Lure Anglers Society - Charity Match

It's that time of year when the finest of lure anglers from the Lure Anglers Society (LAS) descend onto Suffolk Water Park for their charity predator match.

The charity that benefits is  Children with Cancer UK .

We arrived nice and early for the 8am draw and the conditions seemed favourable for lure fishing

If you wish to donate, here is the organises (Keith Edmunds) justgiving link https://www.justgiving.com/Keith-Edmunds2

Hit and Miss

Saturday saw me venturing off to fish one of the big reservoirs for zander and hopefully pike. But there was a issue, a storm front was heading our way.

I arrived like most nice and early to find the gates still locked even though we have been advised to get there early. But this wasn't any issue because it gave me chance to catch up with fellow Pikers Pits members Predator and Mickey D, who just happened to be on the water the same day as me.

Finally, the gates opened and we were soon paying for our tickets, loading the boat, and despite being one of the first on the boat, we we the last to get out (Martin brought everything including the kitchen sink).

We finally ventured out and got ourselves sorted and headed for the iconic tower.

After anchoring up we got to work with the lures, Martin was jigging, whilst I preferred to work crank baits through the depths.

The crank soon worked its magic and I was battling with a reasonable size fish to the boat, but alas the fish shook the hooks lose at the surface. I suspect it was a large trout, but we'll never know.

Martin then score with the jigging and was soon scrapping with another fish, this one didn't throw the hooks and a nice size brownie was netted.

A quick snap and the trout was returned.

We then decided to move closer to the tower as we'd see a couple of anglers boat fish.

Once we have finally anchored up (after undoing 7 knots that had reduced the anchor rope by 5 feet) we started fishing again. The crank bait was soon in action again and I felt a number of hits as it came up the water column. As the lure it the surface, a large zander crashed out of the water missing the crank by mm.

We worked the tower for a good hour, but nothing materialised so we went for the first drift of the day.

To sum up the day, we drifted, we anchored up and we searched the water for more fish, but alas nothing else came to the boat. I did have a number of his on bottom bounced shads, but most resulted in shad loosing there tails.
But 3pm, with the storm nearly upon use, we headed for shore. Just in time really because by the time we had put the boat in, the swell was dangerous. The rain lashed down and the wind was up to 50mph.

The drive home was colourful, which main roads being flooded and visibility poor. I was happy to be in that night.

Lurefair 2014

LAS & PAC Teach in & Fish in (Junior Event)

Big Water!!!

Went out for a day out on the boat with the lads from the Lure Anglers Society, of which I'm a member.

The day was spend afloat on a vast sheet of water on a trout fishery in pursuit of pike, zander and perch.

I arrive in plenty of time and after some car park capers, I finally met the lads in the fishing lodge to pay and get our boat number.
My boat partner (BP) was on the drag, but soon arrived and we eagerly loading the boat with rods, tackle, lunch and fishfinders. Once we had gotten the tackle stowed, the outboard was spring into life and we left for the moorings onto the water. But where to start?

After a brief chat with BP, whilst bopping about we decided to head in the direction of the other boat and become a sheep (baa!!!)
We set anchor in 30ft of water and I decided to start with the pike gear whilst BP did some vertical jigging for the zander and perch.
After an hour of nothing (well to our boat) we lifted the anchor and decided to do some pioneering of our own (to infinity and beyond) we motored to the southern end to try and locate some fishing.

This end of the water was quite different, slightly shallower, but with some weed and undulating bottom. We decided to drift with the wind whilst casting the lure about so we could cover as much water as possible.

For a number of hours we had nothing, not a sniff, but all of a sudden BP was into a fish. Acting as gillie, I soon slipped the net under a good sized perch.

Nice fish to start with, so we sort of marked the spot and started another drift.

After countless drifts and venturing into bays without even the hint of a fish, we decided to head back to the tower to try our luck.

We must have tried every lure in the box (well in my box) but still nothing, so we upped anchor and tried a new area of water beyond the tower. We made three of four drift and I did manage a follow by a pike and a hit from a trout, but nether were hooked.

We started the last drift of the day and with the sun starting to set, I had another follow from another pike and another hit from a trout. It just wasn't meant to be.

So with the sun setting, and time running out we head for home.

We later found out that the day had been hard for our party and appart from a large pike and a couple  of decent perch, most boats returned empty handed.

But we will be back!!!

A Grand Day Out......

Yesterday was a day off from work and life's pressures to enjoy a days lure fishing in the name of charity. 

The event was a lure match organised by the Lure Anglers Society on a local water to raise money for Children with Cancer.

Whilst walking the dog at silly o'clock n the morning, I noticed two things about the this bright, cold morning. 1) the sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky and 2) there was a frost on the ground. These conditions could make for a tough day on the lures.

