The early bird catches the… Eel?

As you may be able to guess from my lack of blog content recently, I have been struggling. Not only struggling to catch anything blog-worthy, but struggling in this weather, I am not cut out for hot weather, I think that’s why I love pike fishing so much, because it’s always done in the winter when you can add clothing to obtain the correct body temperature. Thankfully my big sister has been filled with the creative sparks required for blog posts lately, so thank you sis x 

My happy place. 

All that said, I have managed a few short sessions down at the syndicate, I decided to start fishing my perch/eel ledger tactics early to try and refine them before the autumn when they will really matter. The result has been a mixed bag, four eels which were all around 2lb, two perch, one of which was around 1lb and one was 8oz if I’m being generous, and of course, an obligatory 7lb tench. The major changes to the tactics for this season are the introduction of circle hooks and floating braid. The circle hooks should hopefully reduce any possibility of deep hooking the fish and the floating braid stays up off of the lake bed so there’s no line drag across the bottom adding resistance to the setup. When I came up with the floating braid plan, I hadn’t accounted for how much desire this line has to float, with the light swingers I use, it can overcome the weight of them and float up to the surface which makes it susceptible to the wind blowing it all over the place. Further research required. 

This fish had a big old frame on her, who knows what she would have gone in peak condition?

Prawns have been my main line of attack so far with this project, I have been reliably informed that if I can catch a 5lb eel, it can go on the honours board in the clubhouse, so that’s the target, I haven’t got myself organised or mentally prepared to be able to fish nights yet, so I realise that the chances of a really big eel are dramatically reduced, I do however get to the lake at 4am, so as the autumn daws draw in, I will have a good few hours of darkness to have a go at them. There have been reports of some very big eels falling to the carp anglers baits, so I am definitely in the right place. The advantage of fishing prawns or worms is that everything that lives in that lake loves them, so it’s never certain what might be on the end when that swinger starts to rise, it could be a 12lb tench, a 4lb perch, an 8lb eel or a 50lb carp, all of which would be most welcome! 

There’s a big old snake in there somewhere with my name on it. 

Hopefully we will get some cooler weather and perhaps even some desperately needed rain soon, then my full motivation will return and I can go and get after it properly.

Tight lines,

Benno.