I 've been fishing on an almost daily basis the last couple weeks, trying to suss out the fish mood and locations but the results have been harder to come by than I expected. Nevertheless some patterns are starting to shape.
I have been mainly focusing on perch with the UL gear and on the dropshot rig, incorporating a Knot2Kinky trace (6lbs) and although the fish don't seem to mind it, they are not there in numbers to give me more solid feedback. I have thus turned to normal jigging techniques with small jigheads and paddle/curly tails or swim/jerk baits, in order to cover more water faster and hopefully find more fish. Moreover I have been venturing further down the canal from my usual places, Google Earth has been very useful in letting me find new fishy-looking areas and Ive managed to get some fish from them.
On Friday I visited one such area that was only a half hour's drive from home, It was a nice basin with a small marina and seemed deep enough to hold some fish. Not knowing the bottom consistency (snags, structure etc) I rigged a 7.5cm Dragon Phantom shad on an offset hook clipped to a leadhead and started casting near the moored barges. I got a couple bites, missed a perch and then a nice pike under my feet! Following that session I decided to go at the same place today and try again. I started fishing around 14:00 and used the same lure albeit on a normal jighead as I didn't want to take any chances. I fished for hours until near dusk with only a couple subtle bites and no fish to show.. I had walked for more than a mile and I decided to make my way back for a last crack at the basin. I changed lure to a 9.5cm savagear soft 4play on a 4g jighead and as I was walking back I was making some casts only on the very likely looking spots for a fish.. As I approached a bridge with overhanging vegetation on its side (classic spot) I let a cast and worked the lure slowly back with twitches of the rod tip. I felt a take and struck on a fish. It fought well and made some good runs even though I had set the drag rather tight.. The rod was bent in a beautiful arc and after a while I managed to slip the net under a pretty pike.
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| Very welcome! |
After that fish I reached the basin as the sunlight was fading fast. A few casts among the barges and I soon had another pike on, this one was bigger but as it was caught close in it came up faster (and greener!). A couple photos and the fish was back.
I persisted a while longer but only got some tentative perch-bites without hooking the culprit and as it was really dark by now, I decided to call it a day..
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| Bad photo but beautiful pike. |
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| Menacing look! |
This was my first successful session for a while and even though the fish weren't huge, they did make my rod bend and the reel sing.. A sound I had almost forgotten!
As I mentioned above the perch have been tricky to locate and very finicky. They haven't shoaled up properly yet and I can only get individual fish here and there. Dropshot still remains the most effective method but small paddletails on a slow retrieve with plenty of pauses and twitches do well too. Barges and boats are the best 'features' to work around and most of the quality fish come at dusk and even after the light is gone especially in areas with artificial lighting. I had good results on the dropshot with white Storm Wildeye Finesse minnows and on jigging with Dragon Reno killers.
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| Among the barges.. |
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| Battle-scarred! |
Well hopefully I will have some better sessions soon as I'm looking on trying some other areas and different presentations. The pike seem obliging though so I might target them more seriously on my next outings..
Tight lines!
Gear used.
Rod: Major Craft KG Evolution KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g and Awa Shima Qlite spin, 1-5g, 2.40m
Reel: Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500f and Mitchell Mag pro 1000
Mainline: Spiderwire Ultracast Fluorobraid 10lbs, YGK nitlon DFC fluoro leader 10lb and 35cm Knot2Kinky 6lb trace, Toray Bottom Attacker fluorocarbon 3lbs
Lures: Savagear soft 4play, Dragon Phantom, Dragon Reno Killer, Storm Wildeye Finesse minnow.
