pike and perch.co.uk

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! 

Sunday just gone a change from the norm was in order and 4 weeks ago i decided it was time to try lure from a boat so booked up at Blenheim Palace.  The fishfinder was ordered and a few new lures in the vain hope that we could hit into some of the gems of the Palace lake.  The alarm was set for 4am and i was looking forward to what would hopefully be a great day afloat.

I picked up Jon my fishing bud at 5am and set off on the drive to Oxford.  A short and enthusiastic 2 hours later and we drove through the gates to be greeted by our first view of the lake.  The only word i can think to describe this place is ‘wow’.

The boat was loaded and off we went in search of some action!  The fishfinder ( a garmin 140 ) was mounted so we could quickly gauge the depth and the first lure was cast as the sun broke onto the surface from behind the bank hugging tree line.  Wow this place was stunning!

With temperatures around -2 on the journey over and with ice in the top end of the lake we knew it wouldn’t be the easiest of days, and after two hours of plugging we hadnt seen much at all.  The fishfinder led us to some deep spots of 14-15′ at the dam end and had shown signs of fish below the surface but no matter how many variations of lures we had tried nothing was showing a liking to the bait.  We decided to head up towards the other end to see if our fortunes would change.

We rowed for around 15-20 minutes keeping an eye on the depth and decided to work our way along the Palace bank.  Again nothing was obliging and despite there being 7 other boats out we were yet to see any fish taken.

We turned the corner towards the bridge and again were greeted by another stunning view, this lake was extremely pleasing to the eye!  It was just a shame it wasn’t to be an overly productive day.  We dropped the anchor around 10-15m from the bridge and set about our luring regime again.  After two casts of the Spro Ultralight rod ‘bang’… the 2.5″ chartreuse Kopyto had done the business - i was in!  Bang bang bang on the tip and i thought i’d been lucky and hit into a stripey (perch).  Then the fish picked up speed and the banging stopped, the fish rose up and a pike was in the net!  I didn’t bother weighing the little chap but was more than chuffed at landing my first Blenheim fish!  We plugged away in the area for a further 30-45 mins but none of his friends were willing to give chase.

After our success at the bridge we tried various other areas but unfortunately were not to be blessed with anymore fish.  Although this little chap (below) did stop by to say hello, and i have to say i was equally pleased to get such a good picture of a kingfisher as normally when the camera is out they elude me.

All in all it was a great day afloat, the fishfinder worked well and so did the camera.  Hopefully next time and there will definately be a next time there will be more action to the rods.  It wasn’t that we hadn’t tried our damdest we slung everything into the water, but i think with mixed weather on the lead up to our visit and the freezing temps the fish were never going to be over active.  But hey ho that’s fishing.  Fingers crossed we will get back there when the new season opens, and i’ll be sure to post another report and more pictures.

Thanks for stopping by.
Mark

I’ll will send another update soon as to state of the medway in the upper reaches and hopefully soon the new christmas lures can be christened!

Good luck to all and I hope you all have a great 2010!

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

I went out 4:30am saturday to try my luck on the river.  On my arrival it looked low and not exactly full of life, i chucked out a handful of maggots and a few silver fish had a nibble.   So on went a worm to trot down the far margin to see if anything good was out there.   On the forth or fifth trot i managed a nice chub to about a pound, and shortly after another followed suit and then all went dead.  Not even the maggots were catching.  So i thought it about time a deadbait went out to a very tasty looking spot. 

An hour later and i was on the move as it just looked dead where i was, barely any movement and i was questioning myself as to whether or not i was in the right spot.  I went down river about 80-100 metres where i’d seen quite a few tiddlers jumping clear of the water.  Out went two deads but again to no avail.  They were cast in different locations throughout the morning but i couldn’t buy a bite!   So unfortunately i went home later that day totally deflated.

Not to worry too much though as i went out last night and managed a jack on the first cast of a dead on ‘the’ lake, shortly after my buddy managed a perch of about a pound and then i bagged another pike around 6-7lb.  Not bad considering we’d only been there for 3 hours in the evening and the day before i’d wasted about 8 hours chasing not very much on the river.  Fingers crossed we’ll get some decent rain soon and bring the river back to life.  Until then i think i’ll stay on the lakes!  Not many stripeys were about but it was very windy down there so maybe that is something to watch out on future trips… never thought to much about the location of stripeys when there is strong winds, but thats twice its happened now!

Hmm!   

I nearly forgot and then checked the dates of the first post and Pike and Perch is 1 year old today!

Thanks to everyone for popping in and dropping by on the forum.  Hopefully we can build on this and make it even better by the site’s next birthday.

Tight lines to all!

Mark

The day arrived and i was down on the river by 4:15 ready to launch an assualt on the fish that lurked beneath.  The river was quite clear with a slow flow to it, not ideal conditions but i had to be there!  I baited with chopped worm and reg maggots on the edge of the reeds in the hope to tempt a stripey into biting!  I didn’t have to wait long and the first one was in the net.  Not a biggie but it was what i was after so i couldn’t complain.  After this i managed two more perch to a 1lb and a half on worms, a 4lb bream and a small chub.  Then the swim died. 

I put the rod down and a pike went for the float which was just dangling on the water… shortly after he then assumed his resting position right against the bank about 2 feet away from me.  I couldn’t help to see what he would like for lunch, so i tried a few worms and managed to get them on video dropping into the water, then i tried a few tiddlers to see whether or not he was up for the challenge of a fishy snack! 

Check out the videos in the forum to see what happened!