I was soon leaving the house for the short drive to the venue and upon arrival, I spied that 99.9% of the car park was full of car, vans and 4X4's loaded with anglers and gear. I squeezed in the car to a space and wanderer over the mass of angles in and around the cafe.
Most of the faces were unknown to me, but I soon saw a few familiar faces including the events organiser and other local lure anglers.

After a brief chat with so of the motley crew and with the start time looming, the all important peg draw happened. Peg 28 for me, so back to the car to grab the rod, net, mat and bag of lures etc.

It was a short walk for me from the car park to peg 28 and I soon had the first lure clipped onto the trace. 

The water was soon foaming around me as  thrashed the water with an assortment of lures. The weed grow on this particular lake, was quite high and I admit to struggling to find lures in the boxes that could be fished effectively just below the surface. I did have some topwater lures with me, but it didn't feel right fr them

By 11.00am and still be fishless, I went for a further wonder and nice looking swim which could be explored with the recommended Rapala X-Rap Sub Walker. After half a dozen chuck, there was a tap on the rod tip and soon a small jack was wrestling to get free. Off the mark at last and my confidence rose a bit. The jack was soon returned and swam off angrily. A few more casts but nothing else followed, so change of pegs was required. This change lead to a couple of follows and another fish, a micro jack of about a 1lb.

I continued to move about and had a couple of takes, but nothing developed into another fish on the bank. Most either hit the lure and missed, or getting hook, only to shake the lure free in the shallows.

The morning was soon up and as most were heading to the cafe for a spot of lunch, I took the opportunity to fish on and venture to some of the sort after spots. I dropped into a deep water peg and changed to a 6" Manns shad, something I been using a lot over the winter. As I worked the shad through the swim,  I had a hit from under my feet, a jack was on, but soon off leaving a shredded shad behind. As this lemon shad was no longer useable without the attention of a soldering iron, another pattern was rigged up.

This was cast to the far bank under the trees and I was soon working the shad around again. On my second to last cast, I thought I hooked some of the roots from the tree lined edge, but no, this was moving. After a spirited fight in the deeper water a lovely lean double rose to the surface, before diving back down. Having strong braid on the reel, I soon bullied her to the surface and onto the waiting net.

A nice long lean pike for 12lb 8oz was soon photographed and returned.

After that I moved about about and managed one more for the day, a battle scarred old girl who was blind in one eye (left) and going blind in the other. She had scars all over her head and flanks and whilst letting her recover next to the staging,  I felt a ting of sadness for this pike. She had obviously had a hard life and wasn't in the best of shape. Probably felt the vibrations from the lure and thought she had a easy meal.

I sat next to her and held her for a minute or two to regain her strength, before guiding her through the reeds and into the coloured water back to her lair.

The day was soon at an end and the anglers assembled outside the cafe for the drawing of the raffles.  Whilst I didn't win the much sort after custom built utralight lure rod that was donated by Truly Custom Rods, I was fortunate to get a nice new custom lure from a very talent builder.

Looking forward to next years event already.

TL

End of 2012

And so the end of 2012 has happened, not as predicted by the Mayan's with the end of the world, just the end of another year.

I finished the year as I had started it, pike fishing, but unlike the first run of 2012 which resulted in a 20lber, the last run resulted in a scrappy 4lber. But this pike was as welcome as his big sister because it brought to an end a run of 7 blanks, not a record number but enough to start questioning my venues, tactics, bait and even my sanity on occasions.

The fishing in 2012 in most cases has been poor. Most of my targets weren't met and I didn't get a sniff of a couple of my chosen specimens.

  

I have though managed to get out onto the rivers during the summer in search of river bream and did manage a few respectable specimens to 6lb during day time sessions using the quiver.

I also managed to get out with the lads from the Lure Anglers Society for a social on the banks and even managed to hold my own fishing lures.

On the social side I even made a trip down to the west county with the lads from the pikers pit to fish for barbel on a beautiful stretch of river. Unfortunately, I didn't land any barbel but it was a good weekend and I met some great characters from the angling world.

So all in all, it not been a bad year, just not the year I was hoping for. But there is always 2013 to look forward to with new challenges on the fishing front and more stunning sights whilst out on the banks of the lakes, pits, river and drains that I have the privilege to fish.

Tightlines for 2013

Still No Tinca

Friday was the day I got to go out again after the Tinca's on one of the club lakes. So I was up and out quick as a flash the day after my birthday with my new rods in tow.

I arrived nice and early and had the chance to have a walk about the lake in search of any tinca's that might be showing.

