Lure challenges!

 

I can’t believe it’s been eight months since I last wrote a blog post! Because I think talking about the fishing I’ve done in that time would be too much to fit in to one write up, I’ve decided to split it in to three separate posts - river fishing, reservoir fishing, and other stillwater venues such as gravel pits and lakes.

For this first write up, I’m concentrating on river fishing for perch, pike and chub. Between October and December, Dad and I found it very difficult to tear away from some amazing reservoir fishing, but come mid January, we found the call of the rivers hard to resist, especially knowing there were just a couple of months to go until the river season closed.

My first trip on a river was for a video for Salmo’s YouTube channel. I was set a challenge to catch perch, pike and chub on as many different models of crankbaits as I could in a day. It turned out to be an action packed session! By the end of the day I managed to catch all three species on five different crankbaits. Dad also had a few casts late afternoon and landed a couple of good perch on another lure - the Salmo Executor, which he’s caught quite a few fish on this season, including one of his biggest pike from a local river!

Crankbaits continued to work well for the remainder of the season. In fact, I worked out from my fishing notes that my Dad and I caught just over half of our fish on them.

On March 6th, it was my Dad’s 60th birthday. He knew he wanted to try and get a few hours fishing in, but didn’t want to travel far as we’d planned to go out for a meal in the evening. We started fishing at around 1pm, and for a bit of fun, he’d set himself a challenge of trying to catch a fish from three different local rivers that he’d grown up fishing on. Under normal circumstances I would have been confident that he would have achieved this, but unfortunately, when we turned up to the first river, it was really coloured and raging through. He clipped on a Strike King Baby Rage Craw in Pearl and concentrated on the slack areas, and after about an hour, he managed to hook and land a chunky jack pike.

We hopped in the car and drove to the second river, which we found was also coloured, and after trying a good number of of different lures, he finally had a pike follow in his Rattlin’ Hornet, but it missed the lure. Thankfully though, it took on the next cast, and he had a fish from the second river in the net!

With just over an hour of light left, we jumped back in the car to the third river. The light was starting to fade fast, and again, the river was just as coloured as the previous two. After about 10 minutes I managed to catch a micro pike, drop shotting in the margins. I wish Dad had caught it, as it wasn’t looking good for another fish for him. By now, it was almost pitch black and our time was almost up, when he hooked a jack pike, but the unbelievable happened - it came off at the net! Sadly he didn’t achieve his challenge, but he had fun trying!

Despite it being a mild winter, the fishing was quite tough. One technique that can work well on difficult days is ned rigging, which is a method that works well when fished really slow. The soft baits we’ve been using for this are the Strike King Ned Bug, Ned Craw, Ned Ocho, and Fox Rage UV Floating Creatures. We’ve been rigging them either on a normal ned-style jighead, or an offset ned head, for fishing weedless. 

The way we’ve been fishing them is by casting out, letting the lure fall to the bottom, before slowly dragging it along, with the rod tip held at around a 10’o’clock angle, watching the tip and feeling for bites. As you drag it along the bottom, you’ll feel it bump in to debris such as sticks and stones, and I’ll occasionally pause the lure for a few seconds if it’s bumped over something substantial. The bites can be quite subtle - you’ll often feel like you’ve hooked the bottom, but if you have an inkling it’s a fish, lift in to it!

Most of our perch have been caught at last light, especially when the rivers are clear and it’s quite bright, so we often fish just for the last few hours in to dark. It’s amazing how a change in the light levels can really switch fish on the feed, especially big perch. It was at this time of day that both Dad and I managed to catch our best river perch of the season - mine weighed 3lb 10oz, but the biggest of the season between us came to Dad’s rod, which was a fantastic fish weighing 4lb 5oz.

Dad and I always like to try and fish on the last day of the river season. With sunny conditions forecast, we knew the fishing wouldn’t be easy, especially as the rivers had fined down and were running almost crystal clear, but we still decided to fish for most of the day. It was a fantastic day and it felt like spring had arrived, which kind of made up for the lack of bites during the day. However, we caught a few jacks from a couple of different rivers, but it was no surprise that we had to wait until last light for the perch to switch on. The 4.5cm Rattlin’ Hornet always seems to get the dinner bell ringing on tough days, and my last fish of the season was an immaculate perch weighing 3lb 4oz.

Now we’re in the closed season, I’m looking forward to reorganising and preparing for some other types of fishing in the coming weeks!

Early season chub on lures

It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post, and as I’ve mixed up my fishing quite a bit since the end of last season, I’ve decided to focus each post going forward on a specific type of fishing, rather than an overview of everything. Hopefully it’ll make it less complicated and easier to read!

I can’t think of a more exciting coarse fish to target on lures at the start of the river season than chub, especially on crankbaits. There’s something about swimming a crankbait in front of them that they just find irresistible! Their diet is amongst the widest ranging of any freshwater fish in the UK, consisting of minnows, frogs, crayfish and various aquatic insects, so anything that looks like food that drifts in front of them will normally end up in their big rubber lips!

