Anybody Catching???

me and our kid went out on saturday on the deadbaits but then we went on the rubbers turned out a good day not big fish but plenty of action in a short space of time sandeel pattern ruled the day sidewinders

Went out for a couple of hours today to try out a few new lures no luck with them but had a jack of about 2-3lbs which took the trusty old Big S

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I had my first session for 2013 today, and as usual on the 'cut' chucking lures. I did however have two for company, Daniel and his dog, as I've purchased a pair of bushwhacker rods from him, so invited him to join me fishing.

We both met up around 10:15am and began to fish. I had recently brought some fancy Titanium wire, but was having trouble with the crimping etc. Daniel has kindly shown me the way to do it, with these pliers and 'krimps' from korda.The canal had settled since my last session but still had colour to it, still fishable though and the lures could be seen a few inches down. Daniel commented on how it was a bit too coloured for his liking, bust he still gave it a a shot. I had originally started with a modified (cut, filed and sanded the diving lip that snapped from casting into a wall a while ago) savage 4 play lure, which was a 'lowrider' but now a slow sinking 'swim & jerk'. After a couple of casts I decided to clip on a savage gear bucktail, I got given by Daniel back at a fish-in with the LAS, which he recommended I try for today due to the conditions of the canal.

We worked our way up and started on another stretch, after the second or so peg I felt a knock, and lifted the rod to set the hooks. I shouted over to Daniel ''fish on'' and he came over and netted it for me, and also took the pictures, well the first fish is in the bag for 2013. Daniel noted on how this fish had some scarring on the other flank (not this side in the photo) to me it looked like a bite from a bigger fish, but Daniel later told me it'd more likely come from the propellers from the boats that come along the canal and moor up.



The 7ft Bushwhacker was christened with a Jack of around 4lb

After that we carried on and I managed to get into a snag, although I managed to pull free I managed to loose the savage gear bucktail. This happened as the clip at the end of the trace opened and let the lure free. not it's in the bottom of a canal. We decided to pack in for early afternoon due to Daniel having other stuff on.

All in all, a pleasant session and start to my fishing ventures of 2013

you could have replaced the lip on the foreplay with a piece of lexan and 2ton epoxy.

nice pike.

Nice going Alex

With the weather being so unpredictable ventured onto the Warks Avon for only my Second pike trip of the season,with the river back to just above normal winter level and still having a tinge of colour things looked promising,had 1 drop off,landed a jack about 5 and finshed the day with a mid double(all on sardines) wich is a real result for this river.

OOPS wrong anybody catching thread sorry.

hurricane wrote:With the weather being so unpredictable ventured onto the Warks Avon for only my Second pike trip of the season,with the river back to just above normal winter level and still having a tinge of colour things looked promising,had 1 drop off,landed a jack about 5 and finshed the day with a mid double(all on sardines) wich is a real result for this river.

OOPS wrong anybody catching thread sorry.

well done nice looking pike

Had a session today with a fellow lure nut/enthusiast,

we started a little earlier than expected, but whilst on route to the reservoir we decided to pop in a tackle store. We browsed for a short while before leaving with a couple of lures each, one of which is an ondex no.5 with an unusual pattern.

By around 09:15 we were fishing, I used the recently purchased spinner as my first before changing to a 2'' fishunter shad. The water was choppy with a nip of cold added,



Ian was showing me a spinnerbait that he brough from Jennifields, and admittidly they look 'the dogs shame they don't do paypal or online order as I am not fimilair with postal orders and I'm unsure if my bank does cheques.



By around 10 o'clock & it was beginning to feel like time had ran to late afternoon, we made it round one side of the water but decided to go no further as the wind and chill would make it feel unplesant and make the fishing difficult. So at dinner I decided to swap gear and go for my 10g-30g rod and larger lures. For the next couple of hours I was beginning to get fed up as i had not had any sign of life, not a follow, not a take, not a sniff, also contributing to that was the comings of a severe headache that I still have simmering in my skull now. Within the next hour I just totally lost all my enthusiasm along with one of Mark's fat belly shad, by around 1:00 I spoke to Ian who could tell i had a bad headace & that I wasn't enjoying the session as much as I should. So we called it a day, but before setting off we made a few enquiries with the bailiff regarding membership of the water in the clubs control.

so thats a dozen sessions and still a blank since the new year,

I feel a prune for not sticking the day & making Ian wrap up early, but I really enjoyed the company, once home I had a nice little packet waiting for me. A few goodies that I'll be using come Sunday, hopefully a better head will be on my shoulders as we are going to my regular haunt 'the cut'.



