd soon lost confidence and moved to a swim that's been much kinder.

 

 

After an hour or so I'd lost interest in that swim too.Off to the third spot, another productive one. This was more like it. The left hand margin float, in the best spot, bobbed. Then it fell over and as I got to the rod it was dithering. Something had picked the bait up for sure. As soon as I picked the rod up the float lay motionless. I wound down to just the bait. Seemingly unmarked. I wondered if it had been a take at all. I just don't get finicky takes. I sat it out until dark without any further action.

A few days later I was due to have a cataract operation so spent the days before that working hard(ish) and knew I wouldn't be able to fish for a few more days after the op. It only took a couple of days before I was able to drive again, but I was still supposed to be 'off work' and unfit for gardening (not that I ever do any gardening but that's what the medics said.). No lifting heavy objects either. I was bored. To relieve the tedium one afternoon I tried my hand at some lure portraiture.

 

 

Yesterday I cracked when the air temperature rose and the sun shone. I put the rods in the car after an early lunch. This time there were three vehicles in the car park, but nobody fishing where I fancied. Walking to my Plan A swim I got the urge to fish a different one. This one has been hit and miss. It's another that screams 'pike' but doesn't throw them up to me too often. This time was another failure. I do wonder if I should give these less productive swims longer, maybe a whole session, to give them a fairer chance. Not this time though, after an hour and  a bit I was on my way to the swim I'd first had in mind.

 

 

The day was just about right. Not too cold, sunny with a stiff breeze blowing to put a nice ripple on the surface.Three baits went out, one on the paternoster Id started using as a change of tactic without any attention from old esox - so far. I'd not been settled in to the swim for long when one of the Delkims set up a continuous fast warble. I jumped up but none of the baitrunners were spinning. What?

Locating the culprit it was clear the thing had developed a fault. I tried a fresh battery. No joy.I think I'd got water in the alarm when I moved swims. Bugger. I'd have to keep a watchful eye on the float. With the gusting side wind catching the braid the bottom end floats were alternating between standing proud and leaning at a rocking 45 degrees. As the wind gusted strong the float's stood up, as it dropped they keeled over. I was pondering how I'd know a take if it came because the float action would be different because a float would stab down sharply, when the float on the now silent alarm stabbed down, rose, stabbed down and stayed down. Then the baitrunner began to spin like fury! 

One great benefit of braid for pike fishing is the direct contact it gives for setting the hooks. Before I had the rod up enough to put a curve in it I could feel the weight of the pike. It's been a long time since I sold the pair of P-4s I used when boat fishing, but this season and last I've had a set rigged up to use off the bank. I'd forgotten how useful they are. The one in my hand had cast the mackerel head and two ounce bomb as well as my beloved P-5s and was now well bent and giving this pike some stick as I pumped it towards me.

The weight felt respectable but the fish wasn't doing anything so it was hard to judge. It could have been a high single with it's gob open. Once under the rod top it woke up and did a bit of charging around and thrashing of the water before I slid it over the net. As I'd netted the pike I couldn't see the hooks, but when I peered down at the fish from above the hooks were in the net mesh. The bait had long since been lost. I made a better guess at the weight of this one, being optimistic to the tune of three quarters of a pound.

 

The dilemma I now had was to stay or go. Part of me felt like sticking around in the swim until dark, the other part felt like a move to another favourite for last knockings. In the end I compromised by stopping a bit longer than my usual hour in a swim. The final move did me no good.

There had been a lack of bird life all afternoon. Which surprised me. Maybe the wind had kept them down. I did wonder where all the mallards which had been around on my previous two visits had gone. There had been dozens, but I only spotted four this time. It's not yet February and the days are lengthening noticeably. Still no sign of the chinking of great tits heralding the approach of nesting season though. It can't be far off.

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New skool/Old school

For the first time in ages I've felt like going fishing. It took me a while to get some lure gear sorted but eventually it was all ready. I don't know why but I'd got this idea in my head that I ought to move with the times and use more modern reels than Ambassadeurs. The current generation of low profile baitcasters look more ergonomic and practical when considered objectively.

