FAS - taking the "young en" piking

After missing the weekend session, i could not wait to take my gandson for a quick hour and half on Irlam old course

this will probably be my last session here until the weather really gets cold and takes a grip, action was a bit slower for dad on mags tonight 4 bites and 2 fish banked one a decent roach and the other the pike livebait,

My second rod had worms and prawn, baited over dead mags, hoping for the large perch to switch on, espcially as dusk would be approaching, but alas no action,

Well on the pike rod, we started with a dead perch, nothing, then within 20min of putting the roach livebait on we had a run, a definate jack bite...... we struck into the fish and my grandson with my support got it to the net with a tail walk or two,

A nice 3lber was his first ever pike, he was a bit scared on the handling thus the not so good pic, for me i enjoyed getting the hooks out without incident, but it wasnt easy

due to the size of the roach i had to lip hook and flank, now the lip was hooked with the single, so the fish would be deeper down the throat than a tail hook up, again i was surprised to see the single did not have a hook hold and the single had reversed out of its mouth, strange eh the back hook is in but the front hook is not, unless it was taken tail first???

i will keep my eye on this, the other theory is the single hook does not get hold on strike at all?,

Small Jacks in my view are more difficult to unhook if it is lower down the mouth/throat - holding under the gills and moving the mouth towards you does not open the mouth automatically,

Now i have used gags and will not again now i understand the danger to the pike, but to keep the mouth open i used small pliers reversed,just the keep it open without pressure - the gag puts far too much pressure on the jaw it doesnt hold open it forces it open, that is dangerous,

so i snipped the single hook off so it wasnt flying around, with a little help from the reversed pliers  the treble was removed and fish went back safely,

so far so good.

FAS - Irlam Old Course....again.

Second session piking on this water, just 2 hours again on Sunday....

I have never been a regular pike angler, not because i prefer other types of fishing but because of a little bit of fear, of course i have taken a few pike before but i have always been wary of the big girls....

This is such an exhilarating type of fishing that i cant believe i do not do more fishing for them around this time of year....

Today was no different from last weeks session, same duration, 2hrs, same venue and swim, same tatics, even same number of silvers and bites....

But no pike, i had one quick drag and upon inspection the roach had scale redness as if something without sharp teeth had grabbed it, maybe a perch...

Then at 10am as i was just about to pack up after the swim had been dead for 30mins or so and then action!!!!    i had dropped the depth to be just touching bottom, so the float was cocking and weight on the bottom, the bait was a small perch which had only been in the water 20mins... drag drag and then under.   I struck early,

A great fight persued, the fish was very active, it even tried to tail walk but i kept it in the water and within a few mins it was in the net. I was shaking, first pike of the campaign and it looked 17lb plus....  my dad said a 20...... but after weighing on two sets of scales it was just a few onces short of 14lb, it was a big fish to those roach and perch but in pike terms i do not think it was as that long.

Just shows you how you can quite easily over eastimate a fishes size, especially if you do not see the size and type regurlarly.
I had been doing research on how to unhook pike and well while the pike did try its best to thrash on the mat i followed what the experts said..... put it on his back, kneel down and with my legs straddle it to stop it moving, left hand take hold of right hand side of pike under the gills, move head forward to open the mouth and there was the treble. just inside the middle of the mouth.

The strange thing was the single hook which was in the perch mouth did not take hold..... its was the back trable that had.The perch and single size 4 was outside the mouth of the pike.

Was this because the hook potential of the single is less, it would have gone down the pikes mouth first so you would have thought this hook would be the deeper one, that exactly why i set up the rig that way....

well i need to catch more to find out!!!

and maybe get a better camera so dad can get all of the fish....

Fishing Around Salford - Old River Irlam

Well after the good work SFA club did restoring pegs and clearing rubbish i thought that i would give it a go for 2 hours as part of my FAS quest.

Me and Dad took two of the first pegs, float fishing with maggots, i had a sleeper rod with a livebait which i had hoped would give me some action, because while i enjoy catching in general as do we all, small bits are not normally my thing.

The weather was colder and i knew it would not be "bite a chuck" but i was pleasently surprised as my last outing there in April also brought very cold weather which completley turned the fishing off.

Well we got bites from the start, the stamp of roach was 4-6oz which was very pleasing but what was more pleasing was the action on the pike rod, 3 runs and only 1 was from a pike,

I think you can tell the difference between a big perch and a jack pike run, the first within 5mins was a drag not a float under, the run was dropped so i sent the rig back in again which instantly bought a drag type run, big perch,

After a short battle a 2lb fish was in the net...... it was a great start.

I had a new rig in use, i decided that a single hook and a treble, would be more safe than a standard 2 trebles, i felt that the single would not only be easier to hook the lip of the bait fish but when a pike takes the bait it usually goes head first which would mean the single hook would go first, thus if deeper hooked, then its a single and not a treble which could be fatal for the fish,

Then within 10mins another run, on a 6oz roach, this time the bite was more deliverate and gave the usual float under signals, the strike took me straight into a nice fish and 2mins later the landing net was put in position but then, ahhh..... hook pull.

It was then 30mins before action again, just like the first run it was a drag , i had a tiny 2oz perch on as bait and well i did expect it to be a perch again, well i let the run develop when i struck it was a miss.
I havent worked out yet if the two missed runs were down to me or the rig or just the situation,

Well an enjoyable session all round and i will definate be back, i mean while piking you have a chance of hitting a 2lbplus perch..... bonus.

i like this place.......

Fishing around Salford Part1

Since the broads trip end of June i have only done one major session and that was a day trip to the Severn in Aug on Barbel alley which saw the river in flood and me with just one lost run, Dad found it so difficult he scaled down to nail the silvers and well at least he enjoyed it, catching nearly every species, including gudgeon,ruffe and dace as well as cublets, roach and perch and a good one at 1,12oz

Back to the Salford Fishing, well all short sessions, and not too many over the two and a half months, 2 sessions on the Duchy Ponds with my grandson and Dad, nothing special just what you would expect, silvers and perch.