Tracking them down early in the season can be quite a mission, sometimes having to fight your way through thick vegetation to reach fishy looking spots. Much of the bankside can be covered by dense stinging nettles, so long sleeved shirts, overtrousers or jeans are a must to avoid getting stung up! If you're prepared to smash your way through the vegetation though, you can find yourself with some untapped fishing.

Just as important as being covered up is to make sure you wear polarised sunglasses, to cut the glare when looking in to the water. If it looks like it's going to be overcast or I'm fishing in the evening, I'll wear yellow lenses, which make it easier to spot fish in low light levels. For brighter days, amber or green lenses are better suited. I usually put sunscreen on before I start fishing, and take plenty of water to keep hydrated, as you can sweat like crazy when walking miles in the heat!

Because the fish haven’t been targeted for at least three months, it doesn’t mean to say that they aren’t wary, so you have to be super stealthy when approaching the river, trying not to spook the fish when you make a cast. Over the past couple of seasons, I've been using an 8ft rod instead of a 7ft rod - I find the extra length helps when fishing over bankside vegetation, and also helps control a lure easier as it swims across the river.

This season, on a couple of the rivers we fish, we’ve noticed an increase in the number of otters and mink. They’re fantastic creatures, but on small rivers, they can affect fish stocks, and we’ve noticed a decline in the number of chub and barbel we’re spotting compared to previous seasons. Despite there being fewer chub to target, Dad and I have still managed to catch a few on a variety of different lures. By far the most productive lures have been shallow diving crankbaits, such as the Salmo Rattlin’ Hornet Shallow, Executor, Hornet and Butcher. They’re great choices for when the chub aren’t quite up for taking a surface lure, and when cast downstream and retrieved, can be swum underneath overhanging trees and bushes, which can often be the hideout of a hungry chub.

 

 

 

 

Chub willingly take mayflies when they’re hatching, and I’ve watched them in the past during previous closed seasons gorging themselves on them, but the hatch is normally just about over once June 16th arrives. Because we had such a cool spring through, the mayfly hatch this year continued in to early July on a couple of the rivers we fish. Surface lures were effective on these days, and the Salmo Lil’Bug in May Bug and Green Bug produced some nice chub.

When it comes to colour choice, we normally like to use natural colours in clear water. When the rivers are a bit coloured after a heavy downpour though, or when fishing in low light conditions (such as early in the morning or at dusk) we prefer to choose a brighter colour such as fire tiger. A dark colour, like Black Tiger in the Hornet range, can also be effective, as it has a silhouette when fish are looking up.

Although my favourite types of lures to target chub with in the summertime are hard baits, there are certain situations where it’s hard to beat a creature bait rigged Texas style, on either a cheb rig or offset jighead. They’re great for dropping in to gaps in the weedbeds, or when casting to structure, as they sink faster and catch less weed than a crankbait. 

 

Whilst targeting chub with creature baits such as the Strike King Baby Rage Craw and Ned Bug, we’ve also caught some nice perch, pike and trout. One of the perch was almost golden in colour, and it reminded us of yellow perch, which we caught in Canada a few years ago!

 

Creature baits and curltails can resemble small aquatic insects and crustaceans that crawl along the bottom of the river, and can work well for species you wouldn’t normally associate with lure fishing. On a recent trip, I spotted a nice mirror carp in the margins that I think may have been around 15lb. Dad and I have caught quite a few carp on creature baits and curltails over the years, so I decided to try for this fish with a tiny curltail, a Fox Rage Micro Grub, rigged on a 3g size 4 jighead. I let the lure fall to the bottom a few inches in front of the fish, and watched it hoover the soft bait up! Sadly, after a short but feisty battle I lost the fish, as it tore in to a weed bed, and when I checked the hook, it had been straightened.

It’s now been almost a couple of weeks since I’ve been on a riverbank, as I’m currently in self isolation after testing positive for covid last week. Thankfully my symptoms have been mild, and I’m looking forward to getting back out and targeting chub on lures once I’m all clear. Please take extra care though, as I’ve been wearing masks, distancing, and sanitising, but it just goes to show how easily the virus can spread. Stay safe everyone.

End of season lure tactics for tricking difficult perch

At the beginning of the year, my Dad and I always look forward to putting a plan together for where we’re going to fish and what species we’re going to target for the last couple of months of the river season. However, with tier 4 in place at the turn of the year, followed by the start of the third national lockdown five days later, we were limited to staying local for fishing. We’re quite fortunate though to have a few different stretches of rivers very close to home, as well as a couple of gravel pits, so we were lucky we had some places to fish.