Years ago I used one or two low profile reels and liked them. Apart from the thumbars... The new designs look to have better placed thumbars. The biggest stumbling block is being out of touch with what's what and then there's the price. Larger ones can run to two or three times the price of a 6501!

Luck was on my side because I know someone who works for whatever the empire which owns Fox International and a load of other brands is called this week. There were some Lew's reels which looked like they might be worth a chuck. I managed to borrow one of the larger reels and once I'd sorted the birdsnest out that it came with I was raring to go.

Having a roughly 5501 Ambassadeur sized spool I put it on a Trickster L and threw some smaller lures in a box. Lures I used to use on the canal. Old school lures - six inch Jakes and Grandmas, L'il Ernies, 1oz spinnerbaits. I thought these might give me a better chance of connecting with a pike of any size.

When I travel light with lures these days I use my old Korum bait and bits bag, fondly known as The Shopping Bag.Side pockets hold sling, scale and unhooking tools, everything else gets dropped in the main compartment for easy access. The everything else being lure box, camera, drink bottle and lead bag containing notebook, permits and some other bits and bats. An unhooking mat is clipped to the bag and with net in one hand and rod in the other I'm mobile for a couple or three hours.

Spring was definitely in the air. Chiffchaff's making their monotonous but cheery sounds, blackthorn blossom on the fade being replaced bu fruit tree buds bursting open. Lilly pads were up, but not fully. A pair of great crested grebes were patrolling the open water. With a light ripple on the surface things looked promising.

To be honest this was more a try out for the reel than a serious fishing session. I still found myself thinking about where to cast and how to work the lures though. That rhythm of cast, retrieve, cast, retrieve was soon fallen into with each cast following automatically after a retrieve was completed. Time flew by as I worked my way round the pit.

Playing with the reel at home gave me three concerns. There was obviously the thumbar, then there was the high 7.1:1 gear ratio and finally the fact that the levelwind disengages during the cast. on other reels I've found that a disengaging levelwind can bunch the line up. Not a major issue but a possible cause of overruns and other line lay problems.

In practice none of these concerns proved justified. Thumbars on Ambassadeurs are an afterthought and so not in the optimal position. On a reel designed from scratch to have a thumbar it can be positioned where it doesn't get in the way during the retrieve. The high ratio and disengaging levelwind appear to work together to prevent bunching as the levelwind 'catches up' with the line position very quickly.

It only took a couple of casts to stop trying to push a spool release button and use the thumbar automatically. The reel felt nice in the hand, although a little small, and the gear ratio worked fine when twitching lures and cranking small bladed spinnerbaits. It was less happy when I put on a lure with a bigger blade which offered more resistance.

What I did like was the handle. The hard EVA, round, grips were really comfy and the longer throw probably made the gear ratio 'feel' lower than it is.

One thing I noticed was how quickly the line level dropped, being loaded with just 65lb Power Pro an easy cast saw it drop considerably. Another reason for the fast retrieve speed I guess.

I couldn't fault the reel in any practical way, although despite two hours flogging the water I didn't get the chance to test it properly with a pike, and would be happy enough to use this reel or one like it.

There is one thing about it which would worry me in the long run though. The sides of the reel have the dreaded 'soft touch' finish. Unless this is some magic new formula it will turn into a 'sticky touch' finish sooner or later!

As my short session came to an end I swapped the Lew's for one of my ancient C3s to fish the last couple of spots. After one cast trying to use the non-existent thumbar I was straight back in the swing. OK, so the reel needed some oil and was making a bit of a racket but it cast like a dream, felt just right in my hand and more like using a tool to do a job than playing with a pice of fine engineering. Agricultural Ambassadeurs might be, they still 'just work'. It was like coming home!

So I can hand the low profile reel back and save myself a couple of hundred quid by not buying a similar but bigger reel for myself. Maybe if there was a 6501 size low profile reel with no thumbar I might be tempted, but for now I'm sticking with the round reels. I will be looking out for a handle with hard EVA grips though!

In other news blank supplies are picking up. I'm getting on with some long outstanding builds at present. I've also done a bit of an odd build on a blank I had in stock for unknown reasons. I was surprised to be asked if I could build a 2.5lb test curve Torrix float rod. Very much a one-off the result is below. It took a bit of thinking and juggling of fittings but the customer was happy with the build.

