Sneak Peak

Heres a quick post from last weekends session i had with Nick and Lewis from Hart Flyshop. Nick will be putting up a full blog report on his blog over the weekend so check it out on my links section. we headed out to a new venue i found the other week with both fly and lure gear, we had all the bases covered from Lewis's tiny 3weight tickling stick to the 8 and 10weight pike fly kits and of coarse my trusty lure gear! Lewis was the first to turbo tickle out a handfull of tiny chub from under a bridge which was stuffed to the brim with chub and perch. he could literally put his fly where ever he wanted and on nearly every cast he nailed a small chub! i fished the next swim up and and managed to get a couple small perch chase and nip the small shads and grubs i was fishing with, it was 10-15mins before i managed to whip out a small Jack on a Delilande GT shad, a short spirited fight and i had landed the little monster i looked over my shoulders to see Nick beside me craftely shooting his black pike fly under the trees hoping for a decent pike and Lewis still tickling out small chub on the other side of us It wasnt long before Lewis was twitching for pike as i was manging to catch 3 more jacks from right under his nose, He wacks on his pike fly gear and instantly nails a small scrappy jack in the swim up form me about 2-3lb it was awesome seeing things take shape nicely! Nick was icthing to nail a pike now after our fairly poor most recent sessions together, the sport was hotting up its always wicked to be on a new venue and nailing fish one after another! we fished for another hour and the sport started to slow so we decided to head back to the sections that we started at. i managed yet again a few more scrappy jacks to about 6lb on white shads from either Delilande or the Savagegear Cannibals it was crazy fun these pike really did hang on! Nick had found a nice swim where he saw a nice Perch nail some fry and he had a chase from a fairly decent pike (low double) me and Lewis decided to cross the bridge and fish a section where we could see literally tons of bait fish rolling it wasnt long before i was in again! i started fishing these swims with a 3inch Savage cannibal shad in glow yellow with one thing in mind! big Perch..... i knew they were here because peering over the bridge i could see them shoaling up the small fry and saw 3 or four Perch well over 2lb. literally a couple casts later and bang! i knew exactly what iv got on here :-) the usuall jag jag head shake of a fairly nice perch of a pound and a half Love it when Perch nail lures really well! this Savage cannibal shad dint stand a chance, i dropped another nice perch about the same size two casts later as we were almost netting it! while taking these pictures my phone rang twice it was nick the other side of the bridge, he had managed to nail a decent pike around 8lb on the fly the pike were deffo coming on again now for the mid afternoon feed there was shoals busting the surface where pike were nailing fry off the top it was awesome to see! by tis time Nick had made it to our side, grinning from ear to ear it was a great atmosphere with all these fish nailing the lures and flys..... i Nailed this nice plump 8lber from the same swim as Nick was fishing and he was getting hit on the far bank! Between me and Nick we managed to nail a impressive 10 more pike from these next couple swims, poor old Lewis wasnt getting a sniff :-) Nick was his usuall piss taking self and the banter was well and truly flowing its always a laugh when we all get out and hit the banks of the local canals and rivers...... i can only imagine what this place is going to be like when we get back on here when the rivers re-open in june! bring on the surface lures and weedless stuff its literally going to kick off here! the two biggest pike one to Nick and one to me both just over 9lb were taken no more than 20ft from each other! they were kicking off when hooked fighting well above there weight when they first got hooked you would think we had hooked mid doubles they steamed off down stream cracking fun on the light gear! Nicks 10weight was looped right over awesome sport! cant wait to see the pictures from Nicks camera, and the proper blog report! one of the highlights of the day was seeing Lewis nail his first ever pike on the Lure..... i set up a spinning rod coupled with a 4.5inch delilande shad and Lewis was away! literally on his second cast he brings the shad up the shallows from the deep ledges and Bang this small Jack nails the lure right under the surface! it was awesome seeing this jack smash the shad in a split second! the smile on Lews face siad it all, i get a proper buzz seeing friends achieve these little goals its what fishing is all about, having fun with ya friends... no massive pike but like iv said before i couldnt care less i just love nailing fish on lures with good company.

Nick shouts out from across the feild as he's just been followed by another decent fish of low doubles so me and Lew head over with our gear! it wasnt long before Nick nails a fish of 9lb again on the fly from a lush pool where two rivers met. it had all the charactoristics you would look for deep water close in dropped flow just awesome fishing conditions! the last two fish cam from this bay making the grand total of 28 pike caught between the 3 of us..... i had 13 pike to 9lb and Nick had 12 pike to 9lb also with Lewis nailing the last 3 brilliant day! the full blog report and all photos from my camera and nicks will be up by next week.... like i said i cant wait to hit here again when the rivers open again! truly awesome fun and a real red letter day! Ill post up when Nick has written his parts think it'll make a good write up!

Danny

Gold Mine.......