Also in the blog http://www.alexmakkfishing.com/

Very good mate. I like your style of writing. It feels very personal.

You're right Poach, I've already told him that. He could earn a few bob from his writing imho and good luck to him.

Thanks Andy,

as our Eric mentioned, have been suggested by him (and family members) to get a post up in a publication, even half a page would be nice, but I haven't exactly gotten myself round to conjuring somthing up but one day i will do.

todays weather is better as I'm looking out the window and I can see sunshine and no air movement , still it is chilly in the shade though.

hopefully tomorrows planned session will be kind to me.

Well once again I got a days fishing done, and on my 21st birthday too!

Ian picked me up at 8:00am and before we started the fishing we stopped at 'future fishing' in Newark for a quick browse. The moment i walked through the shop door I got whacked by a sudden WOW factor, as I have not seen so much Savage Gear stuff before, lures, rods, terminal, you name it! on top Tony had a decent selection on other lure related brands such as Wirek, Rapala, Blue Fox spinners and a few other brands to boot, Even Ian seems to loose himself among the lures.


just a small selection of the Savage gear products that Tony has to offer,


Some rods on the rod rack when you walk into the shop,


Tony, Manning the till,


As mentioned, Ian has lost himself among the lures,

I myself brough a couple items, some trace wire and a nice new bright lure, as I have been 'itching' after this pattern for a month or so now. with it now in my possession I can wreak havok upon the angling world, (enter evil laugh here)


My little Birthday present to myself,



When we got started Ian and I went to have a bash on the R.Trent, I have never been to this stretch that he intoduced me to today, and so far I love it. It's certainly has a beautiful atmosphere especially when the river is the right level and condition, you couldn't ask for a more tranquil place to fish in the morning. unfortunatly the fish didn't seem want to play ball, as Mr Pike is likely to be more interested in spawning with Mrs Pike. Whilst we were fishing and hopping from one peg and another there were a trio of Mallards, 2 males with a single female, and well what they were doing were quiet amusing, the males seemed too busy squabbling between themselve over 'who gets the girl' and all of a sudden one male pushed the other down the concrete step and the squabbling went into a little brawl, then a while later there was a screech from some sort of goose? heading towards another small flock of the same kind, and they all of a sudden start screeching at the top of their voices just like a big slagging match! I couldn't stop giggling Ian was even grinning.

By around lunchtime we decided that we'd try another venue, a stillwater infact, and once again one that I have today been intoduced to. The weather warmed a little and the conditions of this lake was slightly coloured, for the duration I was swapping between the smaller spinnerbait I got in the post on Friday and my new savage gear 13cm swim and jerk 4play in chart blue tiger. I was working the swimbait very well this session, a single rotation of the reel handle and a few twitches of the rod tip gave it a steady swim then a sudden burst of spasm to 'hopfully' attract any pike to investigate. I think I had a follow of somthing during our afternoon on the lake, Ian however had no signs of life, not a follow nor sniff.

Before wrapping up in the last half hour I was approached by a young lad not much older than ten, he had a keen intrest in the style of fishing I was doing (lure fishing) and began asking questions, after 5mis of explaning why I was using this lure is the specific manner he decide to pop over and have a chat to Ian. After a further 5mins with Ian he returned to me and Said in a dissapointed manner that he could not ride his quadbike today, once I asked why he gave the explanation that ''the policeman told my mum that if I do it again, I get a section 57Asomthing and my quad taken off me'' that was it, I had to hold my lips tight or I'd howl out with so much laughter, not because of what he said but the way he came across with it.

The young lad scuttled off after saying goodbye and myself and Ian called it a day with that. No fish were banked in todays session but I certainly say enjoyed today better than friday, I celebrated the 21st doing something I'm passionate and enthusiastic about, whilst having great company thanks to Ian. Once home I had a nice supper and a slab of cake for afters, even opened the cards and I'm now £35 richer all of a sudden. Guess I have to make an order with Tony next week.

also in the blog http://www.alexmakkfishing.com/2013/03/celebrating-21st-with-days-fishing.html

nice write up, i was in that shop myself on sat afternoon, replacing a lure i managed to loose on a boat the other side of the river

A young Jack skulking in the margins, sadly not the best for pictures as it was taken with my compact and not my bridge.



