I've been Wallerin' in the dark arts...

[Wordbender]

Inspired by Peter Waller (have those three words bronzed, Pete!) I went to the Thorpe Park tackle sale and bought me some lure fishing gear. Oh yes.

 

Now, I'm no stranger to that fake fish-chucking lark and I've got a fair bit of the neccessary tackle, but I felt my new piking zeal would be all the more zealified with some new toys to play with.

 

So, I bagged me a new Ambassadeur 6501 C3 reel (bargain at £40, I thought) some braid - couldn't find 50lb. Power Pro so I made do with a 300 metre spool of 30lb. Whiplash (£10 - couldn't go wrong - if I don't like it, it'll go on my marker rod) and half a dozen lures.

 

Couldn't find any titanium traces, though, but a few bits of carp gear soothed me nicely and I went home a happy angler.

 

Within seconds I dusted off my 7-foot, two-piece, Calibre Tackle, 'Derek Gibson' Corvette rod (great, now I'm sounding like a PROPER angling writer) , loaded the new reel with braid, grabbed my foldy-up landing net, unhooking mat and pikeing utility belt and launched myself at the Wey Nav canal.

 

I caught! Two record-threateners of 4 and 6 lbs. came sulkily to the bank - hand-landed - on a Fox Micro Demon 'Bloody Roach' lure - jointed, front looks like a jerkbait, back end's a glittery softail jobby, and another Fox, this time a Micro Dolphin that looks like a Loz Harrop (sp) Darter.

 

The new reel works extremely well and I was soon back in the baitcasting groove, with just one tiny overrun, despite having virtually no brake set, just good old thumb power.

 

I loved it, for all sorts of reasons, and I'm out tomorrow at first light, a'chuckin' and a flingin'. No doubt I'm doing all sorts of stuff wrong but I'll learn and if all else fails, at least I've got loads of new gear to buy and enjoy.

[Leon Roskilly]

Terry,

 

Do yourself a favour mate, put all those lures, lure rods and reel at the back of the coal cellar and try to forget that they are there.

 

There's only one cure for 'lure-mania' that I've found, and as always the cure is worse than the disease.

 

So, unless you want to end up mullet fishing, go cold turkey now, while you may still just have the time.

 

(but from the sounds of it, it is already too late! Just wait until you move onto surface poppers early on a summer's day. No going back from that!)

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Leon Roskilly]

ps Are you up for a session taking gars, mackerel and the odd bass on lures from Folkestone Warren come mid-late May?

 

TL - leon

[argyll]

So, I bagged me a new Ambassadeur 6501 C3 reel (bargain at £40, I thought)

 

That was indeed a bargain. Makes up for the indecency of charging you at the gate to come in and buy tackle. Only in england.......

[Wordbender]

argyll:

That was indeed a bargain. Makes up for the indecency of charging you at the gate to come in and buy tackle. Only in england.......

Unless you had a trade pass and could have a good squint at the bargains before the great unwashed were let in.

[Wordbender]

Leon Roskilly:

ps Are you up for a session taking gars, mackerel and the odd bass on lures from Folkestone Warren come mid-late May?

 

TL - leon

Count me in! What rod-type gear will I need, Leon? What sort of mileage are you expert types casting? I'm struggling to hit 50 yards with my best chucking lures at the moment. One would so hate to be under-gunned.

[Newt]

7'rod, 50 yards - that ain't bad a'tall young feller.

 

At least with a rod that length and a proper reel you can put the lure where you want it. I really thing some guys with those long rods just toss the lure a long distance 'that-a-way'.

 

Sounds like you had fun with it too.

[Wordbender]

I did that, Newt, and the 50 yards was paced out because I did an almighty 'parallel with the bank' cast and cleverly caught a bankside bush, so I left the rod and stepped out the distance en-route to retrieving the lure.

 

I'm doing ok on the placement, too, and my experience as a shooter is seriously helpful with this. Windage, trajectory, trigger technique and follow-through are all shooting-related skills but each has its lure-casting version, too.

 

To tell the truth, dropping a lure right on the spot is almost as much fun as hooking up a fish. That's my shooting side taking over I guess.

[Tony U]

If you fancy lure fishing the Warren Folkestone we have already been discussing (sort of) its potential in the seafishing reports, the fossiling is pretty good as well:

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/ubb/ultimatebb...ic;f=9;t=000342

If Leon wants to get worked up about surface poppers the Red Snappers in Cuba go nuts for them; they average around 19-20 lbs and are brillliant on Pike Baitcasting/spinning gear.

We are of again in April for more of the same.

[Wordbender]

Tony U:

If Leon wants to get worked up about surface poppers the Red Snappers in Cuba go nuts for them; they average around 19-20 lbs and are brillliant on Pike Baitcasting/spinning gear.

A 20lb. surface popper you say? That'll take some casting but I'm willing to give it a go - on Leon's rods, anyway.