Nearly Summer Madness

Hey guys sorry been quiet..... had allot on with work etc and when free there just wanted to get out fishing with friends and family. going to jump back on regular blog duties next week :-) we'v been busy at the shop http://www.hartflyshop.com/ gearing up for the new seasons lure antics so please to browse the site for the very best in modern lure fishing gear, if you cant see what you want just give us a ring ill happily sort you out with all the top brands MegaBass, IMA, Sakura, Sebile, Lunker City, Owner, Varivas, Decoy, AFW, Boga, Powerpro, Shimano, Greys and of coarse all the top Fly brands...... Keep your eyes peeled for all my summer antics like the texposed surface frogs and swampys! iv recently managed 4-5 surface sessions and caught on every one :-) so things are hotting up soon be time for night piking!! ill be fishing the next few days and will hopefully get some good images for some write up's. ill also be wacking up some interviews with my angling friends and other known charactors in the lure angling world..... watch this space

Danny

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!

Sakura Goodys

Those of you who follow the blog know or have seen me use various Sakura products from soft plastics to the Alpax reel. All of them performing amazing in all conditions from fresh water to the wild Beara, southwest Ireland! taking a leaf out of the lighter side of angling especially the fly fishing from Nick etc iv taken a shining to the "fishing vest" style bags and rucksacks which have been used allot in there industry. i used to use a Shimano fishing vest it followed me everywhere in my early fishing adventures!

I spoke with my mate Nick Roberts over at Top Water Lures and asked to try out the Sakura Koa Bag this is a tidy little unit which has tons of space due to the two chest pouches with three pockets attached to the main chest pouch. These are large enough to stuff full of packets of softbaits or smaller Plano style lure boxes, they also have a nifty little panel of dense foam for sticking lures in the pouch without them tangling as you can hang the trebles in the foam, i love this feature as i always have pockets full of shads etc. the back pack side of the lure easily holds a medium sized lure case and also has a front pouch ideal for drikns and snacks :-) coupled with the endless adjustability and lanyards for snips etc what a great little package!

What with all the new and exciting adventures i have planned throughout 2011 including various magazine stuff with Jimbo etc Nick from Topwater asked would i like to crack on and try some of Sakura's rods one being there Dawgs Nuts light to medium spinning rod the impressive Sakura Mazzera 742ML..... WOW what a bit of kit! super slim super fast coming complete with Fugi reel seat and Fugi SiC guides throughout. This 7ft 4 spinning rod is everything you could want from general fresh or salt water rod with soft plastics and medium sized lures. Im out Perch fishing tomorrow and hopefully will get a few decent bends in it! its beautifully styled and fits in the hand like a dream, its everything you could possibly want for a rod priced at the £200 mark. obviously time will tell with rods but first impressions are awesome! bring on the Pike,Perch,Chub,Bass and Pollack of 2011. ill wack a proper review of this rod in a few months once iv abused it a bit! I also had the nice surprise with a load of base ball caps from the companys i test and fish with so ill be looking super "pro" while using there gear this season :-) all the above gear and tons more are all available from Nick and the guys at www.basslures.co.uk check it out

Danny

Like a fine summers day!

Well it shit it down with rain from start to finish yesterday on a chalk stream in Dorset. where me and Nick Hart had managed to blag a day on this exclusive trout chalk stream which just so happened to have tons of dirty great Pike munching on the wild brownies :-) After a eveing of beer, red wine and steak at Nicks house we were up at 5am ready for action! Nick manages to misplace the shop keys and forget the sarnys we certainly had a good start what with the awfull weather pounding down but as usual me and Nick are buzzing to go with thoughts of new venues and monster Pike to be caught!

after a good few hours of sod all i managed a follow from a huge pike well into twentys my faith was restored as you can see with the picture above of me hood up the wind and rain blasted us pretty much all day..... luckily wearing breathable waders and a wading jacket i was nice and dry under the layers! i was using a savage gear 4play in koi when the fish chases from the left hand side it literally hammered up behind the lure the like a croc sunk slowely to the bottom my heart missed a few beats i tell ya! Dave who took this photo is the guy who invited us to his private beat ran over in hopes of seeing another beast as he's the guy who has sussed this venue with fish to 21lb already in the last couple weeks!
I managed to sneak a tiny jack from one of the swims dubbed "Pike Corner" on another Savage Gear 4play in baby cod this fish was literally ripped to shreds! obviously some huge fish in these waters, its wierd seeing pike in water running so fast and as we said this is a "trout water" by nature but you know me ill catch pike where ever they haunt! while me and Nick snooped around these tidy swims all covered in over hanging trees perfect for big pike to sit behind waiting for a trout or two to swim past! Nick made the decision to switch from traditional wire traces to AF wire as this is so limp you can tie directly to the lures giving the magic swimmers we were now using the most awesome un-hindered action! flukely i managed to whip this 8lber right from under Nicks nose, the take was unreal smashing the lure through the over hanging trees almost like surface fishing in the hight of summer!
Literally two three casts later i cast yet again right behind where Nick was previously fishing and smash im in again! right in amongst the horrid snags this 10lber jumps on my Sebile Magic Swimmer..... screaming line off the baitcaster down stream in the powerfull current! talk about action packed, as Nick lands my fish we hear Simon shouting from around the corner "im in"...... then "WOW"....... then "Get the NET" Simon manages to nail this gawjus beast of a pike! me and Nick move down the swim to Simon to see this beast looking at us in the net.
the scales read 22lb 13oz take a pound of for the net arms and mesh thats 21lb 13oz and Simons PB (flukey sod:-).....) seriously though what a fish! this beat his previous PB of 13lb! a fish of a lifetime from a tiny chalk stream like this! awesome stuff and even though i also had a double in my hands it was nothing compared to the smile on Simons face and in fact all our faces to witness this capture! Dave had also caught a 21lber a week and a half ago, possibly the same fish but judging my there fishing reports from christmas onwards there are plenty of these twentys in here, dave losing a much larger fish just weeks ago further down stream! 10mins later Nick lands the biggest of the session..... the lesser spotted ginger fluff chucker which only just fitted in my landing net! as you can see the mood was awesome after that catch even the horrid weather didnt take the smiles off our faces! we fished on with fly and lures but had no more hits, we headed back down stream trying various lures and flys in all the likely swims but it just wasnt happening! all in all myself Nick Dave and Simon all had a wicked day and cant wait to get out again. we are heading back up there in the warmer months to get them off the top! Brilliant to see a bunch of guys from differnt fishing backgrounds all chipping together for a cracking session. This is what angling is all about for me friends and having a laugh on the bank!

