From the sublime to the ridiculous



Sublime ?

 

 



Well in those far off days this was the rudimentary selection of lures that I used to great effect on my local waters . The upper reaches of the Adur were a great place for surface fishing for Pike amoungst the lilies with a Jitterbug and Lucky Thirteen ( I also had a Scum Mouse which was weedless and apparently hookless as it got take after take but never succeeded in landing anything ! I called it my conservation mouse !)  and the " S 's" in the various sizes caught me lots of Pike , Chub and Trout from the Arun and Adur . In fact what I would class as my best and most prized catch was taken on a trusty Big S in the original silver colour , an 11lb 8 oz Sea Trout from the Rother . I must get an electronic version of the photo to upload onto here .

Then I discovered that collecting habit .....

 Believe it or not there are more but I couldn't fit them on the table ! Oh and by the way I have sold a lot to try and reduce the collection down to a reasonable level . Oh dear !

Then of course came the plastic collecting phase . I sold a lot of them too !

But now the LRF phase swings into focus , and funnily enough I have found loads of wormy type things in the depths of the shed so I am off and running .

Of course I forgot to say that I fly fish as well , so it wasn't long before the fly fishing for Pike bug was passed my way .

Ridiculous ?



Lure Angler's Anonymous

Hi ,  my name is Dave , and I am a Lure Angler .......so begins the introduction from someone with a problem .

There I have admitted it ! The great thing about lure fishing is its simplicity , a few ( remember that !) lures in a nice little box , a rod and reel , landing net and off you go . Well that was me twenty odd years ago , a few favourite lures was all I needed  and I caught fish and enjoyed the whole thing immensely .

I had two compartmentalised boxes , one for spoons and spinners and the for  other plugs . My favourite lures at the time were the " Big S" and its near relatives the " Midi and Mini " and various spoons plus of course Mepps spinners in different sizes . I had a couple of secret weapons in the " Barrie's Buzzer" and  some surface lures , the " Crazy Crawler " and " Jitterbug" plus the " Lucky Thirteen " . Plus of course a few really secret "rubbers " (ooh I say )and jigs .

Then it happened , I started reading about lure angling and joined the LAS ,  and being a gullible sort I realised that the fish I was catching with my limited selection of lures were obviously very stupid because you HAD to have the latest " in " lures to catch fish , so Harris Angling catalogues became my bed time reading and my collection began to grow . New storage solutions were also soon on the agenda and more boxes with nice compartments were soon gracing the fishing shed shelves . With one very happy angler ( collector ) who actually seemed to now spend more time playing with the lures  and planning on new purchases than actually fishing with the ever expanding lure collection . ( Some never got wet !)

I had it bad ! I refused to bait fish at all for 5 years  ! A fish caught on a lure was the only one that counted ! The phrase " A jerk bait at one end and a fool at the other " comes to mind .

Well ..... trips to Egypt , Sweden, Scotland , Ireland  and all sorts of reservoirs with lures of all types were fantastic and I did catch fish , but I spent loads of money ( don't ask I dread to think !) on rods , reels , braid and lures , oh and lure boxes , but there came a day , when my 5 years  of  no bait fishing had to came to an end .

So I went back to proper fishing and funnily enough I caught more fish ! And bigger ones too !

There is a time and a place for lure fishing . I always have the time but I don't want to fill up the place with lures that don't get wet !

Well after selling most of my lures , I still seem to have a lot but they are ones I know I will use and that they work , but  I have developed a new interest .....LRF. Could it be that the fishing tackle industry is having a LRF ( laugh) on us anglers ? Apparently you need special gear to do this type of fishing .

This seems like a re invention,  as I was dangling plastic worms and jigs all those years ago , but look at all those lures and worms of different  colours , and nice little boxes to put them in , plus new rods and reels . The dark angel of lure collecting is rising from the ashes of what ever compartmentalised box I locked it in years ago ..... to be continued

Undulate Heaven

A rising set of tides meant that the Tope mark , we had fished , was out of bounds so Jeff decided on an attempt to capture a smoothhound and some rays .
I decided to stick with the circle hook approach as an experiment and Jeff kept with the more traditional "J" hooks .
I must admit I am still a bit confused as to the actual practicalities of how the circle hook works but work it does  as long as you don't strike , and the level of "easy" to remove hooks really benefits their use . I also de barb them .
Anyway cuttle and squid formed the main course for what ever would come along .....

Well six nice undulates with the best well into double figures plus of course the ubiquitous "cat Sharks" meant a great day with fantastic weather !