 

It's jobs like this which relieve the boredom of building dozens of identical rods. Not something that happens a lot for me but the way blanks have been arriving in large batches recently it has been pretty monotonous. Last week it was X-1s, next week it's going to be Baitblasters.

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Almost interested - and rod ring news

Sometime back I leant a discontinued lure to someone for them to make a mould off it and knock up some copies. A few weeks back I was sent some, beautifully painted by Mark Houghton. They looked so good I got a couple of rods rigged up and went to try them out. The idea was to have one rod rigged with an original (the gold plate one in the pic below) and the other to test the copies.

First cast and the reel wouldn't go back in gear. The button was sticking. I put this down to the usual worn or broken spring. Good job I'd taken two rods!

The copy Magnum Hellcats seem to cast a little better than the original. As they are moulded from solid plastic rather than being hollow they are a little denser so also slightly less buoyant. The hooks I fitted didn't provide quite enough of a keel effect leading to a tendency to 'burst' when twitched hard. mark suggested a size larger belly hook which I'll fit in due course.

The afternoon was mild and pleasant. Unfortunately blue, weed inhibiting, dye had been put in the previous weekend and the water which I had expected to be clear enough to see the lures working deep (for a Hellcat) had very limited visibility. I still tried a number of likely swims but the colour didn't do anything for my enthusiasm.

After that brief session the weather reverted to type for the winter. Wet and windy. So I lost interest again.

 Even before teh Covid-19 pandemic began to impact on deliveries from overseas it had been a real struggle to get hold of Fuji rings in all teh sizes I use. Some having been on back order since the start of December.

This has meant I've been fitting Seymos to rods for people who are not prepared to wait for the missing size 25 Fuji BSVOGs to turn up. The other alternative has been to fit more expensive Fuji Alconite or SiC rings, or Kigans. None of those are without problems either as some Alconites have gone out of stock and Kigans are not available in size 6 (which I fit to Avon rods).

If all this wasn't hassle enough I got warned that BSVOG rings are being discontinued. I fit those to the majority of rods. ApparentlyFuji's  black reel seats are going too. It's something to do with an environmental issue related to the black finish.

As yet I'm not sure what is happening with regard to the reel seats, but I have had a sample of the new ring through. And rather tasty it is too! The overall frame shape and size matches that of the BSVOG, but the ceramic is held in a 'rolled' section of frame like the MNSG SiC and BMNAG Alconite centres have been for many years.

They are also have a 'black chrome' finish which is more akin to the Gunsmoke finish of SiC rings or maybe a slightly darker version of the Kigan frames.

When these will be on stream I don't yet know, but I'll be switching to them as soon as I can. I will have limited stocks of BSVOGs for a while to use on repairs and for matching existing rods. They might not last long though and the Seymo alternative (assuming they continue) will be held in their place.

I have also seen the Vortex rings which Harrison's stock. These are similar to the hard chrome lined Pac-Bay Minima rings which look good on light rods. When I first saw the Vortex rings they were only available in large sizes for carp rods. These should soon be available in sizes down to 8, making them usable on tench and barbel rods. More news on that when I know more.

In the meantime, here are some ropey photos comparing the BSVOG and new frames.

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Fishing and the pond

I've almost got the fishing bug again. I'm sure I would have got it back if the three sessions I've had feeling full of enthusiasm hadn't all resulted in abject failure!

The first two were short lure flinging trips that were probably a little early. Although the days were warm the nights were cool and as well as the water not having warmed up I think the pike might not have been on the prowl following spawning.

I don't think that my plan to stick to 'retro' lures, ones which got a lot of use back in the earlier days of the big lure boom, that was the cause of my failure. A good lure then is still a good lure. The pike certainly won't have seen many of them! One half hearted slash at a bucktail spinner from a hammer handle was all the action I managed.

More recently with the lily pads spreading and the water warm to the touch I tried a few hours going into darkness for eels. I knew I'd be guaranteed some action. I was. The usual frustrating action that comes with fishing bunches of worms. Not one of the many takes, ranging from the twicthy to the 'unmissable' run, was connected with.

