My Targets this year are unchanged to those of last year. A reflection of my failure as an angler rather than unreasonableness of my ambition. I have still to catch a Crucian Carp, a Barbel and "specimen" chub (in my book that is a chub of over 3lbs). I had a week off work and obviously the rivers are still off limits so I set myself to catch a Crucian Carp.....And failed.
Epically.
To be fair the conditions could not have been worse, lots of cold water from the incessant rain running in to the ponds and a cold North Easterly wind. It appeared that my own personal rain cloud was calling the shots.
Indeed I scratched around of any fish at all over the week, I didn't blank on any day except Friday when I was pike fishing but never really got going either. Taking a nice Ide here and 5lb Bream there but other than that a mixture of small perch, roach and skimmers. That is not to say I did not enjoy myself because I did, a brolly and a thermos flask kept the elements at bay as I simply enjoyed being on the bank with a line in the water.
Added to the enjoyment was the wildlife, It started with hearing a Cuckoo up in York and I saw Wrens, Kestrel's, Herons, Kingfishers and Woodpeckers. The highlight was a Grey Heron taking up station on the opposite bank to my swim on a small pond and out fishing me for about 20 minutes!
The most fun I had however was lure fishing for pike on a large lake near Otley on Friday Morning. I had just bought a floating frog.... Now before you judge me, read on.
These lures used to great effect in the U.S. to catch Large Mouth Bass amongst Lilly pads. The hooks are hidden and become exposed when the fish bites the lure. Now this lake which is mostly fished by Carp Anglers is very weedy and shallow close to the banks but it has a lot of pike present. I saw pike in very shallow water in nearly every swim I peered into and they went nuts for this lure!
Casting out, This piece of hollow soft plastic puts on a Oscar worthy performance of a hapless amphibian desperately making it's way to the shore, then, as you watch, a large bow wave forms a foot or so behind the lure and then with a flash of yellow and white and a huge displacement of water the pike hits the lure......Or at least try to. I must have had 7 or 8 fish try and take this lure without a single hook up. The problem is with the hooks being hidden the fish actually have to bite cleanly on the lure to expose the hooks. Pike are fast, powerful and brutal but marksmen they are not. I actually failed to catch but I was having so much fun watching the fish follow and the ferocious attacks on the lure that I did not want to change baits. I have found a similar pattern that has a trailing treble hook which I think will make a big difference to hook ups but even if not I would really recommend trying surface lures at this time of year. The acceleration and power of these fish as they attack has to be seen to be believed.
Next up will be a fun trip with my 5 year old to help him as he tries to catch some canal roach and then a trip to the Aire and Calder Canal, where I plan to use ultra light lures to try and tag a good perch or chub.
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