Had an hour's luring today and on my very first cast hooked into a nice pike. Eventually netted her (or maybe him) and found that I'd hooked her neatly right in the scissors. She felt and looked about twice the size of the one I caught last week and it was a fair old job lifting her out of the canal. Anyway, by the time I'd unhooked her she'd aleady been out of the water longer than I'd have wanted to be in it so I didn't take any photos or weigh her but I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't a ten... though maybe I'm just wishfully thinking.

Didn't get any further takes at all. Maybe she went back and told all the others.

Regards,
Del

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Nice going Del, may there be many more biggies to come. If unhooking takes longer than you would like, you can keep a pike in a large landing net for a few minutes to recover before getting a photo. This is also a good idea with barbel.

Well done! Do let us know the lure you were using: I can't get anything on lures at this time of year, maybe because I'm using patterns that only work in summer (?) My lure fishing tends to be to try and keep myself warm, when thee's nothing else doing!

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.

Pangolin, the lure - which has worked a couple of times for me in the last fortnight is a bright yellow and orange sinking diver (if that's the correct term - maybe I should call it a countdown lure, I don't know). Anyway, it's not too big and has a nice rattle in it. Closest thing I can find in the Harris catalogue is the Mean Hunter, though that one is apparantly a floating diver. The one I got was in the bargain bin at my local shop - wish I'd bought a couple now!

Regards,
Del

at the moment, althought things are slow, i'm finding sinking rapala magnums are working, today i caught on a 4inch redhead, with a black belly and silver top, last week it was a grey mullet pattern, but a bit bigger. i would have probably caught whatever i'd had on when the fish came by though, just happened to be the rapalas at the time

If only more anglers took the fishes welfare into consideration, before thier keepsake photos.
Well done mate.

Whilst I don't take pics, I do like to weigh if possible, and for that reason I lay my weigh sling on top of the un-hooking mat, it only takes a second or two and you can then return the fish to water via the sling.

Del_R - maybe something like this lure from Cabelas would do well for you. $3.99 each unless you buy 6 the same color and then $2.99 each. $4 US is around £2.1 right now.



Another lure option you may not be familiar with is a thing called a 'swim bait'. Solid head with a rubber body. The body does get torn up after a few fish but you can buy them. Bodies for this lure are $3 for a package of 4. Available in floating or sinking and at 5", a nice mouthful for the pred.



[ 26. January 2004, 02:24 AM: Message edited by: Newt ]