What was interesting, however, was that most of the takes came from open water. The bait positioned near overhanging branches was untouched, the off-bottom bait near some pads which had produced the first two takes  was relatively unmolested. It was the bait cast out to no particular feature that kept getting mauled. I was going to have a return match with the eels last week, but when I looked there were only enough worms for two hookbaits and it was too late to get any more. I could have done some digging, I suppose. That way the pond restoration could have been progressed and some bait acquired. Although the ground has dried and hardened.

The pond being cleared  ready for the liner removal.

I pulled the leaking liner out of my wildlife pond last autumn and had intended to get a replacement liner in over the winter but the hole in the ground filled with water which was still deep by the time the frogs returned and it stayed that way long after they had spawned, departed and there were tadpoles. The recent dry stretch has seen the level drop rapidly, to the point where there were almost more tadpoles than water!

Linerless and being reprofiled before the frogs arrived

When the frogs had gone and the water cleared I was fortunate to spot a newt. Then another. And another. In total I saw five newts. Definitely five individuals as I counted them all at the same time. There might have been more lurking in the leaf litter on the bottom. I netted a couple out to confirm the species.

The newts seemed to have disappeared by the time I got my new liner and was ready for action. However when I was clearing the pond edge I saw what I took to be a dead one. Stiff legged and on its back I picked it up and paced it on a rock. I went inside to get a camera to take a photo or two but when I returned the newt had crawled part way under the stone! I thought its eye looked bright for a corpse. It must have been playing dead as a predator avoidance technique.

What to do with the tadpoles? The only solution I could think of was to scoop them out and hold them in buckets along with some pond sludge and leaf litter. Then get the liner in and part filled with tap water before putting the taddies and original water in too.

Rather than tip all the sludge in the pond I decided to leave that in the buckets in the pond while everything settles for a day or two.

The next stage is to finish off fitting the liner, which is rather too large so I might extend part of the pond, before starting to add pond plants.

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Springtime

It didn't take long for the hawthorn to catch up with where it ought be. One week on and the bushes were a froth of white blossom. The sun was continuing to heat the world up, and apparently put the pike down as I fruitlessly chucked a fresh selection of lures around for a short evening session.

For some reason, quite possibly the state of frustration I seem to get in when the weather is hot, once something goes wrong in that sort of weather I get ratty, which makes more stuff go wrong, making me even more narky. That was why I'd gone fishing in the first place. To chill out!

After that session a load of rod bits I'd been waiting for for ages all turned up at once, meaning it's been work all the way since then. I have relieved the boredom with a few 'project' builds. One is a rebuild of a rod I built a long time ago, another is a pair of E-glass downrigger rods. Those are paying jobs. The third is an ultralight rod I've just finished off which is a bit of a cock up. I'd been asked if I could build an ultralight rod and said I had no source for a suitable blank. A couple of days later I remembered I did have a source and ordered a two piece, seven foot two, ultralight blank. When it arrived I'd forgotten who had been looking for on. I guess it's too late for me to change my ways and get organised!

As I had to order some fittings from the USA for the downrigger rods I added some fancy bits to the order to make up the ultralight. When they arrived I started playing around with them on the blank in the downtimes waiting for glues and varnishes to dry on other rods. It's turned out quite nicely.

Split grips seem to be in vogue on lure rods these days. I have no idea why. I don't think they are very practical. As for the humpbacked reel seat. It feels better than it looks, but my sweaty hands would soon have the soft-touch finish rotting and peeling off!

Had I taken a bit more time considering the build the foregrip would have been changed. It doesn't convince me as it stands.

Thread colour was a tough decision. The blank has a sort of metallic hint to the olive. I went with olive thread tipped with three turns of a sandy shade. How to finish the folding hook keeper was a test. The other week I'f fitted one to a barbel rod for a customer who wanted it a few inches above the rod's handle. I did that and the lettering went between keeper and cork. It looked quite nice. So I scaled the concept down for the ultralight, and did some tricky small lettering.

