pike and perch.co.uk

I was up well up for some more perch action on friday and with that in mind I made sure i was up nice and early to give a small nearby pit another go. I had my first lure caught perch from this lake the other day and at approx a pound and a bit i was eager to try to find some more.

I drove down there nice and early after de-icing the car and the lake was extremely high but not too coloured so i thought it was definately worth a shot.

First hour not a touch, and i hadn’t seen any movement at all. But then low and behold after moving swims a few times bump bump on the lure and whallop i was in. It felt like a good un and kept its head down for a little while and then up it popped and was scooped into the waiting net. It sure looked like a lure caught pb and once on the scales it went 2lb 2oz’s – at last I’d managed a 2lb’er on a lure! Happy days indeed.

No others were taken and once it got bright i headed home, fingers crossed i’ll be back down there for the last couple of hours of light to try and tempt another one!

Succesfull lure = A white Mepps Spinflex

What a week, high winds and what seemed like an endless amount of rain plummeting out of the skies.  For river fishing that’s about as bad as it can get! 

To numb my pain on Wednesday my latest tackle purchase arrived, a nice new Savage Gear Bushwhacker 10-30g 7’ spinning rod.  I had been reading everywhere about how nice they are to use and with that I couldn’t resist purchasing one for myself.  What does a new lure rod need?  You got it… some lovely new lures.  So I met up with a local chap who sells Rapala’s and treated myself to five new uns.  A couple of X-Rap Shads and a couple of Glass Shad Raps hopefully these would tempt a few perch to play! 

Luckily I managed to get a few hours of lure fishing in on Friday afternoon before darkness in between the heavy rain spells.  I was hoping where I had in mind wouldn’t have been too badly hit by the weather.   

On arrival at the lake I was quite happy that it wasn’t coloured up at all, although it had risen about 6” since my last trip.  I plugged away for an hour hopping swims without a touch, admittedly I hadn’t seen much movement either which was weird for this place.  When I was here carp fishing for a few nights over the summer I saw loads of perch chases on the surface.  Maybe the cold had sent them down a little. 

On went the x-rap shad and I cranked it down… I felt a little tap tap and struck but unfortunately it was just a little weed.  Back out it went this time a little shallower and BANG I was on to a half decent Perch, phew I only had about 30 minutes till darkness and the smile on my face would take some beating!  Yee haa!  I had managed to christen a new rod and lure in one outing, lovely jubbly!  Unfortunately no others came my way but still I could not have been happier.

Below is a link to a video of the X-Rap’s action so you can take a look and see what you think… I will definitely be spending more time trying these out on this lake and other waters nearby! 

Rapala X-Rap Shad Lure

Its just a shame with work that I won’t get out again now for a week and a bit.  Grrrr!

Well a great weekend fishing was had this past weekend.  The perch and pike fishing was very slow in the end, and Sunday only produced a few small ones.  Then i got invited to fish Bewl Water on monday to fish from a boat on the fly.  After a slow start the first fish was taken and at around 4lb it was my biggest so far!  Then an hour later another followed around the same sort of size taken an a fry imitation.  A pristine fish that was purely stunning!

A few hours passed without a take and after going on a drift bang bang bang on the fly and whallop i was in again and a great fight followed by a very spirited trout of around 3lb.  I was over the moon we still had around 3 hours to go and i had 3 in the boat.  I fished on hard as my previous best was 4 fish, and i was sure that i could better this.  Bang i’m in but unfortunately this one was a lost fish.

Forty five minutes later and i had another 2 fish in the boat!  I’d done my best so far whilst out on this vast expanse of water…!  2 hours to go and i was damned if i was done.  Thankfully after an extremely slow retrieve of the flies another decided to have a go at it and roared off.  After a few minutes the fish came off.   I was not a happy bunny but on the very next cast it’s friend came to say hello and after whizzing round the boat and from side to side it was beaten and in the net!  6 fish and i was a damn happy fisherman, with the sun going down quickly it was time to take the boat back to the jetty and off to the pub for a well earned pint.

Unfortunately with only a week of the season left that will probably be my last visit to Bewl in a boat until March 2010 when the boats can go back out.  Next up i’m hoping for a Perch on the fly as its one of the species i’d love to catch on this method…  on goes the thinking cap and the research in to the best flies begins!

Until next time, tight lines and may all your fish be bigges!

Well low and behold i managed it!  Back out on the bank today and damn it felt good….!

