A pleasant surprise...

Today the weather was somewhat milder and overcast, and I really wanted to fish Glasson Dock again... So we set off at around 14:00 and were on the spot soon after. There was a chilly wind but conditions seemed promising. I started with my UL Knot2Kinky Dropshot rig and a 3.5" LFT Live Magic shad in golden Shiner colour while I made an LRF style dropshot rig for my girlfriend with a 1.5" Big Bite Panfish minnow in pearl/chartreuse and a single SSG shot at the end. We got fishing and being impressed by the depth of the place, expected bites to come fast.. But they didn't...!
After a while we moved to a place where the canal enters the dock and found an angler there, he told me that he had a couple fish around 5lbs but the weed was a real problem and affected the presentation.. Fishing around there, we soon had the same problem and thus kept moving to find a clear patch. All this time we didn't get a single hit and it seemed unusual as the place was screaming fish. Deciding to change my presentation, first to a weedless dropshot and then to just simple dropshot tied to the mainline with a 2.25" LFT live baby shad (as I was thinking that the fish might prefer a scaled down/finer presentation and wanting to locate where/if there were any perch around) we kept moving towards a bridge and trying next to some moored barges.. Suddenly I felt a sharp tug on the line, then some weight and lifting the rod another tug and the line went light.. Pike... I reverted back to the 3.5" swimbait on the Knot2kinky rig, but nothing happened.
Reaching the bridge I was mostly trying out some retrieves than actually fishing and had almost forgotten about my girl until I heard her shout, and turning my head I saw her holding her rod bent in half! For a second we both thought it was a snag, until it started moving.. It was a nice fish that was taking line against the drag at an alarming rate, while I was trying to explain to her that reeling in continuously wont do any good! I quickly got the rod at my hands,
(I wanted that fish!) and tried to play it softly on the UL gear.. After a few runs it surfaced and it was a nice jack but I was almost sure that we would loose it any moment since my girl was just using 3lbs fluorocarbon and no trace.. I tried to get it in the net as fast as possible but the fish had other ideas and kept diving.. Three dives later I got it in the net and banked a lovely jack-pike that was definitely worth all the effort!



The hook at the lips!

A lucky angler!

Although it would seem very surprising for a fish of this size to be caught on a 1.5" lure, I have come to the conclusion that especially at this time of the year and at pressured waters, pike of good size can be taken (or even show preference) to smaller lures and finesse presentations. And it really is great fun fighting these fish on the UL gear! It should be noted though that if there are a lot of jacks the trace is indispensable, and even more so on lures with trebles.

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Equipment used.

A)

Rod: Awa Shima Qlite spin, 1-5g, 2.40m
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000
Mainline: Toray BAWO Superhard Upgrade Fluorocarbon, 3.9lbs
Rig: various
Lure: various

B)
Rod: Daiwa Procyon, 6.6",1/32-1/8oz
Reel: Shimano Nexave 1000fd
Mainline: Berkley Nanofil 0.06mm and Sunline Siglon Fluorocarbon 3lbs leader
Rig: dropshot with one SSG
Hook: Size 6 Owner Mosquito
Lure: Big Bite Panfish minnow,1.5" Pearl/chartreuse.

Hard going, but things are looking up...

The last few days the weather has been nice and sunny during the day but frosty during night time, with parts of the Lancaster canal being iced up today. I have done a few outings but the serious fish just didn't want to play ball, even though I used many lures and presentations... Therefore I put the little softies on and also took my girl with me for some company. Now, as you would expect she wasn't very keen on following me around and just holding the net and after I managed some feisty little perch from under our feet she wanted a piece of the action! So I prepped her a UL setup comprising of, Daiwa Procyon 6.6", 1/32-1/8 oz rod, Shimano Nexave 1000 fd reel and 3lb siglon fluorocarbon. The softbait used was the Big Bite Panfish minnow 1.5" on light dropshot with a SSG shot at the end.
After showing her the do's and dont's as well as how to work the lure, we got stuck in but the action was really slow... I wasn't happy with the lack of fish and her technique so I took her rod and tried to show her exactly how to do it...As the lure neared the bank I could see some flashes behind it and feeling the bite I told her : And that's how you do it! and pulled the little fish out to her face! Don't you just love this when it happens... Continuing our session, she missed some bites and also got bitten off by a little pike but in the end she caught a baby perch and was over the moon with her first fish ever! While I managed a couple more tiny perch, but all in all it was a very slow day..

Forgot to show her how to handle them! lol

 

Again we tried other Sp's as well but the Panfish minnow was the only one successful...
Recently I have also visited Glasson Dock and fished a very short session there, but the results (or more accurately the potential results) were very promising. I changed 3 swims and at each swim, my lure got attacked first cast, by some well-sized pike that I just couldn't seem to hook! I think that size 6-4 hooks are too small for these fish and have modified my rigs accordingly...
Bellow are some pics and as you can see, the place looks very 'fishy'...

 

Hopefully the fish will start feeding properly soon and Im also going to fish Glasson dock more as Im sure I'l have better results there...

 

Thanks for reading and Tight lines

 

Equipment used.

A)
Rod: Awa Shima Qlite spin, 1-5g, 2.40m
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000
Mainline: Toray BAWO Superhard Upgrade Fluorocarbon, 3.9lbs
Rig: dropshot with SSG splitshot
Hook: Owner mosquito N8
Lure: Big Bite Panfish minnow 1.5"

 

B)

Rod: Daiwa Procyon, 6.6",1/32-1/8oz

Reel: Shimano Nexave 1000fd

Mainline: Sunline Siglon Fluorocarbon 3lbs

Rig, hook, lure: same as above.