Ring selection was another conundrum. A couple of years back I built some light spinning rods for a customer with high stand off single foot Fujis. They were on my radar but the frames are a bit heavy for such a light and fine blank. While browsing the US supplier's website I found some similar rings from PacBay in their Minima range.

I've fitted Minimas to a handful of rods for customers, and have a set on trial on my FXH prototype rod. I don't like them. The frames are light but a little agricultural compared to Fujis, and with heavy braid they can be a bit noisy. But for a light rod, to be used with light lines for lightweight fish they will be no worse than the hard chrome rings we used to use in the Dark Ages.

Because the reels used on UL rods have tiny spools there's no need for over-large butt rings, and standing off so much the ring centre is more in line with the spool than it would be in a lower set ring. Whether I'll give this rod a run out remains to be seen!

Talking of the Dark Ages. Here are four canal tench I caught back in 1981. First up is a rare 'bag shot'. I usually returned each tench after weighing.

The second picture is of what remained my PB for some ten years before it was beaten by a fish over twice the weight. It's still my PB float caught tench!

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Same old story

These days I find fishing is more therapy than hobby. I seem to go fishing when I need to ease the tension. Yesterday my stress levels had been raised by some infuriating photo-scanning software which not only ran as slowly as usual (which I can live with) it also manage to store the scans in a different folder than it had last time I used it, and promptly lost them all when it decided to crash. Instead of smashing the scanner into tiny pieces with a lump hammer I grabbed a lure rod from the rack, found the box of lures I used last spring, and set off into a warm and sunny evening.

Although late, the hawthorn blossom is not as far behind as the blackthorn was. By the meteorological calendar it's almost summer, but according to the blossom it's mid-spring.

I started out casting a small black Darter given to me by Carl who is producing Loz Harrop Lures. It worked well, but the pike didn't like it any more than I did. I've never got on with tight action, subsurface, baits. Topwaters which walk like that are great, but deeper I prefer a lazier action. A wider glide, or a dive/rise. Pauses are easier to control.

Time to revert to type and chuck a squirrely Burt around. In the third swim it took one cast along the edge to entice a small pike into action. It either missed the lure or failed to get hooked. It was nothing to get upset about when it's second attempt failed on the follow-up cast either.

Two more swims were thrashed before I made another lure change. This time to a sleeper lure which would be in my top ten. The only in-line spinner that I have ever rated for big pike. Not that I've had any really big ones on it, only teenagers, but I know it has caught some lumps for other people. It's easy to cast, easy to fish, and it has its days.

In the seventh swim of the evening the sleeper elicited the same response Burt had done earlier. Two missed chances (whether mine or the fish's I'm not sure) from a similarly sized pike. Time to get the Jackpot out. Perhaps conditions weren't right, but surface action was non-existent. Back to Burty Boy.

I spent some time working the Burt around a promontory while a pair of Canada geese kept a wary eye on me from across the bay as four small balls of fluff with clockwork legs pecked the grass around them. Time was getting on and the air cooling. Back to the usual two swims near the car for the last fifteen minutes.

It only took three casts for the Burt to get hit just short of the rod top. As the pike, maybe a little shorter than the lure, thrashed around I decided against swinging it to hand for the unhooking and to let it shake itself free on a semi-slack line. The plan worked.

In the final swim of my two hour session the drop in temperature was noticeable by the water coming off the braid feeling decidedly chilly on my right hand. Definitely time for home.

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Ka-BOOM!

My lure fishing comeback tour continued yesterday. In the morning I'd visited the local DIY shop, which also sells household goods, with the intention of purchasing a tupperware type box to take over from the unstable bucket my lures have been rattling around in. I had one lined up but then noticed some storage boxes. Not air/watertight but that isn't a problem. The lidless bucket was hardly that. Best of all the box was large enough to get my unhooking tools in as well as the lures, and half the price of the tupperware type box!

Eager to try out the box I filled it with my junk, put it in the Korum mat/sling thing. And headed out into the warm spring evening. The sun was bright, the sky almost cloudless but there was a chilly north-easterly blowing.  Not ideal, but I do prefer a ripple on the water when I'm surface fishing. Particularly if I can cast downwind and work the lures back over the wavelets. I think the ripple makes a lures artificiality less obvious and it creates more noise from a bait.