After the rain yesterday which absolutely chucked it down i wasn’t too sure how good it would be but conditions looked perfect for a decent day out.   I arrived at 6:30am and silver fish were moving as normal, but none of the anticipated pike action to be seen anywhere… baits were cast around the swim but still no signs and no takes.  Very perculiar for this area that i was fishing…!

A move was made after a few hours and i managed to lose what felt like a good double!  Gutted!  Moved to smaller baits for the perch under a 5ssg loafer float and let it drift around, after two minutes whop the float was under and i was in at last… unfortunately again a lost fish.  Re-cast to the same and the stripey fancied another go, damn it hit the bait hard!  Thankfully this one was landed and was around a pound.  Very happy!!!  Shortly after another 2 were taken to around the same size.  Then the swim went dead.

I returned home a happy man, as although id have loved to stay longer i just didn’t have time.  Still atleast i know where some of those stripeys are hiding for tomorrow and maybe monday as well!  I cannot wait to get back down there to see if any biggies are about!

Hopefully someone can help me!  I’m desperately looking for some of my favourite floats as i’m down to my last one… if anyone has any please let me know!  Or alternatively if you know anywhere i can get some or something similar please send me a mail at pikeandperch@gmail.com

Thanks,
Mark

Well i’ve got to admit i’ve been quiet for a while due to doing a bit of carp fishing and working silly hours! Only a few more weeks of madness at work and hopefully i’ll be back on the banks each weekend.  With the onset of the colder weather approaching i cannot wait for the chance to get out at 5am at the weekend and try to find some pike, perch and the odd chub.

I will be posting again hopefully next weekend as fingers crossed that will be my one off!   I hope everyone is catching well and finding those biggies – wherever they may be hiding!

Tight lines
Mark

Its been a while since i’ve posted so i thought i’d post up a little update.  I’ve been hard at work finishing my pond off which is literally done now.  So hopefully back on the fishing as soon as possible!  If all goes to plan another night will be spent on the river this weekend to see if life is returning to a very low looking river.  Not much fish movement to report at all and captures… well even less so!

I’ll hopefully be posting up on here sunday of some marvelous captures, well probably not to be honest but i’m staying optimistic just in case something special comes my way!  If not i think it may be time to try somewhere else for a while until we have some real amount of rain to rejuvenate a somewhat silent river that is really struggling to produce at the moment.  Fingers crossed for the weeks to come!

Unfortunately the night was a quiet one and the perch weren’t having it either, fingers crossed i’ll be back down there soon as the river does look great at the moment its just a case of finding the fish.  Admittedly it wasn’t a roving approach as i had very little time to get setup before dark after getting back from work late.  Still a good time was had nevertheless and the help of a late night BBQ always make it a worthwhile trip.

And now i’m on a fishing break as i have a lot of work to do on my new pond.  Hopefully it will be done by next weekend and then the following weekend i can get out on the bank again!

I’m back on the hunt tonight, and thankfully a night to be spent on the river is ahead of me!  I’m going out to fish until its too dark for the stripeys and then out with the carp rods for the night to see if i can find anymore monsters! 

I’ll update the site again upon my return!  Wish me luck! 

This morning i was up at 5am and out on the river by 5:30am.  I was hoping after the rain that the river may liven up a little, unfortunately the only perch i managed to capture was probably about half a pound.  I had been trotting the a lob and moving every 30 minutes to try to cover as much ground as possible.

At about 7:30 i spotted bubbles coming up just off some reeds no more than 6 feet from the bank so crept up and slowly lowered a huge lob into the water about 2 feet from the bubbles.  After ten mins the float slowly dissappeared, i struck into thin air and the lob was gone.  There was no great movement of a spooked fish so i lowered another in, and the same thing happened again… so in went another…

This time i struck and for a split second i thought i was snagged, and then boom the clutch went absolutely mental and i was into something that went off down river like a steam train.  I thought the reeds would stop it but oh no this fish had other ideas and come very close to the surface and the tail broke the water!  Wow boy oh boy was it a tail and a half… and it signalled to me that i was into a decent Common Carp!  It run downstream about 30-40 yards before i managed to turn it round, and about 10 knee knocking minutes later the battle was over and i managed to scoop it up into my net.

Low and behold i was in total shock at what i had just achieved!  And what made it even sweeter was that i managed to land it on 6lb line with a 4lb hooklink on a John Wilson Avon 1.25tc rod!  I want another one already!

The setting was amazing for the picture and thankfully they came out really good!  A big thanks go out to Sam for rushing down from work to take the pictures, i owe you more than a few beers!  Thanks mate!