Tangling with Tope

Unfortunately a planned trip out with Jeff on "Jupiter's Moon" on Saturday was not possible due to the wind and waves ....and more importantly the 150 million Kw's of power being launched from the sky , which if you are standing waving a lovely carbon fibre stick in the air, from a boat with lovely steel rod rests and aeriels ,  surrounded by a few miles of open water seems a recipe for disaster !

However the weather God was looking favourably on us because Sunday was a beautiful day .

The action was pretty instant with Tope , and few interloping doggies . The Tope were giving gentle bites with few of the screaming runs we had last year . But the circle hooks and mono traces meant good hook ups and easy un-hooking . But they really do "hang on " !

We could not get fresh mackerel so we used frozen baits . They were really excellent and those that say "only fresh bait works" might be missing a trick .

In all we had 28 tope to about 20lbs. I even had one Tope take a retrieved bait . Deadbait wobbling for Tope , now there's a thing !  Great fishing , thanks Jeff !

Porgie and Jeff

Jeff's detailed plans and painstaking preparation with tide times and launch spots were repaid in spades with a glorious weather forecast which looked to allow us three full days of shark fishing on the North Devon Coast .
I travelled down overnight and after a few hours sleep off we went with along but beautiful run along the coast to the chosen shark grounds . We were lucky to see lots of Porpoises on the way which I always think is a good sign of prey fish being about .
Jeff has mastered the grisly business of "chum" , with the use of salted trout. Now when it comes to the actual preparation the hand mincer process has been superceeded by the industrial use of a garden mulcher , but its still a messy old business ! But rubby dubby is the key ingredient to catching Shark so the better the slick , the better the catch ! The oil from the trout is amazing , but I must admit the idea of eating a farmed trout is now not on the top of my menu list .

 

 

So we sat in the slick created by Jeff's fantastic oily concoction in the hope of a Porgie paying us a visit . But unfortunately despite the fantastic weather we did not strike lucky . However some fish were caught by other boats so ....next time lets hope the shark catch the slick trail of Jupiters Moon .

The Tinca Trail

I am a great one for lists so I set about writing a list of fishy based targets for the coming year , and one of them is a fixture which has remained unresolved for many years : a 7lb Tench.
So following on from Jeff's success last year  and Tenchfisher Club members advice I made my way with Jeff  to the local pits armed with maggots and feeders .

Using a short hooklink and a 2 oz semi fixed Drennan maggot feeder I managed to get a lot of runs but few successful hook ups. The above two weigh in at 5lbs . Its strange they look huge on the unhooking mat but pick them up and they don't ! I suppose when you are a great big oaf like me at 6ft 4 and with hands like shovels they don't stand much chance ! Jeff fished the same tactics in the next door swim and managed this lovely example .

A second trip coincided with some of the windiest weather I think I have ever fished in ! luckily the swim was very  sheltered by a hedge and trees , but I did check the trees a few times as one of them landing on you would not be a good thing !
Same tactics as before and loads of runs but again a few lost to hook pulls or non hook ups was frustrating . But the weights are going up , and the best topped the scales at 6lb12oz.

The next trip takes me to a hopefully sunny and calm North Devon coast for a spot of fishing for the elusive Porbeagle shark.

The end is in sight .....

The end of the " traditional " fishing season on March 14th is a fixed point in the year for me and I like to try and get out and fish for a few days . The recent floods were looking as though they might put paid to the fishing on the rivers but a few days of dry weather saw the floods recede and the river was back in its proper place not spilling out  all over the place . So I took the week off ....

Well the car broke down , then the parts to fix it got mixed up and suffice to say I finally made it to the river on Wednesday afternoon . I joined Jeff on one of our favourite sections of the river . But despite the lovely weather , and the river looking perfect no Pike came our way .

The next day dawned with thick fog ....

I also recently bought a new pair of bib and braces , due to an incident with a barbed wire fence . Well unfortunately the same fence leapt out and grabbed me again and ripped the new trousers ! Doh

Well anyway I finally managed to catch a Pike . An 11 lb pike grabbed my deadbait . This fish is one that I have caught before at single figure weights and is easily recognised as it has a large growth on its gills .

Despite trying very hard and moving swims I did not manage another fish all day , but it was great to be out and " doing it " !

The last day again dawned cold and foggy , so I agreed with Jeff to meet him at the very top end of the stretch , which is a long walk up river . The recent floods had caused a lot of damage to the flood banks in places , exposing the earth in some places up to half way through the bank.

Again a beautiful day but no fish . Where are the fish ?