My plan was to work my way in the opposite direction to last time. No real reason except I fancied seeing if this time I could nail the fish I'd raised late on. No joy in the first swim so on to the next one. Here the water was in shade, but more rippled with the wind in my face. I cast over the places the takes came from on my previous visit with no success. Then I flicked the Blackpot out to my right. Nothing. Another cast a bit closer to the margin and two thirds of the way back there was a satisfying take. Not the splashy take of a small jack. Not the modest 'boom' of a high single. But a proper ka-boom! The resistance was more than the prototype rod had had to put up with before too.

Even so the fight was similar to all the others, except on a bigger scale. Wallowing and head shaking rather than runs. As I could see that the lure was outside the pike's mouth, just the tail hook connected, I feared the worst. A single point snout hook-up all to often leads to a shake of the head that sends the lure flying free. That was why I reached for the net rather than risk letting the fish tire before hand grabbing it. There had been no need to worry. The hook had taken hold well inside the top jaw, but was easily removed.

The scales I had with me were a little optimistic for pike fishing, reading up to 120lb. Being out of practice with my pike weight guesstimates I was amazed to see where the needle settled. A fair few degrees further round the dial than I'd expected.

A two pounder would have done to save a blank, but this fish meant I could have packed up there and then. I carried on though. Either I've scared all the jacks with the Jackpot, or they weren't up for it, because I didn't raise another fish for over an hour. In fact it was getting close to home time when a rooter in a swim I hadn't worked a lure through last time out went airborne with the bait between its teeth. the same old story, the first or second cast getting any interest there is. Then it was back to fishing what seemed like fishless water.

Despite a long lay off from surface fishing my little ruses are coming back to me. Making the lure walk around pads with hard taps followed by gentle ones so it doesn't come along a straight line. Dropping the lure short on a downwind cast and letting it drift up to the pads or reeds. Constantly shifting my position to alter the direction of the retrieve slightly to manoeuvre the lure. breaking up the metronomic taps with pauses. Sometimes these things work. Mostly they keep me thinking. Next time out, if I have the patience, I might start out with a surface crawler.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

I've never considered myself to be obsessive, but when doing something takes my fancy I to tend to get focussed on it for a period. That's why I was back with the lures, specifically the topwaters, yesterday. Even when pike miss a surface lure it gets the adrenalin flowing!

It was straight in with the 'Blackpot' and after my previous experience I wasn't going to spend much time in each spot. Takes had come to the first few casts. If there was a pike in the swim it would probably have a go early rather than late. Had I been turning bigger fish I would have used a surface lure to wake the pike up and strike or not followed that with something more subtle fished subsurface.

Sure enough the pattern was repeated. Nothing in the first swim, move. The second spot let me cover some of the same water plus some more. First cast to a new area and boom! At first I thought the pike had missed as the take was early in the retrieve on a long line and I didn't feel anything. As I tried to regain contact with the bait something pulled back. Not very hard, but it pulled back. Another jack.

A few more casts to spots I hadn't covered and move again. Nothing in three more swims then a corner swim. It might not have been the first cast through some pads but it was second or third. The easterly was making long accurate casts tricky. As the lure came in to open water it was hit. One headshake and the pike was gone. A few more chucks and move again. Nothing. Two more likely looking spots produced nothing so into another one.

First chuck and a jack tried to eat the lure just as I was going to lift it out of the water. This one was determined, if inaccurate! Three more failed strikes followed over the next few minutes before I let the lure rest on a short line at the end of a retrieve. With the lure static the pike's radar served it better! No monster for sure,and as skinny as a snake.

On my way to the next swim I disturbed a roosting tawny owl. The birdy highlight of the evening, with a family of a dozen small mallards in second place. Sedge warblers and whitethroats noisily noticeable, temperatures rising and hawthorn starting to bloom means spring is here at last.

Yet again the first cast stirred a pike into action. This one got hold briefly before dropping off. Possibly the biggest raised of the evening. Two more pikey looking spots produced nothing so I tried another which had a number of interesting looking places to work a lure past. Sure enough one saw a two pounder launch itself at the lure on its firts pass. And its second. Then again a few minutes later after I'd given it a rest. A long cast to another spot and straight away a pike of fur or five pounds cartwheeled behind the bait.

