New mainline tested...

Lately the weather has not been the best, with rain, occasional snow and even sun at times in the same day! Also considering that fish are on spawning mode, the fishing was bound to suffer with a couple blanks and a session saved by little perch. There are signs that spring is close though, as fish activity has increased and some fry has been seen in shallow areas. The perch have done a disappearing act on most spots and even pike are harder to locate/tempt.
I have decided to spool some new fluorocarbon line on my Mitchel Mag Pro 1000, after a year of using my favourite Toray Bawo Superhard Upgrade, due to the continuous cutting and tying new dropshot rigs. I think I was left with like 25m on the reel before reaching the backing! Wanting to try something new I settled for the YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon at 3lbs. Spooling was easy as the line comes in a special compartment that you can easily hold between the toes and the line spool revolves inside it. As soon as I finished getting it on the reel I noticed the expected loose coils that fluorocarbon makes as it has less memory and is so limp. I tried the line the next day and was quite impressed with its behaviour. It casts and ties well (improved clinch knot, trilene and palomar) and is typically low -stretch. One important characteristic that I haven’t seen in other fluorocarbons and surprised me, is that this line is not as sinking as the others. This can be positive or negative according to the technique and presentation, but for dropshot I would tend to class it as a negative. As when fishing I had line sitting on the surface and in tough days or long distance casts this could lead to missed bites. On that day I got two bites and landed the two fish so I'll need further sessions to form a better opinion.

I'm really looking forward to some stable weather and also to some sea fishing since I'm moving to the Channel Islands very soon.
Thanks for reading and tight lines.

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

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.

 

 

 

Perseverance pays off...

Past few days I have been focusing and experimenting mostly on catching perch and pike on the same drop shot rig on Ul gear. The results so far have been encouraging.. I have managed to catch some nice pike and a couple of specimen perch even though the conditions have been far from ideal.
On Monday and Tuesday  the sun was shining all day with temperatures around 7C but the water was turbid (30cm visibility aprox) and I only managed one nice perch and some more little ones.. Today it was overcast around 3C and windy but with better visibility. I managed two jacks that were good fun as always but no perch, although I did miss some that didn't get hooked..

The only one worth taking a photo!

What never ceases to amaze me in winter fishing is the action of softplastics. I have found that although some of my favourite ones seem very soft and "wiggly" during the warmer seasons and catch plenty of fish, in winter time they become harder due to the temperature and don't wiggle as much.. Therefore I tend to go for extremely soft/pliable ones now and even more so if they are segmented as they tend to be less affected by temperature changes and keep their action.
All in all the fishing was hard work and the pike ruined my softbaits, but since I've managed to catch a few its all good in my book!
Thanks for reading and tight lines.

Equipment used.
Rod: Awa Shima Qlite spin, 1-5g, 2.40m
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000
Mainline: Toray BAWO Superhard Upgrade Fluorocarbon, 3.9lbs
Rig: Knot2Kinky 12lbs
Hook: VMC Spinshot N6
Lure: HTO Pro worm, 3.8" Pink

Perch on the Lancaster canal.

After moving from the Lakes, I didn't have much time for fishing due to my work, but since I moved again to Lancashire now, I have found plenty of time to go fishing... After a bit of searching on google Earth and the web in general, I noted that the Lancaster canal seemed very promising... So one day I got my mate Derek for a reconnaissance mission..(!) We found an area that the canal widens and holds moored barges with a good depth. The weather was relatively mild, after a couple weeks of freezing temperatures and was due to get worse again... I have encountered this again when fishing and have noted that the fish get really active immediately before and upto the coming of a cold front... Looking at the water we were amazed at the amount of activity, as fry was jumping and fleeing all over the place. This is quite common during the warmer months, but in the middle of winter quite surprising.

Derek on the stretch mentioned.

We fished many styles and lures (jigging, crankbaits, spinners) but only caught fish on the dropshot,
with the best baits being: the LFT live baby shad, Umiushi worm, Jackall super pin tail, Ima trilobite and Tiemco PDL super fin tail. I fished on the ultralight gear comprising of Awa shima Q lite spin, 2.40m, 1-5g rod and Mitchell mag pro 1000 reel. The fish were caught as expected near the barges and the walls of the canal and also from among the snags in the deeper areas. Their sizes being from 100g to about 700g.

Unfortunatelly that day we got two attacks from pike that easily managed to cut the 3lb fluoro but using a korda wide gape barbless hook I hope that they will get rid of it easily...
Since that day I have been regularly visiting the canal and have managed to get a few fish every time.. I have also modified my dropshot rig using thicker fluorocarbon and got some pike as well.
An important note is that many fish have been precaught and mishandled at times, something that shows the fishing pressure at that stretch and the need for better handling skills among anglers..
At times when the water was very cold and miserable weather, the trick of substituting the sinker for a hookless pilker seems to give a couple fish when all else fail...

More reports to come and thanks for reading...