Autumn glory

Today was a great session. 

It started off at the quarry, and despite fishing my way around the vacant swims, nothing was doing. So, I decided to head for the trusty canal again.  Another stretch to explore, and I decided I was going to give every inch of the nearside bank between two bridges some serious attention.

 
I was trying to be more patient today. Let the lure hit bottom, then lift a little. Let it drop. Wait a little. Jiggle it again. Wait again. And so on and on. It seemed to be working too, as I managed a steady stream of standard canal perch in the 1-2oz bracket, with odd dumpy ones around 4ozs. 

And so they came. The more patient I became, the more perch I caught. There were lots of micro features to explore on this stretch. Overhanging grass sods, alder stubs, and quite a few clumps of aquatic weed growing right down the edge. By the time I had worked the whole stretch between the two bridges, I had caught at least 20 little stripeys.

I was happy with the session, and was knew it was about time to head home for a roast dinner, so I decided to make a couple of final drops in amongst some marginal weed. I scaled down to a 1" blue/silver kopyto shad, and the first drop resulted in an immediate, positive take. Standard perch.

Next drop, same spot, 5 seconds wait and then a nibble, followed by a solid resistance as something much bigger hit the lure. The rod tip hooped over and I was into the first canal fish that was really fighting back. I unhooked my foldaway landing net, and slowly eased the fish to the surface. To be honest, I had hoped for a proper big perch, but I was still excited and happy to see my first soft-lure-caught pike in the folds of the net.

He wasnt big in pike terms, probably about 3-4lbs, but that's the beauty of ultra light lure fishing - using only a 4lb flourocarbon point, I had to be careful, and it felt like a monster compared to the legions of microperch I had been catching.
 

Maybe I got lucky with the hook being neatly in the top lip, or maybe that was the result of the gently jiggling, rather than a steady retrieve, like the ones that had previously resulted in bite-offs. 

Whatever the reasons, I've banked my first ultra-light caught pike. Good feeling.