It's been a strange sort of week. I've had three visits to the legal bods; ref Dad's estate and, by logical necessity, these taking place during work hours. Although my supervisors have been incredibly supportive, it's completely messed up any other plans; I've had to make up lost time here and there, so it's been quite a mish-mash! Thus it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that I've had nothing to blog about recently.
Hopefully this latest legal saga will see the final pieces of the jigsaw in place and, therefore, a light at the end of this particular tunnel? Still, every cloud - as they say! Out pike fishing in the morning, looking to pick up where I left off last Sunday. It would be ridiculous to expect a repeat performance, but I still fancy my chances. The original plan was to fish Sunday, but the weather forecast is absolutely crazy - 60 mph gusting south - south westerly gales with heavy rain - not ideal in my humble opinion; so we're out for breakfast in Faversham instead; could be interesting? Tomorrow is predicted to be a chilly, bright dawn, with a very moderate westerly - excellent. Three rods, mackerel, sardine and roach being on the menu for the session. I've got my dyes and flavours in reserve, should they be required, but I'm headed for a new section where the fish haven't been subjected to these baits, as yet, so I'll play it as I find it. I've never put a bait out in this section of the drain, although I've often walked past thinking I should give it a go.
I have been completely blown away by some stunning underwater camera work by a guy who masquerades behind the pseudonym of The Ginger Fisherman - check this sequence out for a pike behaving like a clued up carp - click here Luke has a Water Wolf camera system and has used it, occasionally, to watch how well his lures are working - this latest technology is taking our understanding to a different level, absolutely brilliant. I remember some Hugh Miles' underwater footage of a pike circling a lamprey, deadbait, suspended beneath a crude/cumbersome float set-up, somewhere during the "Catching the Impossible" series - Bernard Cribbins ends up with a twenty plus as I recall? (and using a Mitchell 300!) To see carp rejecting baits or shying away from rigs is what I would expect, given their ability to learn - to see pike demonstrating similar abilities poses an awful lot of new questions. May be I've not caught a twenty from the drains because I'm not skilled enough - not because there isn't one present? Tomorrow marks the start of a new era - I'm going back to basics. "The only man who never failed was the man who never tried!"
Who am I?
- Dylan Wrathall
- An individual, of no great importance, who is unable to see the natural world as a place for competition. I catch fish, watch birds, derive immense pleasure from simply looking at butterflies, moths, bumble-bees, etc - without the need for rules! I am Dylan and this is my blog - if my opinions offend? Don't bother logging on again - simple!
Dyl, Could be a connection between the size of bait the pike are usually caught on, or how often in nature they ever come across such a prize such as a large -intact-dead fish. Unusual food item = unusual outing to the bank.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that in nature, any poorly fish will be whacked by the pike when still alive. Since we don't 'do that tactic', I'd go down the particle route, since if a very large fish died, it would end up in tiny bits as it rotted away.
Didn't Mumford (Ray) take some biggies swing-tipping tiny baits over fish meal ground bait.
I once had a 12lb when eel fishing. I was using Bleak sections and the bite was ever so slow.
The issue of bite offs isn't far away.
All the best, Ric.
Rich - a very interesting train of thought and one worthy of further exploration? During my eel campaign of last winter, I too experienced a number of pike picking up small fish sections (Spratt/Sardine and Bluey) and giving beautiful slow textbook takes. Using singles on heavy (50 lbs b.s.) braided hooklinks didn't create any issues with bite offs, although I might just have been lucky? If this tactic was deliberately aimed at pike then wire traces would be standard kit. I don't know what brand, but Benno uses some incredibly supple wire for his fly fishing and this stuff can be tied using knots suitable for braid.
DeleteI don't remember the Ray Mumford story but do recall Neville Fickling creating his own "hot spots" by regular introductions of dead-baits into certain swims. I'm sure that there is some mileage in this idea - I'm out on Wednesday morning, all being well, and might give it a try on one rod and see how it compares with the others.
Take care mate - Dyl
How about lobworms injected with fish oil?
ReplyDeleteGood luck - Ric
Richie - there is plenty of scope for exploration here. I have got a post, in preparation, covering some of the potential of these ideas we have covered. See what you think - it should be posted very shortly? - Dyl
DeleteLook forward to that Dyl.
ReplyDelete