Myself and Ian were out today enjoyng the sunny warm weather, we never caught but did see some male grebes scrapping over a female, and Mr & Mrs Frog/Toad 'at it' in the margins (we also watched one frog swim from open water to the margin, (a good insight on how the frogs move in water especiall for when we get round to the frogging)

The frogs were very close to where the Jack was (I'm guessing that the Jack could either be hanging round for an easy meal thanks to the frogs or either sulking around waiting for Mrs Pike or after being with Mrs Pike) either way he didn't seem interetsed in the lures me and Ian were flicking, he did however get spooked after me taking the pics and withing 15mins he was back skulking in the margins again.

I went there last week and although its a very friendly and helpful place, unfortunately he sells the savage gear boga grip too

I've had a long steak of blanks with my last fish being caught when Daniel joined me for a session back at the beginning of the new year. well untill recently when me and Ian had a session booked with Andi whom had kindly offered to take us under his wing and show us the way with these zander and soft plastic shads (my bogey lure). I was out the door for 6:20, and we arrived for just around 8 o'clock on the carpark to meet up with Andi. we all got set up and began to fish, I had snatched one of Ians relax kopyto shads as its colour is what Andi says does well on the canal and advised using it. soon after Andi had a follow which at first we thought was a zander, I gave a cast in not far from where the follow was and managed to have a perch bolt out from under our feet and gobble the 2.5'' koptyo.



The perch that ended ,my blank spree.
So thats my first fish caught since beginning of the year a long blank but you can't say I haven't tried, as the saying goes '' you not catch unless the line is in the water''. Others have also been finding it hard too - weather, spawning, location of the fish, conditions and the up and go attitude with a hint of luck, all play a part on if we catch or not.

A while later Andi managed another follow or take but the fish managed to escape the net, it even happened to Ian not long after as he managed to hook onto a fish. Andi then decided we should try another stretch of the canal a short drive away. Whilst I was talking to Andi regarding technique and how I can improve on it, Ian called for the net as h was on a fish, for Ian it was his first zander at 5lb ''well done Ian'', he was chuffed to bits...



After Ian's fish, we again moved to another stretch of the canal, Andi was getting short on time and only had another hour or so to spare, Andi and Ian managed a couple more schoolies/shoalies between them Ians on a texas rigged worm and Andi's on a VIB blade from spro, that was it for the rest of the day. I'm being honest here now, but during the day I learnt a lot more that I have in the past month or so blanking. I've gone to removing the collars on my jigheads as Andi advised collarless jiheads due to them keeping the shads better and stops them splitting and with a dab of super glue keeps them secure fro slipping off, I even have a better idea on how to approach a water with a shad, and how to handle a Zed (when I gt round to catching one) thanks to Andi and his guidance


Also in the blog - http://www.alexmakkfishing.com/

Good work and a nice Zander too I hope it is the fishes blood & not the anglers

Ta Barry,

It was the fish's blood you see in the picture, not Ian's as the Zed ''flipped'' during unhooking process, which was tricky as its slightly different from chinning a pike.

Myself and Ian had an afternoon session on the local reservoir, back on Saturday

After recently purchasing some 5.5'' soft plastic grubs I decided to use my 10g-30g Bushwhacker whereas within the past few weeks I have been using my lighter Okuma Octana rod and lighter lures to suit.

We started fishing around lunchtime, and for the first half of the session Ian and I didn't have a sniff nor follow, but by three quarters the way though we started to see activity, the lures we had be using varied from soft plastics to hard crankbaits. The lure that did get the most attention were minnow glidebaits such as the Salmo sweeper 10cm and the Mark Houghton Slide`n`Minnow glidebait end result were Ian managing to foul hook a fish after it snatched at his salmo and myself having this fish snatch at my slinde 'n' minnow but missed, so I cat in the same area again and managing to connect to the fish.



