It's been over a year since I first started this Ultralight fishing. With the exception of a single, biteless day's barbel fishing in the summer, all my fishing sessions in the past year have involved fishing with soft plastic lures and jigheads. It's been a great learning experience.
This weekend, all the practice and learning paid off. Whilst I have really enjoyed exploring new stretches of water - and I've covered more than 12 miles of my local canal in the past year - the missing piece of the jigsaw has been a big perch. Before this weekend, I'd only managed two fish over a pound (see my post from June, Back with a Brace). This sunday, I added four more...
I got onto the canal at first light, and started with a couple of fish around the 8-10oz mark
It was a good start, and then came the first big one. The second I hooked I knew I was into something in a different class. It put up a proper fight, and looked brilliant as it jagged and danced it's way to the net.
On the bank it looked like a monster compared to the thousands of 1 ouncers that I have caught in the past year. On the scales, it went 1lb 14ozs
On my arm, it looked even bigger...
After I slipped it back, I was grinning
like the Cheshire Cat. I even did a little dance (making sure there
were no dog walkers watching first). In the next hour I caught another perch around the pound mark, and a 5lb pike..
I could have gone home right then a happy boy, but as I spotted the first boat of the day approaching in the distance, I decided to have a few more casts before it turned the canal to coffee. Thirty seconds later, and I was in again..
What a belter! 2lb 2ozs, and a proper old looking warrior perch at that. The lady off the boat even stopped to take a photo as I put it back.
I added another fish around the pound mark as I returned back to the car. All of the fish caught within a foot of the bank on various soft plastic lures. It was a great session, both for the exploring new water and finally breaking the 2lb barrier.
I've also missed blogging quite a few freshwater trips. For the most part, it has been business as usual - lots of small perch and the odd pike on the canal.
I've bought a new rod and reel - a HTO Rockfish Rover, and a Spro Addiction 1000 to go with it. I am really impressed with both, so light and responsive. The solid tip on the rod is so sensitive, I am noticing a lot more taps and bites that I don't think would have registered on my other rod.
I've taken it to a few local landmarks, but nothing species to report really, just lots of small perch and whiting..
I havent had a chance to blog in a while - laptop had been playing up, and the Blogger App is rubbish on my tablet.
Fishing-wise, it's been good. I had a
week in Northumbria with the family, where I had some great fun on the
rocks and off a harbour wall. Scenery was brilliant, and I tried some really interesting fishing spots..
I managed to add some species to my list too:
Makerel..
Skorpion Fish...
Coalfish...
All in all, a great week's fun.
A mate invited me out for a morning session. We had planned to visit a section of canal that was new to both of us. First half hour was promising - my mate had a couple of perch and a small pike on tiny shads, but then the boats started and the water quickly turned to chocolate. That was the end of that.
We stopped by a nearby stillwater, somewhere else new to us, and had a few trial casts.
The small perch were obliging, and were easy to catch on shirasus.
After a few casts, I connected to something which fought a bit harder. It turned out to be a tiny pike. I just love those markings.
After that fun, we headed to another venue, where we were hoping to find some larger perch.
It was tricky, because the water was clear, and I could see some good fish. Problem was, there was lots of smaller perch intercepting the lures before the big ones got a chance.
Still, I managed a few nice perch around 8-10ozs using the ultra light gear, whilst my mate had 3 nice pike using heavier lure gear.
I'd bought some new toys - a load of lures and a new shoulder bag arrived with the postman this morning. With one hour to spare before dinner, I raced off down the river to try them out.
First put in with a HTO mace lure, and the perch were straight on it.
Within 15 minutes, I'd already caught 5 fish. They were having it.
The lures are a tiny bit bigger than the 2" things that I normally use, but the perch certainly didn't seem to mind. Quite a few were nibbling at the paddle tail, but I was still getting good takes on the retrieve.
Then, just as I was bring the lure to the surface, there was a large swirl. Oh-oh!
Mr Pike decided to put in an appearance. It was a short, very stocky fish in great condition, and it put up a good fight. Still, with a bit of patience and the drag on the reel set lightly, I managed to get him in.
I'm still not great at guestimating pike weights, hmm maybe 5-6lbs? Who cares anyway, lovely fish and the mace lures sure seem to work well.
Moving to another swim I took 3 or 4 more perch on another new lure type - a vibro worm. They didn't seem to stand up to much use though, as the perch managed to bite the tail of 2 of them.
..and by then my hour was up, the Mrs was on the phone asking me to come back and put the dinner on. Brilliant little session - a dozen or so perch and a nice pike. All in sixty minutes!
(post reproduced from report in World Sea Fishing forums)
So I gave it a go yesterday for a few hours. Parked up at Duke Street
Bridge, and spent most of the time mooching around there, but also had a
quick play at the east end, near the hydraulic tower / engine house.
Pleasantly surprised at the water clarity / quality in the main
East/West float area. Walls encrusted with mussels were a bit of an
issue, and had to make sure my jigs didn't dart or glide inwards towards
the wall, which usually resulted in a snag or snapped braid. Otherwise,
it was the ideal location for vertical jigging.
I was getting rattles and nibbles right from the first drop in. Needed
to add a tiny drilled bullet or a couple of split shot to my rig, as the
2g freshwater jigheads I normally use were not right for the depth (30+
feet drops in places).
I was struggling to hook them, so gave it a try right down to the
bottom. After a few seconds to jigging about on the deck, I got a
positive bite which resulted in my Merseyside LRF saltwater species...
Not a fish though, but a gungy -looking snail thing.
Back up to mid-water, and I was getting rattles again. After a bit of
trial and error with my striking, I managed to land one. A tiny whiting.
As I quickly discovered, all the bites seemed to be from tiny whiting. I
landed half a dozen, and had twice as many drop off during the next
hour or so.
I explored a few likely-looking spots, following the wind to where
debris had blown into corners where something different might be
lurking. Still only managed to catch more whiting though.
All in all, I enjoyed my first Merseyside LRF adventure. I'll defo be
going back and trying some different tactics to try and tempt a
different species or two. Thanks to the guys above for the advice.
So I had this idea that the bigger perch would be by the reeds. The reeds grow halfway across the canal, so the boats are pushed into a narrow section. Narrow means deeper, and in my experience, deeper means more and bigger perch. Surely this stretch would throw up some bigger fish?
In the 100m stretch leading up to the reeds, I caught 20-25 perch, all under 4ozs. All right down the edge. It was a-fish-a-chuck.
Upon reaching the reeds, I covered every inch of water. I spent a good hour trying out all kinds of lures, slow retrieve, fast retrieve, bump along the bottom, sink and draw, vertical jig, the lot. Result from 1 hour's thorough searching = a single perch taken on a 3" curlytail.
I was confused. Still, it was a nice evening just to be out fishing, and at least I'd caught some.
Heading back under the bridge to the car, I thought I'd have a few quick drops opposite some moored boats.
The next three casts produced two pike and another greedy perch. First pike was about 2.5 pounds.
The second was a fish of about 5-6lbs and took the lure as I was lifting it out of the water. It put up a crazy fight, tail-walking across the canal several times. I didn't think I was going to get it in, because I could see the lure was in one side of the mouth, and the line was coming out of the other. Fortunately the flourocarbon held, and so I ended the session on a high with the biggest fish of the day.
