Close season FISHING thread

[Errrm]

Congrats Errm, that's a whopper! Out of interest, what lure and setup were you using?

Thanks :-).

 

I was using a Major Craft Go Emotion GEC632ML(5-14gr) with an Okumo Komodo 273. As you can see I wasn't expecting a 25lb pike but the setup did really well and didn't struggle at all even in the snaggy swim, I will probably using a lighter baitcasting outfit for perch/chub when the river season starts and keep this one for Pike.

 

Edit - Lure was a 9cm Rapala Shallow Shad in Perch Pattern

Edited April 9, 2015 by Errrm

[Anderoo]

An interesting evening yesterday and a first for me - a tench stalked on the fly! I was messing around at the club lake with large flies and sight bobs, seeing if a strange plan for canal zander was technically possible (it is ) and a carp and a tench drifted into view. I cast to them, twitched the fly a couple of times, and the tench turned around and inhaled it. The water is clear so I saw it all really clearly, it was great

[Kappa]

I am still in shock about that!

[Anderoo]

Rich, you now need at least 3 different fly fishing outfits

[Kappa]

Orvis Tench Master Pro?

Edited April 10, 2015 by Kappa

[Steve Walker]

Needed to get my confidence up for the Thames trouting, so I had an hour or two on an easy river. I miscalculated, taking lots of nymphs but hardly any dries - wouldn't you know it, they were having midges off the top! I found a little black spider, ginked it up well, and set to it. The swim in question requires wading and precise casting - there's a narrow clear path for the backcast, directly down the river, then you need to shoot the loop low to avoid the overhanging trees. Obviously the fish rise just far enough upstream to make it hard. Bit of a big ask when out of practice, but I eventually put the fly in the right place and was rewarded with this little scrapper - which went aerobatically mental and killed the swim. Didn't care

 

 

I then went back on the nymph, because my plan for the Thames is a big peeping caddis tied on a long shank #10. I have already tested it on grayling, but I needed a confidence trout. First drop in the next swim resulted in a really aggressive take, lots of splashing and a lost fish to the caddis. The weirpool had already been fished by a man who appeared to be trotting nymphs with a fixed spool reel, but I eventually nailed one from a "last cast" on the way back. So that's good, I like that pattern now!

[Steve Walker]

Thames trout mission accomplished!!

 

I went down there this afternoon with the 8' 3/4 weight and floating line. I started working my way down, fishing the upstream nymph with a peeping caddis and PTN and a blob of floating putty on the line. Nothing was forthcoming, though I saw a few cracking chub lurking. Oh for an open season and a slug! So spooky, though, the water is shallow and gin clear. I have the tingle of nettle stings on my knees.

 

Suddenly, there was a big hatch of small, almost moth-like upwing flies, and I started to see a few splashy rises - small chub or dace, I think. Eventually I found a spot where something more substantial was rising. I am still a bit short on dries at the moment, but I had a parachute Adams with a foam post which I thought might do the trick. I covered one fish half a dozen times before it stopped rising, then tried another just downstream of an overhanging tree. I missed a take almost the instant it landed, then had another chance. This time I got it. I was so sure it had to be a little chub that I bullied it, until I saw the spots in the clear water and things became suddenly serious. I was desperate to land that fish, and may have behaved in a manner unbecoming of a genteel fly fisher when I got it out of the water. There may have been an expletive or two!

 

Anyway, Thames trout, fished for, upstream (self-tied) dry fly to a rising fish. Magic!

 

 

 

 

 

[Christian T]

Congratulations Steve, great pictures and what a fish!

[Steve Walker]

Thanks Christian. Gorgeous colours, the picture doesn't do it justice!

[Anderoo]

That's fantastic, well done Steve! Great photos too, it's amazing to see the Thames as a tiny, shallow trout stream. I call the bits I fish the 'upper Thames', I might have to rethink that...!

I was going to go fly fishing for trout at Farmoor on Saturday but there was a match on, so instead I had an early start and headed up to the midlands to lure fish the canal for perch and zander. Rich and I had been a couple of weeks ago and I was very keen to get back. Since the first trip I'd bought a much more suitable rod, a little 6' 6" LRF lure rod with a casting weight of 0.5-7g. It's extremely delicate at the tip as it has a spliced in quivertip but stiffens up quickly with plenty of backbone for setting hooks into bony jaws. An amazing bargain at £30 including delivery. That was to fish little soft plastics on tiny jig heads, but I also took my dropshot rod to experiment with. I wanted to see if dropshotting using a fly fishing sight indicator would work. In theory, if set at dead depth with the lure a couple of inches above bottom, you could cast it anywhere and it would be fishing vertically, with the bonus of a little float to watch for bites.

 

Little lures:

It was going to be a very bright and warm day, so I left early. Within 5 minutes of starting, gently jigging a 2" lure by my feet near a lock, I'd had two small but very angry and pretty zander on the bank. Great start! The new rod was much easier to use than the heavier one I used last time, it allowed me to use much smaller jig heads and stay in contact with the lure, feeling for that little 'donk' as fish grabbed the lure.

At the next lock I had a few casts before 'donk', a good perch hit the lure and fought really hard in the coloured water. On such light gear every fish is a monster! Then I had another, and another, and another, and another! Five perch in about as many casts, all of a really decent size. I didn't weigh them but the biggest was probably somewhere around a pound and a quarter.

 

 

A few more casts later and I was dibbling the lure around by my feet when it all went kind of heavy - no donk this time but something had happened. I struck and the little rod bent right round and something much bigger powered off. A short but exciting fight later, a really good zander was on the bank - I did weight this one at 4lb 8oz, my biggest canal zander so far.

 

A few more smaller zander made a brief visit to the bank as I wandered down the canal, working the lure slowly near the bottom, and then the second 'proper' one of the morning made an appearance. I cast out and felt a donk as the lure was dropping and it all went slack - I reeled madly to try to regain contact and eventually the rod pulled round and started jagging away. A zander had hit it on the drop and shot towards me, thankfully hanging onto the lure in the meantime! This was a bit smaller than the other good one, about 3lb 12oz, but they look and feel a lot bigger than they are.

 

 

The sun was now quite high and things got much harder. I scratched out a couple more little zander and one more perch over the next few hours, but it was really nice to be out in the sun enjoying the warmth anyway. By 10am it was pretty much all over. It was a great day though, with a final score of 7 zander, 6 perch, plus a few fish that dropped off when I didn't strike hard enough and a few missed bites. More than anything, this type of fishing is one thing - FUN

 

 

PS the dropshot under a sight bob idea works, I think - I didn't give it the time it deserved as I was having too much fun with the little jigs, but I did get one good bite on it - the bob, erm, bobbed and pulled under, I struck and had a fish on briefly before it fell off. I think the idea has legs, especially when you want to keep a lure right next to a feature and gently work it 'vertically'.