With the extreme weather along the south coast this month,
my last sessions on the rocks have been slightly insane to say the least and
for that reason the rod license has been coming into play again. My inner coarse
angler is starting to re-emerge and becoming an increasingly dominant part of
my fishing life.
After staring out of my window for a few days at the wind
and rain, it was time to get out and brave the conditions. I love it when I’m
out there, but actually getting out when it’s cold and wet can sometimes prove
a little bit difficult. As the rivers were increasing in depth and visibility was
low I had planned to commence my attack testing out a few new plugs hoping to
tempt a pike, perch or a larger chub. When that didn’t produce I changed to
sp’s opting for a 3” white paddletail which resulted in a small jack and a couple
of perch. I then got down to wading a small stretch of the river where I know
the chub like to hang out. I began flicking a few different small grubs on a
1g#8 jighead, which was instantly getting some attention as I drew the chub out
from their cover. With the low visibility I changed over to a red Berkley Power
Honey Worm and after a slightly more aggressive take I was happily playing in
my first chub.
They really do smash a moving lure like no other fish and
even a small chub will make a pretty good account for itself all the way to the
bank. I managed to tempt a few more from the same swim including a couple of
greedy gudgeon.
After losing a better chub around 2lb, the swim went quiet
and I decided to wade upstream where I had seen a larger fish jumping that I
thought was taking fly-life. As I mentioned in my previous post my smaller sp’s
had been producing plenty of small pike but the larger ones seemed to want
something slightly more substantial. On this occasion I was proved totally
wrong as I flicked my Power Honey Worm on a size 8 jighead in the direction of
another big splash on the edge of the main current. As I lifted up to twitch
the lure to life I was met by some resistance followed by a slow heavy run from
what I instantly knew was a fairly large pike. After a slightly tricky few
minutes trying to guide the lump in, I finally managed to get the head up and
get hold of the fish. Fully adrenaline-fuelled, my shaky hands didn’t do a
great job with the photos but here is one of the better ones.
Fairly ill equipped as I was wading (no scales, unhooking
mat or net) I calmed it down in the water, then lead it on the bank for a photo
before returning it unharmed. I'm guessing about 8lb. I'm continuing to be
amazed at what can be done with a 7g spinning outfit, I'm not going to try and
do it again but I’ll definitely be more prepared for that eventuality next time
if it occurs.
Apart from that I’ve been continuing to try and find a
decent perch from my local lake. It’s still throwing up some of the tiniest
pike I’ve ever seen and a few small perch. I’m starting to think that something
larger is eating anything that reaches the pound mark and that would explain
the lack of decent fish. Stuart has joined me and we’ve been carrying on the
hunt regardless. I’ve introduced him to the world of micro piking and I’m sure
if there’s any decent perch in there he’s probably going to be the first to
nail one.
He’s been catching some cracking perch from one of his local
marks and I’m looking forward to him showing me around in the next couple of
weeks.
Until then, thanks for reading and good luck if you’re
getting out there in the coming weeks.
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