The morning was warm and still. The sun was on the rise and it glowed over the river and I was breathing in the rich clean air that surrounds this gravel pit. My peace was broken with a couple of splashes, followed my more splashes. Upon look to the source of the commotion, I spied a reed bed that was being twisted and turned by some amorous carp. So much for quiet tinca time. After a walk about and a chat to a fellow tenchfisher, I got the rods out and headed for the point swim. This swim is fairly shallow, but has a decent gravel bar on it that the carp and tench like to visit. Problem is that you have to rake it quite a bit before you can fish, but of late I've replaced the normal double rake head arrangement for a Gardener castable weed rake.  I use this in conjunction with the 5.5lbtc spod rod. The reel is loaded with 65lb braid and allows me to pull in the weed or snag.

After about an 1/2 hours raking, I had sufficient space to fish two rods. One was one a method feeder and the second was a bottom fished float rig, but before I setup the rods, baited the areas with hemp, corn and red maggot. The hemp and maggot was used in order to fill up some of the smaller fish and get them to stir up the bottom for the tench.

Rod were setup up, method mix sorted and bait were cast out. The method rod was baited with hair rigged double corn fake corn and the float rod double red maggot.

It didn't take long for both rods to come to life and soon  was into a fish on the float gear. A small rudd was soon unhooked and returned. Float was back in and it didn't even settle before a rudd had hit it on the drop.
This happened about every cast for the first hour and soon I had caught about 20 2-8oz rudd.
The fake corn was attracting attention, but nothing that really lifted the bobbin enough to hit.

With the sun getting hotter, it was starting to become apparent that the rudd were well on the feed. So I changed the rig and started to target the mid water rudd.

Once the float rig was shallowed up the bites became very intense and it was a fish a chuck. This was providing the entertainment for the day as the method feeder setup wasn't getting the attention I wanted from the tench. It seems like the tench, had other things on there mind like the carp.

By 13:00, I had caught my fill of small rudd and a solitary perch for good measures, but none of the better fish were showing. I decided enough was enough. The gear was packed up and put back in the car and I spied that the lure gear was still in there from the previous mid week outing. I have a cast of two with that.

So for the next couple of hours I trundle every lure in the box across the whole lake, and whilst lots of small fish were jumping, the pike failed to show. by 15:00 I had enough and headed for home. Still no tench.

Guest of Honour 

Sunday saw me going out with members of the Lure Anglers Society for the first time. I had been invite to the event as it was local to me and a water I do fish.

We met up at 10:00 and introduce myself to the gathering band of anglers and after a long chat re lures etc, we headed of in search of pike.

Now I not really a fan of spring/summer pike fishing, but after I had taken advice from the regular lure anglers and tackle up with heavy braid to ensure that any pike caught would be brought in a quickly as possible I was happier. The braid I was using was 65lb on a medium weight rod setup. The rod can cast up to 45grams and is perfect for this water, as it can chuck decent sizes lures a good distance over the marginal weed.
I was also wearing a new pair of hip waders made by Ocean. These provide to be a valuable addition to my attire as it allowed me to get further out from the bank beyond the weed and let me cast parrell to the weed/lily beds.

After 1 hour of chopping and changing lures the MH Custom Perch Pattern was rigged up on the trace. I was working this lure a couple of feet below the surface of the water and I could see the lure was working nicely just above the weed and its action was brilliant. It wobbled from side to side and when the retrieve was stopped, the lure would gradually rose to the surface.

Within a couple of casts I had a hit and after a short, but energetic fight, a pike of about 5-6lb was gloved out.

Now I must stress that the some LAS guys prefer to land pike in a net due to the possibilities of the visable hooks getting caught in you hand when gloving them out,  and after seeing this pike with the hooks showing, i can see why they prefer netting over gloving.

After a quick photo, the pike was returned and swam away strongly.

I walked the bank for another couple of hours and didn't have any further action, so it was time to returned to the designated meet area for lunch. Whilst waiting for lunch to get cooked by Keith and Dave, I had a chuck with a Rapala X subwalk lure in an area that has shown to hold pike during the winter.

The Subwalk is a great lure that as an angler you have to put the effort in to get a dying fish action out of it. On the right rod, it simple and you can do it all day.

After the inital cast, a pike darted out of cover but missed the lure. This was recast just behond it and soon the pike was anagin snapping at the lure but failed to connect. Third time lucky and the pike was hooked. at about a 1lb there was no scrap and the pike was soon in the hand unhooked and raced off back into the water.

Lunch was now ready and sausage in a roll was on the menu with either a chilled bottle of beer or a pepsi for the drivers. These were soon consumed and after a good chat, some of us went back to the fishing.

Largest of the three caught by me

I ha done further small jack that took the Subwalk on they way back, but nothing else showed during the afternoon session. Between the 6-7 of us fishing we had about 9 or 10 fish with Tony fish of 10lbsih being the biggest.

Eventhough the day was nice and hot for us, the pike didn't seem that interested. I think some of that had to do with the hordes of people and dogs in and out of the water.

TL