pike and perch.co.uk

Well after not getting out on the lake or rivers for 8 weeks i was chomping at the bit to get out for the last day. A new dog has been taking up all my time of late but i have reserved the last day for an outing on the River Mole.

The rain the night before helped put a little colour in the water and conditions looked perfect for a few fish on arrival. Unfortunately it was a very hard day, fishing was hard going apart from continuous takes from ravenous minnows nicking the maggots. Various techniques had been tried and by 11am things were going very slowly. Apart from the minnows i’d lost a fish that took a lob fished to the far bank… a nice whang on the quiver tip and a short fight and he had escaped. Still an hour later the tip showed some movement again, a few taps and then all went quiet. Then wham the fish had decided he wanted my bait… this time half a lob to a size 12 super specimen. Initially i’d thought it was a chub due to the speed it moved up stream. Then it rolled and i thought hello red fins, stripes – happy days! A few moments later a nice 2lb 14oz Perch graced my net. My biggest of the season, and what a way to end!

Unfortunately that was the only action of the day. With all the minnows present we were sure they’d be more perch and chub around but we threw everything at em and no more action was to be had. Every likely looking spot was cast too, every bait we had was tried. Oh well, 3 months and it will be worth another try thats for sure.

Until then its a tad more luring the lakes and the fly rod is out on Monday for the first day of the season! Can’t flippin wait!

Tight lines to all.

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!!!

Last night the weather looked perfect, it was still quite warm and overcast.  So I had to get myself out and try a nearby lake for some perch. Unfortunately there were no whackers caught but a fishing buddy and I managed to catch over 30 perch in two hours from a large lake a short drive from where we live (approx 20 acres). The largest was just under a pound but that didn’t stop us have a very enjoyable session, it was all about getting out there and getting in amongst the stripeys. All fish bar two of them were caught on float fished worm. We will be back down there tonight and hopefully see if we can find some of the larger ones.

Fingers crossed~!  And i’ll let you know how we get on soon!

This Friday afternoon i decided to go armed with some lobs and catch myself a few small livebaits and have another go at the same stretch that produced last weekend. 

On arrival at 3pm the jacks were striking a little further upstream so i decided to setup next to some lillypads and hope for the best a little bit downstream of the resident pike.   First up i thought i’d catch myself a few baits and then try those on one rod and a nice fat juicy lob on the other.   The small roach were most obliging and within 15 minutes i had a good 6/7 baits in the bucket.   I rigged up with my normal float paternoster setup and sat back with fingers crossed.  The float was bobbing away with some attention and after 20 minutes my first perch was bagged.  Just over a pound and i was satisfied.  I recast another bait to the same spot and the attention started after 5 or 6 minutes.  This time not resulting in much, so i left it alone and cast a cut lobworm 15 yards upstream under a bobber float.  Within minutes the first perch was on and quickly netted.   This time at around half a pound he had put up a good scrap.  The livebait still un-touched.  Out went another worm and after a further ten minutes off it ran again, again around half a pound.  I decided to cast the livebait just past this spot incase a biggie was nearby and attracted to the feeding smaller perch.   The worm went back out 5 yards to the left.

Bang!  The float bolted under and at first felt very good with the initial and a very angry pounder was landed.  This followed over the next hour by another 3 perch between half a pound and a pound.   Light was fading fast and i had around 30 minutes remaining.  Then wallop the float flew under and held tight as a struck.  This time it felt really special, the worm was taken and something nice was on the end of my line.  At first it banged and knocked and felt perchy but then it just held the bottom… five minutes later and i still had no idea what was on the end, i lowered the net and was graced with my first ever eel weighing in at just under 3lb.  Initially i was gutted as i thought it had been a large perch bite but this kind of made up for it as it was the first eel i had ever caught. 

All in all not a bad day at all.   7 Perch and a new PB – happy days!

Saturday arrived and i was back on the river 13 hours after my last fish.  This time a frost had hit hard and the temperature overnight had plummeted to around 2 degrees.  The river looked dead.  I tried all i could, had one rod out for the pike and one for the perch.  The next 6 hours passed without a touch!  Had the weather really killed it that much.  It certainly looked that way.  I tried various areas but no predators wanted to know.  Oh well onwards and upwards next weekend if its real cold i will have to go for a wander and see if i can find them.