heres Nick tyring to figure out if we could tickle out one or two more pike from the final few swims, but it just wasnt happening! it was now time for calling it quits and heading off to the nice warm pub. all in all a brilliant day and me and Nick really enjoyed it! massive thanks to Dave and Simon for letting us two motley angers venure out on there chalk stream we had a blast! we will deffo head back again later in the year to hit these fish off the surface! please check out Daves blog and site http://www.blurredfocus.co.uk/ for more fishing tales and adventures also flick over to Nicks blog for yet another great write up of the day.

Danny

Brilliant Morning Session

Headed out with Fly Guide/instructor and all round Fly master Nick Hart yesterday for a session out and about. we jumped in the truck and headed off to a nice small river in search of Pike Perch and my mate the Chub! we parked up in the middle of no where again armed to the teeth with lure gear Nick using a tourniment outfit and Sakura Aplax and i used my Tourniment rod and Shimano CalaisDC filled with braid ready to smash some nice solid sport in this gorgeous spring day. I rigged us both up with Sebile Soft Magic Swimmers knowing this venue has lots of nooks and crannys to throw a lure and the Swimmers fish so well being weedless!

as you can see above they are mental perfect for brilliant natural presentation of Roach/Dace/Gudgeon with a wiggle that has to be seen to be believed! you can get these from Nick and crew at http://www.basslures.co.uk/ give them a shout and there sort you out with all you need! i had action strate away with a nice chub smashing the lure under the rod tip in the bowells of the river covered in snags and over hanging trees, but that excitement was nothing to what i was about to see! I got Nick to chuck his Swimmer along this deep slow run away from the main current when in the distance could see a good double figure fish chasing the lure down stream with a passion thinking decent pike to start off but no it was a double figure Salmon! couldnt believe my Fudging eyes...... after it chased 3-4 times it soon lost interest and we calmed down (like a bunch of hyper school boys)

We tried hard to stick some coarse fish on the bank, i finally managed to hunt down the Perch with a decent fish of around 2lb hitting my Magic Swimmer it was in a gorgeous 3-4ft deep swim tucked up behind a fallen tree on a narrow section, the tree created a pool behing it which screamed Pike/Perch i was smashed on the second cast and then again i called Nick over as he wanted to see the action taking place in the clear water! i swapped to a small japenese jig and Kalin pepper pearl grub and instantly saw movement there was a few BIG Perch tucked up out of sight and just as Mummy Perch was about to nail me Mr Chub comes in and smashes me right up with a aggressive take! but hang on Nick shouts Browny!! i infact had nailed my PB lures caught browny it wanst a Chub at all! see first piccy. Chuffed to bits.....
we hit a fairly quiet stage, mid day and river was running fast so plan was to deffo put Nick onto Pike at some point! i took him to my "break glass incase of an emergancy" swim where i knew we would hit the pike! and Nick certainly pulled a few! i gave him a change of lure the Savage Gear Cannibal shad in orange and instantly got a reaction! with 2 hits and chases right to his feet (both of which he balls'd up) :-) anglers and danglers hay ha ha ha sorry Nick your a legend really. with two pike in quick sucsession (fluke) he was in the smile on both our faces say it all, not big fish but its awsome to see progress. i managed a good hit from a larger pike which ruined a brand new shad! we headed further downstream to the "swamps" a spot on the river where it splits into countless mini streams but all full of pools and FISH i managed to get a chase from a decent Pike well into doubles it literally swam right up to us, laughed in our faces and swam off i wasnt best pleased soooooo frustrating! we decided enough was enough, a great day out with good company funny thing being the Fly game guy nails all the coarse fish! and me being a dab hand at Pike/Perch i nail all the game fish.... fishing so unpredictable i just love it! please check out Nicks site in my usefull links page for write ups and other info from the fly world, well worth a read!

Danny