“How do we convert frustrating follows into takes?”
WATCHING a fish swimming in hot pursuit of your lure or fly is assuredly one of the most exciting sights in angling.
Those lingering moments when success and rejection are a razor’s width apart are the essence of what makes a predator angler tick, be it a pike or perch, or even a chub, trout or bass making your eyes widen.
True, it can be frustrating to watch pursuers that prefer “window shopping” to tucking in, but just imagine how boring the sport would be if every fish walloped an artificial bait with the stupidity of a mackerel. In truth, it’s the misses and maybes that create genuine intrigue and, ultimately, smarter anglers. Just as bait fishers have tricks and ideas to convert more tips and taps into full blown bites, the lure or fly angler must engage their brain here – especially when it comes to “educated” fish that have been fooled before.
So, how do we convert those frustrating follows into takes? Rule number one is to be positive and aim to trigger aggression. This often means going against our natural instinct to slow down or even stop when we see a fish. In fact, a burst of acceleration as the gap closes can often seal the deal!
Rainbow trout are a prime example. Switching from pedestrian speeds to quicker and more erratic retrieves can often flick that switch to trigger their natural aggression. It can be the same with pike – just as the gap closes, an extra burst of speed can prompt them to open wide before dinner gets away. Should that not happen you can at least have another shot, as they haven’t had an age to study your lure or fly.
If follows are happening regularly with no hook-ups, however, this could well be your cue to switch colours or sizes. This often happens with pike, whether it’s a change to something brighter or darker, or scaling down. This is exactly what happened with my best ever lure caught pike of 27lb. It had made my heart do somersaults, following a big jerkbait, but refused to cooperate. Switching to a similar lure in a much smaller size did the job almost immediately, permanently changing any assumption I might have held that big fish demand big lures!
More recently, it’s been a completely different tactic that has worked on my local, well-pressured waters. I thought my pal David West Beale was having me on when he recommended stopping a fly dead and letting pike pick it up off the bottom. And yet this trick works often enough to merit a try on those frustrating days when the fish seem more curious than hungry. It feels all wrong, admittedly, letting a piece of fluff settle on the deck while it’s being eyeballed by a decent pike. Two minutes can
feel like two hours as you wait for the fish to snaffle the thing up. As always with awkward fish, though, you lose nothing by trying something different – and throwing a curve ball can be better than pressing repeat.