So the main focus has been the Irwell, on the Agecroft stretch to the back of the Cemetary, we even pre baited this stretch but with all the extra water seen this year it was diffuclt to get the conditions just right... anyway just one fish to show for this, dad again nailing a trout  (pic below) on worms,

then we tried further down to the weir, again too much flow and coloured water.... nothing in two hours.

so whats next - well i really do want to try the back of the Racecourse but with september running out and only a short trip to Irlam old course planned this week then i will have to delay another visit...

in favour of a few bream sessions on the irwell ,MSC area near Salford Quay..... next stop pre-baiting and see what happens.

But all in all Dad is killing me this year on "fish caught"......

Pics from the Broads.............

Well better late than never................. Me and my brother Chris with a mornings catch

The best net we had in 4 hours of around 40odd lb - we did not take a photo....

 We caught some nice roach to 12oz

 Many bream between 4-5lb

 The boat was just the right size but still hard to handle

 even i caught some bream.... but no pike.... even live and deads in the water for over 24hours in total

Dad and brother Chris putting back the mornings catch

3 Men 2 Rivers 1 Boat

Me, dad and my brother embarked on a return journey to the broads some 30years since our last visit together back when we were kids.

Our target Rivers were the Yare and Waveney aboard a 20 odd foot boat our target bream and roach and of course the pike.

Now my research told me that the large shoals of bream did come into Oulton Broad around July so our plan was to moor up and bait up large quantities of vitalin,corn and pellet, fishing would be evenings and morning and very much whenever the fish obliged,

Tactics, feeder fishing with maggot and caster, corn , bread meat and pellet - all angles covered.

Now if you have never been in charge of a boat afloat then i recommend some lessons or practice on a smaller vessel - as we found out that mooring and waiting for bridges were the most challenging.

Look paid the most part - good or bad.

Once we moored at Oulton Dyke (lucky no one at the 100m mooring which still was a disaster to do), it was bait and bream time, expectations high usually means slow sport.

Well it wasnt slow - bites were regular enough, say every 15mins at good periods and every 30mins at other times.

Bream of 4lb were common, we also had perch to 14oz, roach to 12oz oh and many eels - i think the reports of low eel populations of 5 years ago are not as a hot topic for a fisherman now as it was - every other catch was an eel, even on double corn.

best catch in 3 hours was about 40lbs - we seemed to get a flurry of bream bites and then back to roach perch and eels.

30 balls of groundbait each night gave us a 11pm to 1am flurry of bites then it slowed and in the morning the same thing - it was as if we caught the few in the swim and then nothing - all bream within 6oz of each other - but one shoal all had damage, otters, propellers? who knows.

then on the final day we decided while action was good it was repetitive so we decide on a moor in Oulton Broad, nice quite area - yes it was quiet cos the weights went into 6ft of silt.........ahhh

then it was off to find a mooring, a failed attempt meant we had to go back to our starting point, but the mooring was full - so back up stream to where we picked up the boat - problem was the water was more tidal and salty - crap fishing...
We managed to avoid a problem at the bridge where we drifted far too close to the bridge waiting for it to open, then when we moored i was on securing the rope and our approach was a little to fast we overshot - well the rope went straight thru my hands - and you guessed it - severe rope burns, 5 hours in water with a change every 20mins cos the cold water was turning warm......

anyway fishing non existent - so we ended up with only a friday eve to sun morn fishing - but good banter on the sunday evening - even though the tv on the boat did not work and we missed the Euros final.

Verdict
I would defo get some boat handling training - maybe i should buy a smaller boat
Piking time was about 24 hours in the water, live and deads  - not a touch half a mile from Oulton Broad
Bream good but could have better - large shoals not there - but if i lived local i would defo be on the Broad from the bank (for pike also)
roach and perch - potential some good sizes
eels -good to see them back but would rather catch there land locked cousins

pics - to follow

Local Little Gems

After a so-so session 2weeks back on Drinkies in the heat, where Dad managed some bits on mags, i had to get the spinning rod out to see some action and i lost both a jack and an eel??

But i was definately looking forward to some good action over the weeks leading to the start of the river season  - alas the rain.......
I have been working in UK this week and had hoped for a few hours on a local water but this rain had dwindled away all my optimism but i had to get out for a few hours before going back to Germany - initially i was looking at Sainsburys pond but then i came across Duchy ponds on Manchesterfishinfiends blog.

This water is less than 1 miles from Dads house and because i am not able to fish the match this Sunday on there for SFA i decided i would venture down with Dad and wet a line for a few hours,

Well we fished the smaller pond on the left - it seemed to hold less weed, Dad on maggott had a bite a chuck from perch and rudd, while i missed two quick bites on corn it was difficult as no decent fish were showing.

After a far few fish dad was going onto caster to try and temp a better stamp but his did not happen - then i had 3 fish using 3 different baits of a type i just was not expecting - baby tench!!!!!

Now in all my time fishing for tench the tiddlers are rarely ever caught - i think its because they often do not leave their sanctuary like there older brothers or sisters do....they seem to stay in and around silt or other similar feeding ground where natural feed can be picked off.

So 3 baby tench less than 6ozs was a real shock - i think maybe the peg i was fishing is their patch of the lake - non in 25years of tench fishing natural venues and then like buses 3 in a row......

we did not get into any lumps - best fish of the session was a 12oz skimmer to me but dad caught the most

i predict that even in this poor weather someone will have to get over 10lb to win tomorrows match....

i will definately be taking my grandson to this place that is for sure..