I will admit I am not in the best spirit when the picture was taken, as when the jack was being unhooked it has one shank of the treble in the gill rakers and another lodged in on the other side but in the flesh. and as usual jacks tend to decide to 'flip out' just as the delicate procedure was almost at an end, which this one did and in doing so it managed to snap the gill raker & release the lure. That was it, my thoughts were that it wasn't even going to make it though the next day (there gill rakers are their lungs and windpipe) but it did swim off strongly and sulked under a peg with a 'grunt' so I had a little bit of hope for it.

other than that the fishing went dead again (fish were not taking the baits nor showing any interest), myself and Ian didn't manage a sniff, follow or take for the rest of the day.

also in the blog - http://www.alexmakkfishing.com/

Also in my blog - http://www.alexmakkfishing.com/


I managed to get down the canal for around 6:30am this morning and I had a good few hours fishing, I saw plenty of action with the perch as they were chasing shoals of small fry, that were leaping out the water to avoid being breakfast. I clipped on one of Allan's yellow 3'' grubs and with just a nice steady retrieve I was getting takes, however I kept missing as the perch were just nipping at the tail. I moved along trying other coloured grubs and small fishhunter shads and managed to get into a little more action resulting in a confident perch taking a chartreuse flash grub.  


The first Perch of the day,

I kept getting interest for a good 15min before it went quiet, so I walked further down and started flicking the grub along the far side towards some overhanging shrubs and vegetation. on the third cast I managed to get another perch roughly the same size as the first, this one fell for a pink grub, sadly as the grass was at a steep angle I didn't faff around getting a picture just unhooked the perch and released it back into the water.  

Now at this stage its around 08:45 and I am starting to think of getting back home as the sun was rising and with a nice warmth to it. I had a dabble at on a stretch that usually guarantees a pike for me, I clipped on a orange AGM twintail grub as I had caught a small jack last Saturday on a local reservoir with a chartreuse flash, hoping that any pike around will also take a fancy to one. After a few casts catching onto the pads and other aquatic vegetation, I managed to get the lure in a clear area and with the fist turn of the handle it all felt solid and decided to pull back and bolt out into the open. after a good few lunges of freedom the pike was n the net, as I was getting the camera ready I asked a passer by for a little assistance with taking a photo and although the originals were not what I want, I have edited & cropped them down to a more better size and clearer image. You'll have to accept my apologies for the pike being covered in dead grass, it decided to do a death roll on the mat and onto the grass as I was chinning it whilst at the same time showing the passer by which button to press for the camera to take a picture. I'll estimate this one to be around 6lb any other guesstimates are welcome.


A pike

That was it for the day, I never had another follow or take, a couple of boaters has passed through and the sunshine began to warm my cheeks, as I was working my way back up to where I started, I stopped off at the local butchers for a scotch egg when I got back into town and managed to get back home by around 11:45am a quick bite and drink and a bad headache came, I flopped on top of my bed for a couple hours of sleep until this headache simmers away.

All in all I good few hours well spent,

from an evening session back on Wednesday,

And here is a couple more from an few hours on Wednesday evening with Ian, we both has a pike and a perch each. Both my pike and perch fell for a steadily retrieved grub, first being a white that had taken the pike and the second being a yellow for the perch. The perch's marking on it were just amazing, such a beautiful little fish, as you can see in the second picture. Both fish were caught using the 3g-18g Savage Gear Bushwhacker XLNT spinning rod matched with an Shimano Exage 2500fc that is loaded with 15lb Cortland master braid for the more snaggy venues such as wild river and canals, and last but not least  topped off with a 20lb wire leader (obviously with pike present).


The pike


The Perch

I've had this setup since the start of the year and just recently within the warmer months of our British summer I have enjoyed using more and more often for targeting the perch and less of the pike, still any fish is a welcome fish such as the first chub(let) I caught a couple weeks back.

All in all, a few hours nicely spent.

Also in the blog - http://www.alexmakkfishing.com/

Well done Alex  

Normally i only lure fish for pike, but i've struggled the last couple of summers in the heat. So this year when it went hot i started fishing rivers with small lures, i've been on the rivers the last 2 months & caught mostly trout, a few chub, odd pike and a very odd perch.



Phil.

Out again this afternoon on the Severn, one 10 pounder on a Norwich spoon, and two smaller of maybe 2 and 4 pounds, one on a big Ondex, and the smallest on a fox Big Jim that was half its size!

Tried paternoster rig and floated deadbait  on my second rod, but no luck again...Lures seem to be the thing that work for me at the moment.

Also tried for the first time a lure saver, which worked very well, write up about it in separate thread.

ATB, ED

Please be careful naming venues :-) we have a no-naming policy :-)