Pike & Soft Plastic Lures

[Newt]

But Tim - posting this sort of thing on a dedicated Pike or Lure forum would be sort of like preaching to the converted. Lots more fun to do here where the place is full of non-believers.

 

Besides, we've missed your posting for too long now and it took some doing to get you back for a bit and to get a rise out of Argyll. Both those happenings are too rare lately.

 

I do think you'd really enjoy the DVD that Peter spoke about. Woo Daves can get a boat up so close to a tree top you'd swear he had spooked any fish in the area and then proceed to catch large fish from a place that looks like it won't hold any. As noted, black bass only but the tactics will likely produce some large pike in your waters since the fishing is from very protected spots that never get angling pressure and that also provide great ambush locations with plenty of bait fish.

 

I can highly recommend any of his DVDs or any by Kevin VanDam from here. They are all bass oriented so the lures and some of the tactics will need modification but both of these guys know an amazing amount about catching preds and both do a good job of passing that information along.

[Peter Waller]

You're right about the spooking Newt. Woo goes into a bay, you can see the muddy tail swirls of spooked fish all around, yet he extracts fish from the roots of trees, amazing stuff.

 

Tim, you are also right about some forums. But it isn't long ago when some of us Broads anglers started preaching, especially about the numbers that we were catching, that there was some disbelief from many quarters.

 

Even now the number of UK lure anglers is small, and the amount using soft bodies is even smaller. Even the mighty Harris Angling missed the boat and Chris Harris took some convincing before they stocked soft stuff.

 

Anyway, there is now a nucleus of the converted, but we are still way behind the Dutch & US anglers.

 

As for me, its horribly dull & grey out there, not inspring stuff but I'm tackled up & rearing to go!!

[Ken L]

Soft Plastics. Pike just love @em !

In my experience though, what does't work is the techniques that involve hiding the hook point inside the body of the lure. You'll get plenty of hits but translating these into hooked fish is very difficult because the fishes teeth penetrate the lure and prevent the hook from pulling thru.

[J.K]

I have found soft bodied lures to be great for pike but only when the size of the lure is above 5inches.

 

Joel

[Tim Kelly]

Ah Newt, so sweet, and ever the diplomat!

 

The Woo Davis vid sounds great. I have a "fishing the sluggo"one I ordered from Bass pro a few years ago, it's hosted by Stacey someone I think and is great stuff.

 

I spent a little time last summer fishing for small and largemouth bass and they are incredably obliging when it comes to getting hooked! The most unlikely looking things will still hook them, whereas a pike would take lumps out of them all day without ever feeling the steel!

[argyll]

and to get a rise out of Argyll.

 

Nah, the bait wasnt big enough . Besides humiliation awaits you on this side of the pond.The Fens were also a trial today with zilch happening with any kind of lure, soft or hard. High pressure today and lures should have worked but was not to be and days like this make you look as good as the worse angler on the bank. Humbled

[Peter Waller]

I know the feeling Gerry! A four hour and a two hour session for zilch!! But my new rigs fished as I expected, just that Jack didn't oblige!

[Tim Kelly]

Ha ha! I got 5 today (10 for the boat), after a rather depressingly long period of zilch though.

 

[ 12. December 2004, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: Tim Kelly ]

[Steve Burke]

Soft plastics didn't work yesterday at Wingham but spoons did! I had 3 jacks plus a perch of 3-03. I invited my guest into the perch swim and he had specimens of 3-03 & 3-12.

 

I also had a follow right to my feet of a perch that dwarfed these and that I put at 4½ to 5lbs! I could have almost touched it before it spooked!

 

Despite the high pressure I don't find anticyclonic gloom nearly as productive as when it's sunny, apart from when the pressure has just risen. I suspect that the water becomes de-oxygenated after a few days. This may have been why all the fish came where the cold breeze was ruffling the surface most. The breeze dropped later in the afternoon when we hoped for more, but it wasn't to be.

 

Theory suggests that in high pressure that the fish will be up in the water, and this was certainly the case. Many of the takes came on the drop.

 

[ 13. December 2004, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]

[The Flying Tench]

Ah, some science (!), leading to some questions from me:

 

1) What is anticyclonic gloom? Sounds a bit Sherlock Holmes-ish doesn't it!

 

2) 'High pressure .... fish up in the water'. I can see the reason for that - a bit, since a sharp rise in pressure could lead to the pressure being what they've been used to if they move a foot or two higher - though not, say, 10 feet higher, in the water. That in turn could explain (a bit)why high pressure is better for lure fishing than static deadbaiting. But what's your take on that, Steve? Others seem fairly unanimous that it's true, but in your October thread 'Get piking this weekend' you seemed to imply a sustained rise (or fall, for that matter) in pressure was good for piking in general, not just for lure fishing.

 

3)Any suggestion of a good spoon for perch?

 

4) Steve, or anyone else. Getting back to the main subject of this thread, where do I start with plastics? All I have at the moment is some Mean Grubz, which haven't done me any good so far. Presumably they're for perch. I've tried them a bit, found no luck, put on a Mepps no 3 and immediately bingo. I see in the Harris catalogue there's a thing called a Mepps Spinflex which looks suspiciously like a Mepps with a Grubz stuck on the back. Maybe I should combine them? For pike my local tackle shop has various packs of shads which are cheap, about £5 for 4, but a bit small, maybe 3-4 inches. Bull-dawgs are big, but expensive, and they're described as a jerk bait, so I guess they'd be a bit heavy for a standard, medium weight, 9 foot spinning rod? I guess I need something in between?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.