The light was starting to fade as I dropped into the final spot for the evening. First cast, you guessed it. As the lure came into open water it got hit. A couple of headshakes and it was gone. Not to return. They rarely do once they've felt steel. That was it. Another short, fun session. My usual reaction to this kind of fishing is to start taking more lures and gear, and more often than not getting worse results. I do need a better container for the lures though. I'd ditched the bucket for a lidless storage box which I thought would stand up better in my mat/sling when its strap was slung over my shoulder. It didn't. A couple of times I had lures all over the mat.Whatever container I end up using I will not be putting any more lures in it. None.

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Out of retirement

Daylight hours must be a trigger for me getting the urge to wet a line because after tea yesterday I picked up a bucket of lures, some unhooking tools, a rod, net and unhooking mat and set of to throw the lures in some water. It was the first time I'd felt like fishing since early February and my longest break since the close season was abolished.

Two Burts, one floater one slow riser, a spinnerbait, and in-line spinner and a jackpot would cover most eventualities for a couple of hours on a shallow venue.

The main reason for the session was to play with a new lure rod. The reel I put on it hadn't been un a rod for a loooong time. So long that it must have got a bit dried out. The drag was stuck and there was a hideous screeching noise on every cast which the usual dunking in the water didn't shut up. After half an hour or so everything settled down and peace was restored though.

The weighted Burt and in-line spinner were ignored in the first two spots I tried but half way through the first cast the Burt was smoked by a fish that didn't test the rod, or the drag, at all. It was a start though. A couple more casts then on with the topwater. A dozen feet out on the first retrieve and a fish a little larger than the one I'd landed blew up behind the lure. It didn't have a second try.

It's a long time since I've cast a lure in anger but it didn't take long to start remembering the little tricks and techniques. Things like casting long so the lure is well under control as it comes to the place you think will be the strike zone.

Nothing to either lure in the second spot. I'd decided that a silhouette bait was the best bet in the overcast conditions and abandoned the bladed lures.

I bypassed another swim which looked a bit barren in favour of a more featured one. That proved fruitless so I backtracked. A long first cast to some pads and something hit the topwater lure as it came into open water. It felt like I'd hooked a couple of the pads the resistance was so slight. It turned out I'd foulhooked a jack of about a pound, which I consider letting swim around for a few minutes to see if one of its big sisters might be hungry!

Another long cast to get the line laid better on the spool and as the bait came past a bankside bush a better fish did a spinning dolphin impersonation behind it before finishing off with a belly flop. It's a long time since I had so much surface lure action and had forgotten what fun it can be.

A shorter cast, more in hope than expectation, and when the lure reached the same spot the pike made a better job of things and nailed it. Still no test for the rod it was a fish that might have made double figures pre-spawn.

Time was getting on by now so I made one last move to a swim where I could cover a few features. It was to no avail. Two hours fishing, five strikes and two fish. Travelling light with minimal gear and a camera in my pocket. Not a bad way to spend a spring evening with the trees greening up and the chiffchaffs on repeat. I might do it again!

The rod is one that looks nice with it's woven finish but I'm not sure adds anything other than that to the ones already in my range. I did find it really nice for fishing the Jackpot though. There's enough 'weight' to let the drop of the rod tip do most of the work for walking the dog, and it's stiff enough for working the floating Burt too. I'll be leaving it rigged up with the bucket beside it and grabbing a few more short sessions I think.

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Hammer handles

It was boredom that sent me out with a lure rod, a handful of lures and a landing net I knew I wouldn't use for an hour last night. The lake looked to be in fine early autumnal fettle. Pads starting to look frayed at the edges and some already dead and drifting. Haws bright red among yellowing leaves. A congregation of mallards in a reed-lined weedy corner. There felt to be a chance of a pike as the sun turned a rosy orange.

