pike and perch.co.uk

Mission accomplished.. i set out at 7am this morning armed with the fly rod and a selection of flies and a few dog biscuit.   On arrival I had a quick wander around the lake and found a couple of carp nosing around on the top as the sun started to hit the lake, so in went a few mixers and i nipped off to the other little lake to see if there where any other oppurtunities to be had.  After seeing no other signs of fishy life i returned to my original spot. 

Most of the mixer had dissappeared so i tackled up and out went a small yellow dog biscuit fly.  And low and behold within all of 5 minutes a pair of lips rose to the fly but unfortunately they turned away at the last second, dammit!!!  Undeterred I recast the fly a little further out this time, and straight away up came some more carpy looking lips that gratefully closed around the fly and i quickly took my oppurtunity to strike.  Wehey…. i was in to my first carp on a fly – time to hold on tight! 

The spirited little mirror wasn’t happy from the get go and went on a high speed 20-30 yard run.  I had a assumed my fighting position with rod bent right over and a silly grin on my face that was from ear to ear.  Within what felt like 20 minutes of rod bending action (probably more like ten) this feisty little carp was in the net and ready to be unhooked.   Wow what a total buzz, in fact as i right this this evening i’m still smiling like a kid at christmas! 

I had another wander after putting the little fella back but only managed to see a couple of others that were unfortunately unreachable with the fly rod.  I will definately be back down there soon for another go.

After the carp adventures i headed off to the river but after this weeks rain it was very coloured and seemed more like a day for bait fishing rather than fly and lure.  I had a dabble in various different spots for a couple of hours but didn’t manage to catch other than a take for a small perch that decided it didn’t want to say hello and came off after a few seconds.  Still my day was still made after the carp in the morning!   If all goes to plan i may even try to nip back down there for an hour or two tomorrow. 

With the weather looking perfect this bank holiday weekend the plan is to go out roving.  First thing tomorrow the plan is to go after my first carp on the fly rod, fingers crossed they will be up in the water in the morning sun.  Well thats aslong as the weather man has got it right!   Then its off to the River Medway with the fly rod with some muddlers and minkies to see if i can tempt a few fish.  The Spro ultralight is coming with me incase the flies don’t produce… i’ll update tomorrow evening to let you know how i get on! 

Damn i love the night before an outing!  Sorting through the gear and making sure i’m ready to go first light!   The alarm is set and i’m like a little kid at christmas!

Good luck to all for the bank holiday weekend!

Finally the off season lows are on their way out, its time to get excited and make some preparations for the new season!   The river kit gets a dusting down and the tackle box gets prepared for roaming again.  I simply love this time of year, its light until late, warm enough to travel lightly and cover some serious mileage on the river.  

After catching some nice chub at the end of last season i really am looking forward to targetting them for a while this season.  And of course i’ll out doing plenty of perch fishing, some pike fishing and not forgetting a few socials on the hunt for some nice carp.  Oh and hopefully i may even be able to catch a few river carp along the way!  I saw a nice 20+ cruising along in the sunshine two weeks ago and its given me the itch. 

I’ll be back to post again on the evening of the 16th to let you know how i get on!  Tight lines to all and may the 2010/11 season be a great one! 

Atlast it seems that the cold long winter is behind us and the weather is finally on the up!  The last month has been hard since the river season ended and my time was to be spent on nearby lakes whilst i wait for the return of the river.  This is without a doubt my hardest time of year, especially when travelling by the river each day and it starts to look more full of life as each day passes.  Only this saturday did i see a near 20lb carp cruise on past me during a quick stroll along the banks.  So frustrating!

So what has happened since my last post fishing wise, to be honest not a great deal except for the fact that i managed 3 4lb + chub.  The last being a PB from the river at 4lb 9oz on the last day of the season which was a great result considering there was work on the river that weekend and water levels were 3 feet down from the usual.  What made it even better was that the fish took a liking to my new homemade cheese paste!  I’ll definately be trying that again when the season re-opens.  The other two were taken on pop-ups whilst trying to tempt the odd carp!

Perch wise i’ve been trying a new pit to see what the numbers are like within.  I have managed to do a few hours over the last couple of evenings so far, and last night i finally managed to find one.   Not a biggie but at a pound and a half and coloured the way he was i was delighted.  The little spro ultralight rod really does come in to its own with the perch!   The lure that tricked this little fella was a little Salmo and i’ll be trying it out again down there very soon.   As ever last light was the key again…!   Last night i was losing the light very quickly and in the end i decided to stick it out for ten minutes more in to darkness and it thankfully paid off.   (Just be prepared a head torch is a must for unhooking at night)

I’ll try to update the site again should anything else come my way on this spring/summer evening trips! 

Tight lines and best luck to all

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!

I went out on Sunday for a quick dabble and managed numerous perch again but unfortunately only up to a pound. They were going mad on a chopped lob and red maggot spot that I had baited up, at times they were suicidal. Unfortunately no bigger ones came along but hopefully in time I can suss out where they are lurking.

On Monday I managed to get a day away from the office and get back onto the bank. I tried a new spot on the river and baited as before and to my surprise I caught my first ever Ruff which came in at 3oz’s. A real heavy set little fish which I was elated to catch. Shortly after a had another before that area suddently stopped producing. Later in thte morning I noticed further the reeds shaking away a little further down the bank, something was on the feed, so armed with a 1oz quiver tip a chucked a lobworm right along side the action zone. Low and behold about 20 minutes later the tip went crazy and pulled round solid. I struck in to something with quite a bit of speed and power! Considering I was using 6lb line with a 4lb hooklink it provided me with a great spirited fight, I wasn’t sure what I had connected with and at first thought it was a chub when to my surpise a common rolled right in front of me before meeting the landing net. I was very shocked at catching my first river carp, I’d always heard that they were in the area but I have never managed to catch one. The swim went dead after the eruption stirred from catching the carp and all that was to follow was a bream around 4-5lb. I did find some great looking pools that look good for the perch and chub and these shall be tried on my next visit.

Not too sure if I’ll ever catch two pb’s like this again in a day but the river holds so many unknowns anything is possible! As for Sunday’s outing, I cannot wait!!!