Our first outing of 2021 was more about getting some fresh air after Christmas and New Year, but it turned out to be a red letter day for my Dad. He’s written about the day in much more detail on the Salmo website, but to quickly summarise, he landed his first brace of 4lb+ perch from a river within three casts of each other! Here is the link to his feature: https://www.salmo-fishing.com/home/articles/cold-water-crankbait-fishing-for-perch/

 

Just three days later, we entered the third national lockdown. At first, it sounded like angling would not be permitted during this time, so we’d cleaned down all of our lure rods ready to be put away, when it was announced just two days later by the Angling Trust that we could continue to fish locally. Although this was fantastic news, and we were back out fishing a week later, the footpaths along the riverbanks were extremely busy with walkers, runners and cyclists. There were even swimmers at times! Fishing on weekdays or at dawn or dusk wasn’t much quieter than fishing on a weekend either. It was great to see people getting their daily exercise and fresh air, but it made keeping a distance whilst fishing extremely difficult. After a couple of short but successful trips, we thought the safest thing to do was to stop fishing on the river stretches.

In the following four to five weeks, we had an incredible amount of rain, sleet and snow, that put the rivers in flood, as well as a couple of local lakes. One of the lakes though, being situated a bit higher than the river running adjacent to it, avoided the influx of cold floodwater and remained crystal clear. After a few weeks of not wetting a line, we decided to have a go at quiver tipping for the roach there.

It would be the first time either of us had fished with bait for about three years, so it felt strange sitting on a seatbox not moving around much, unlike when you're lure or flyfishing! Fishing with red maggots, we had success on our first trip, landing some quality fish up to 1lb 7oz. The problem was though that because it was very cold and the gravel pit was crystal clear, the roach wouldn’t switch on until at very last light. With night fishing currently not allowed, you’d have a few minutes of frantic action, then it was time to pack up, which was a bit frustrating!

By late February, high pressure brought with it some settled weather, and the river levels and colour finally began to drop. Although the water temperatures were still very cold from the snowmelt, we were fairly confident that after such a prolonged period of rivers out of sorts and a lack of angling pressure, the fish could be hungry. Sometimes, I think it takes a few days for the fish to become used to the changing conditions, and there’s nothing quite like using a crankbait to switch inactive predators on.

  

Banging a Rattlin' Hornet or Bullhead along the bottom worked well for the perch, whilst the sinking Minnow caught a few chub.

 

 

The high pressure also brought with it unseasonably warm temperatures in to the mid teens - a nice change from the snow and freezing weather! I noticed in the coming days in our koi pond that the water temperature began to rise, and over the next couple of fishing trips, I also noticed the odd crayfish scuttling along the bottom - something I’d not seen in my local venues for a while, and it prompted us to try some of the Strike King creature baits. Strike King was one of the first American brands I used in the UK when I first started lure fishing, and when I heard the news they were being distributed by Fox Rage and launched in Europe this February, I was very excited! In the lead up to the launch, we’d been trying out some of the creature baits, and soon had a few favourites for perch and chub - the Baby Craw, the Ned Bug, and Ned Ocho.

The first of the three soft baits has large twin tail claws, that help it fall slowly when cast to structure such as overhanging bushes and trees. I’ve found five grams is a nice weight to get the claws swimming. The Ned Bug has a smaller profile, with four appendages that have a subtle action as the lure falls - a three gram ned or offset ned hook is perfect. The bottom lure in the picture above is the Ned Ocho, a ned-style worm that has grooves in the sides to give the softbait more movement. All worked well in those final few weeks of the season, and the Baby Craw produced my biggest perch of 2021, weighing 4lb 2oz.

During the lockdown, it’s been interesting fishing stretches I hadn’t fished for a long time and would have otherwise overlooked to travel further afield, but they’ve thrown up a few surprises, such as the 4lb 2oz perch. Another surprise came two days before the end of the season, whilst targeting chub with creature baits. We’d fished a stretch of around half a mile or so, catching a few pike to near double figures on the Baby Craw and Ned Bug, when we reached a spot that had produced the odd perch for us in the past.

 

Dad fished it with no joy, so after he moved on, I decided to scale down from the size of lures he’d been using, as I felt there had to be some perch there. I switched to a small, 5cm shad, rigged on a 3g size 2 jighead - a Rage Micro Tiddler Fast (the smallest of the shads in the picture below). A few casts later, I had a delicate bite, and struck instinctively.

 

 

At first I thought I’d hooked a big chub, but I saw the tail and realised I’d actually hooked a barbel! It tore off downstream and a serious battle followed, especially with the strong current. My 7-21g rod was bent double, but thankfully I managed to land the fish. I’ve caught a few barbel on lures during the summer and autumn months when I’ve stalked them with creature baits, but this was the first I’d caught on a shad, and the first I’d caught by accident whilst targeting perch!

Although we didn’t catch any of the chub we were hoping for, my Dad did go on to land two cracking perch on crankbaits at dusk, after a move to a different stretch.

 

 

It’s been nearly a couple of weeks since the season ended, and now it’s a case of patiently waiting until we can travel out of our area. I’m looking forward to fishing further afield - let’s cross our fingers we don’t have any more lockdowns!