This is going to be a short one as off to this venue again later in the week to proper smash it! while out fishing today with the Portland Penetrator today we drove across some lovely countryside and stumbled across some amazing water..... i literally almost jumped out the moving car when we saw this stretch talk about mouth watering river! we parked up on the next passing point and scrambled down the country lane like bloody school kids! i took one look over the bridge and honest to god never seen anything like it! iv been lucky enough to fish some amazing water over the years but this was mind blowing the surface was littered in roach and rudd some well over a pound bellow that could only be described as a carpet of small roach baby chub and dace, iv never seen shoals like this.... the water was black with fish and under all that lot was the odd large chuch and a fair few decent perch! i was a jibbering wreck!

so after scrambling to the village to pick up the day tickets we tackled up with our Perch outfits mart opting to use the legendary Rapala F5 tricked out with Gama hooks to make sure any nips turn into fish on the bank! and i stuck on the trusty Kalin 3inch pepper pearl grub on the owner 4g jig, Mart being the smiper he is manages to winkle out the first Perch almost instantly and this little 1lber was in the net! you can just see the marks on this Perch it had obviously had a run in with a fairly large Pike in the winter so this spot seemed to be getting better and better :-) Mart manages to nail a few more simular size right in front of me! i didnt get a bloody sniff...... i managed to pester a chub of about 4inches long apart from that i couldnt catch a cold! Mart then rubs salt in my wound by nailing 3 pike to around 6-7lb and still i havent had a frigging take! then out of the blue while i was away with the fairys soaking up the sun i get smashed right under my feet by a beast of a pike must of been all of 14oz's :-) Pikie is Pike as they say mummy always told me its not how big it is........

then i really had to up my game because i was being shafted again by Mart and i stuck on a four inch Cannibal shad kind of hoping to nail a decent pike to even out the score and bang this plump beautifully coloured river perch nails the lure..... it must of been hungry as it totally ingulfed the shad 4inch shad.... you can just about see the jig head poking out the Perch's mouth! it folded the lure completely in half! from this same swim i managed to get a couple more all around the pound mark on the same shad. i was hoping for a proper unit of a perch as this swim looked mental perfect for perch and had 3lber written all over it! but it wasnt ment to be! at this point the swims in front of me were totally crawling with roach dace rudd and baby chub it was literally quite surreal seeing this many fish shoaled up in these gawjus stretches of river. especially this time of year i can only imagine this venue in the heights of summer as there was tons of lillies just breaking through the mud and there is no pace here already it has all the signs for a smashing summer light lure venue and cannot wait to get on it once the closed season ends and hopefully summer is well on the way!

Both me and Mart had a handfull more Jacks each none very big but all the same goo fun on our lighter outfits. its days like this which i love being out on the bank, brilliant weather and good company the venue came to life as the sun started to drop it was still fairly warm and it starts the brains ticking over thoughts of summer nights coming where i can head out and smash Pike on the surface lures! gotta be my favorite time of year late spring coming into summer, i have soooo much planned this season and times like this just fuel my passion for lure fishing! its not about big fish, far from it! its all about good times, good company and even better times ahead! we are heading back here friday with light lure and fly gear! fingers bloody crossed its going to be a gooden! :-)

Danny

Recent Trips

Had a good few sessions recently, not the easiest time of year for harassing pike due to the random weather conditions and the fact they are just about to spawn making them a bit scatty and have there minds on other things...... but still i managed a few sessions around this weekend and was great to get out with good mates on a good venue.

On friday i headed out with the Portland penitrator, Mart really opened a can of whoop ass on me on this session i guess a kind of payback from the last time when we fished and i nailed a high twenty and a gorgeous 2lb perch and he blanked :-) he actually was 9-0 up on me before i even got a hit! i was tryin out some new SavageGear products and i was getting plenty of chases in fact the first 5mins i had a 20plus'r charge up behind one of the Savage "Da Bush" spinnerbaits i crapped my pants as there was lots of glare in the water i didnt see the beast until it was too late..... she sat there staring at me before slowely turning and swimming back off in to depths!

I must say i was super impressed with the samples Mads at savage sent over, these spinnerbaits are very well made! ball bearing swivels soldered joints, decent sized hooks (some american spinnerbaits designed for bass come with smaller hooks) awesome flash foil and rubber skirts with a hard coated jig head! Mads sent over various sizes and colours and the all look the muts nuts, sure winners this year im sure! i have lots lined up for these lures throughout the year its amazing how many styles you can fish spinnerbaits!

I finally managed to put a fish on the bank...... Yes its not as big as some of the perch i normally stick up on here but was chuffed to actually catch while martin was turfing out Jacks one after another! this little bugger was nailed on a Rapala Xrap shad in yellow perch one or my fav clear water lures it hangs in the water soooo well you can literally see the pike and perch going cross eyed when the see it! but as i said earlier the pike are deffo prespawning and there was loads of decent pike swimming up and down the swims but they just werent interested! very frustrating fishing i tell ya! but with a week or so rest they should be back on form! bring on the surface fishing i say! :-)
Yesterday Me and Adrian headed back out to show these pike who was the boss! we started off in our usual hot spots but this was a waste of time with the water being tapwater clear we had a few casts but called it a day there! we headed back to some sections where i have fished hundreds of times over the years Adrian had never fished it so was good to get to a venue where it was pretty fresh and unfished! Adrian stuck with his trusty yellow BassPro twin tail on a owner jig head and was steadily nailing the odd pike on the drop off the far bank in the deep section! fishing with his Tenryu Injection and Shimano Stella a perfectly ballanced bit of kit it looked a real pleasure to use! i had my usual Tourniment rod and Shimano Curado e7 which was chucking out the lures perfectly! i was once again back on the SavageGear Da Bush spinner baits and this time the magic happened!
we fished the session with 4 pike each, still struggling with the freezing easterly winds and lack of cover but awesome to get out again, going to give this venue a break for a week or so see if the fish calm down after the spawn as i know exactly how to catch them once they have spawned! and will wack a good report up soon as things spice up a bit! watch this space! anyway always good to get out with good friends and see some decnt fish showing, roll on the summer surface action i say!