Only one fishing trip but still an enjoyable week
I CATCH UP WITH OLD PALS AND PREPARE FOR SOME SERIOUS PIKING
WE’VE waited a long time, but finally the cold weather has hit with a vengeance! On a personal note I’m glad it has, because in a couple of weeks almost every commercial carp water will go clear as the carp stop feeding. That means it will be much easier to target perch on lures.
Yes, you can catch perch on lures in coloured water but it’s much better if the water is clear, because perch can see the lures that much better. With the associated high pressure we will also have less rain, river levels will fall and I can start chub fishing in earnest before the season ends.
Last week I had only a single short session fishing. First, I had a nasty cold and second, the weather was so awful I didn’t fancy a day on the bank.
I’m not afraid of fishing in bad weather, but snow and sleet entering my waters for the first time this year will put the fish right off. All that grit and salt running into the rivers from the roads always puts a dampener on river sport. But my life revolves around angling, so I am always doing something…
MONDAY
Met up with Max Taylor to discuss the forthcoming annual road show hosted by his club, Rowley DAS. This year there’s a real star-studded line-up, topped by England Feeder team manager and former World Champ Tom Pickering, along with fellow Angling Times columnist and top specimen angler Paul Garner.
I am master of ceremonies and I can’t wait. It’s on Thursday, February 18 at the Royal British Legion Club, Windsor Road, Oldbury, West Midlands B68 8NY.
Doors open at 7pm for an 8pm start and tickets cost £8.25, including buffet. Get yours from local tackle shops or the Rowley club website www.rdas.me.uk – see you there!
TUESDAY
Made a load of new pike traces with big trebles for big whole deadbaits like herrings. One of the waters I am fishing at the end of the season with Steve Greenway offers the chance of a very large pike and if I hook it I want it to be on extra-strong Gold Label Crocodile 30lb multi-strand wire, a strong Berkley swivel and a big sharp Gamakatsu treble hook!
I strike my runs straight away so that I don’t deep hook my fish, which means the size of hook doesn’t matter. I know some anglers say that you get more takes on smaller hooks and finer set-ups but that’s when the pike you are after are pressured and have been hooked a few times. I like to fish for pike that have rarely seen a hook and are not afraid to pick up a bait, regardless of hook size!
THURSDAY
My only session of the week saw sleet in the air and I should have stayed at home, but instead I took my drop shot gear out to a local canal.
I caught four perch and a very small chub, all on a tiny brown crayfish worked slowly along the bottom of the canal with a light jig rod. Perch, chub and pike eat a lot of these little fellows so it makes sense to give them one with a hook in it!
On my travels I met another guy doing the same thing. He was from Poland, a real nice guy and an excellent lure angler. Not all Eastern European anglers catch and eat everything, far from it!
This guy was a very serious lure angler and is more than welcome on any of my waters. He showed me what he had been catching on over the past few weeks and even gave me a couple of rubber lures. We stood by the car till well into dark, talking of days spent lure fishing, both true anglers regardless of where we were born.
SATURDAY
A day spent touring local tackle shops, topping up on a few bits and pieces, catching up with friends in the trade and seeing how business was going. I love being in a proper tackle shop enjoying fishing banter with the lads.
When the weather is really bad a lot of anglers will go to the shop for a cup of coffee and a chat. They are willing to tell you where matches on the canal are won and lost, and on my local canals that means telling you where the big chub, some close to 7lb, are holding up.
I finished up in Fosters of Birmingham to see my old mate Richard Foster and ended up stopping the night after drinking a few pints and devouring an Indian. It was great to talk about old times spent catching sharks and other exotic species. I had a nice day and a lovely evening catching up – well worth missing a couple of days on the bank for!