Needless to say the lure I clipped on was a Squirrley Burt in perch. It works, so I use it despite it having one eye! The shallows are still too choked with weed and carp anglers' lines to work a surface bait any distance, although there's no doubt there are pike in there. That sent me towards he deeper weed free areas. With plenty of lilies lining the margins it was obvious to chuck the Burt around their edges. In the third swim I tried, only giving it five or ten minutes per spot, the lure got hit by what felt like a rooter. There was a brief jagging and kiting of the lure with no weight behind it. A few more fruitless casts and I was on the move again.

I always have more confidence casting lures into sunlit water, so my hopes rose as I moved out of the shade. It was in a spot with a bit more surface weed, but with enough free water to get longer casts in, that the Burt got hit again. It was another hammer handle that managed to stay attached. So attached that I had to cut one of the trebles before I could return it.

Jacks of this size are all well and good for saving blanks, but they're a pain to unhook. With a finger under one gill plate you run the risk of getting a treble in it there being so little room to work in. With the back hook chopped up and no spares or split ring pliers with me I had to change lure. The only other Burt I had with me was a floater which needed working faster than I liked. I tried a Slippery Sam for a few fasts before clipping on a Funky Chicken spinnerbait until the sun set and the evening chill sent me back to the car. I know there are a lot of pikers who won't get the deadbaits out until there's a frost, but I might give it a go for the first few hours one morning this week. With my luck I'll hook a five pound eel.

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Lures with character (updated - again)

No fishing today, that's saved for tomorrow. I bought food and more bait to see me through the next few days piking this morning. This afternoon I spent a short while messing around in my 'studio' trying to take portraits of some of my favourite (most successful) lures.

This evening I tried some more lightpainting and thought it worked reasonably well on this Hawg Wobbler.

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Less is more

I've taken the decision to approach my piking like I do the fishing I do for other species. To concentrate on fishing waters that are capable of producing big fish, rather than just going fishing for the sake of it. In the past I have been quite happy to go piking anywhere, and to enjoy learning about new waters and trying methods. I'm not saying that I have all the answers, but I have come to understand that it is better to do a few things well than do a lot of things okay.

I've not been piking since February, and last winter I only went a handful of times. Last winter I decided that I would only pike fish on Blithfield. It fished poorly, but I managed to catch a few jacks and two doubles, well two twenties actually... That seemed like a decent result for a season, and I went back to chasing barbel!

This winter I had a day booked on Rutland, but had to cancel, and got lucky in the PAC draw for Menteith, getting a boat for the lure day. Despite a bad forecast that proved fairly accurate, with strong winds and very strong gusts in the rain squalls, it fished well. There were plenty of pike to be caught although a lot were small fish. My mate Nige Grassby and I were catching jacks from the off. Nige had a well built fish of about 13lb, really solid, and another scraper double among his jacks.

The takes, all on the troll, were all the same. A few initial thumps from the fish followed by it going dead giving no indication of their size until it popped into view and then wagged its tail as it neared the boat. You couldn't tell if the fish was three pounds or a double. The take I got around two o'clock was just the same. But it carried on being a dead weight as it cruised past the boat. "I don't think it's all that big" I said, as I turned it very easily. Then it came up in the water and looked like a low twenty as it dived under the boat stripping line off the reel. Next time it came up it grew a bit as it headed towards the net. Obviously a 25 plusser it pulled the scales down to 29lb!

On the next trolling pass Nige got a take that did the usual trick of a few early head sakes then going solid. Where there's one big fish there's usually another. "I don't know what I've got on here" he said, as he pumped it back to the boat. "It could be a big branch." I have an idea we were both really expecting another lump to hove into sight. What actually broke surface was a pike about four pounds!

After unhooking the twenty-nine I found the tail had come out of the Burt and put it carefully to one side (below). No worries, I had some superglue in my spares box.

Only one problem - the glue had gone solid. I shoved the tail in the Burt and tried wrapping some insulation tape around it to hold it in place. It worked for a while, but the tape came unstuck and was affecting the lure's action. Despite trying a couple of other Burts I didn't manage to get another take. Mind you, Nige only got one more jack before it got rough again and we ran for home - quarter of an hour before the scheduled finishing time instead of our usual quarter of an hour after.

I guess that session might see me through the winter as far as pike go. But I do have a couple of other pikey tricks up my sleeve for later in the season...