Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
CARL & ALEX
Brothers Carl & Alex, two of the biggest angling stars on YouTube, recall some of the highlights of a productive year during which their hard work was rewarded with great catches “We had the time of our lives at Rutland, on our second trip we landed 30 z
Addicted to lure fishing
Since September Carl and I have really got into lure fishing. In the last few months we have caught a range of species from salmon to chub in a number of different venues on lures. We’ve had so much fun targeting predatory fish – I just love the simple and minimalistic approach. You need a rod, reel, some lures and that’s about it. Throughout this piece I’ll go through in a little more detail what we have been doing to catch plenty of fish. We started lure fishing in early autumn using a very popular method called jigging. This tactic comprises a weighted jighead and a rubber lure that is threaded on to the hook. We targeted our local ponds and streams and had some great results with loads of perch to 3lb. As the waters we were fishing were very shallow and small, we opted for a light jigheads of 1g-3g. This was heavy enough to cast but light enough to create a slow sinking lure that wouldn’t drag across the bottom. Rubber green swimbaits of 1in-2in were doing the trick for us. Over the course of a few sessions at our local Tanyard Fishery we located a spot where the perch seemed to shoal up. It was an inlet to one of the lakes where a deep hole had been created by water constantly flowing in. We also picked up the odd perch elsewhere just casting tight to features such as overhanging tees, weedbeds and lily pads. Where there’s a feature, there’s s perch! One thing that was slightly annoying about jigging at Tanyard is that some of the lakebed is really messy and full of leaves, sticks and debris. You ou couldn’t allow the lure hit the deck, otherwisetherwise the hookpoint would be masked straight away. This meant it was hard to work a lure on the spot and slowly twitch the lure. This was when we learned how to tie a drop shot rig. This rig involves a hook tied on to your line a few inches off bottom with a drop shot weight below sitting on the lakebed. This way you can cast out to a spot and twitch it on the spot without your hook getting caught up on anything. This definitely caught us lots more fish once we had located a shoal and we would not only be catching the confident fish but also the shy ones that would sit and watch the lure for a moment before taking it. After a great autumn fishing for perch we then hooked up with Steve Collet and Rikki Cooper at the famous Rutland Water in search of the awesome looking fish that is the zander. Over a couple of sessions, we learned plenty about vertical jigging. The rig for Rutland used jigheads of the same design but, instead of weighing 3g, we used up to 50g to hold and keep in touch with the lakebed in more than 90ft of water. And with the larger jigheads we also used larger soft plastic lures up to four inches. We
had the time of our lives on the boat at Rutland, especially on our second trip when we landed 30 zander in our boat! Now moving into the coldest months of the year, we are setting our eyes on pike fishing and already we’ve done a few sessions. The one that stood out in particular was when we travelled to a couple of waters in Shropshire and fished with a friend of ours and top predator angler Ed Matthews. Once again the lure tactics for pike vary quite noticeably compared to zander and perch fishing. The waters we were fishing were shallow so Ed advised us to use slow-sinking lures so we wouldn’t constantly be dragging bottom. On the day we were catching plenty of pike on small spinners but nothing above the 5lb-6lb mark. Ed recommended we tried a bigger lure and gave us a jointed device that swam like an ill fish. It certainly looked the part and, after only a few casts, I landed a much better fish! It was an action-packed session and although we never managed anything large, when fishing with lures you never get bored as you are always keeping mobile, trying new spots. When a fish does hit the lure it really gets the heart going, especially when they decide to take the lure just before you lift it out of the water. In terms of the near future our plans are to carry on pike fishing for the next few months and, towards the back end of winter and early spring, get out on our local reservoirs for some big perch! I would definitely recommend throwing a lure about this winter!