Tuesday 23 July 2013

Jackman


Inspired by Paulos' comment on Jack's Pike #138, from the TV show Only Fools And Horses... Meet Jackman! Click for bigness or better still, watch the clip here.

Saturday 20 July 2013

Spomb Vs Bream


Last week I fished with a Spod for the first time, and it was great fun if a bit knackering. Today I was up for more of the same, but Spods are out, Spombs are in!

Spombs are great, the red button opens the entire bomb the moment it hits the water and once clipped up delivers your bait exactly where you want it, every time, with a minimum of effort - I'm getting one.


Out of the house at 5am in search of my elusive bream, Darren and myself were on the water by seven building up a large bank of bait. We then ledgered a variety of hook baits over them and waited for the bream to arrive...

It wasn't long before I was in - but this was no bream, a cracking fight on fairly light gear and the freakiest carp in the reservoir was landed, 9lb 2oz. I was still delighted!


About an hour later, and after scaling up the line strength I was in again, probably the prettiest carp in the reservoir, another 9lber - were the bream going to show?

Nope. Next up I had an eel just under 2lb before losing 2 more carp, one unseen and one about 17lb right at the net... Very frustrating - although not as frustrating as Darren's day - hooking and loosing 4 fish unseen...

His only bit of luck occurred after a carp shed the hook in a weed bed and when Darren freed his gear he found he'd caught another Spomb - the daddy of Spombs!


We will be back for another crack at those bream, we'll get you next time! And to have another go at those carp.

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Edit: We decided to call it quits at 8pm. After a very busy week at work I headed home to watch some crap TV and get some sleep. Darren decided to jump on a train and head to another lake for some night fishing..!! And he's just phoned to say his had a 19lb mirror - nice one!

Friday 12 July 2013

Plan B. Bream...


Bloody bream... My arch nemesis, you win again!

The only fish that seemed interested in our two tons of ground-bait was this 2lb 2oz eel... I'll get you one day!

Jack's Pike #137

Thursday 11 July 2013

Plan A. Check.


A trip to the Thames this afternoon in searching of a pike, it was probably too hot but the water looked great. The plan was to lure fish with surface or just under the surface plugs and keep mobile.


And after missing a take (from a pike about 8lb) this baby pike hit the lure - I didn't care it was small, it was a pike, mission accomplished. Eyes bigger than it's belly? Almost!


I fished on for a couple of hours eventually connecting to this jack of about 4½lb, which took the plug with a swirl under my feet making me jump out of my skin. Great stuff!


The final fish to take a fancy to the plug was this little perch. Eyes bigger than it's belly? Definitely!

And I've saved the hardest plan for last... Plan B: Bream...

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Plan C. Check.


Beautiful weather (at last) and the best thing about this time of year is the dusk that seems to last for hours... I fished the 3 or 4 hours of half-light and I didn't care that I couldn't get a bite, it was great just to be on the water.

Last cast, last few seconds of the last cast and I had the bite I've been waiting for... For nearly four months... The three foot twitch, the rod ripper... And I missed it! Crap!

Five more minutes then, and I didn't need them, next cast and the rod barely settled, and I hit this one. It was the fight that keeps me coming back and the bar of gold I craved (I'm not going to get obsessed with them this year, but I'm glad I've finally caught a barbel). Great stuff.

And as it turns out my first barbel of this season is the same fish as my last barbel from last season. It was 6lb 6oz today, slightly less than 6lb 14oz in March - A relatively small weight fluctuation of a (fully grown?) male compared to a female...

Saturday 6 July 2013

Jump Start


Well I'd like to blame the weather, the late spring, the fickle fish... But the truth is it's my fault I'm not catching, I haven't been spending any time on the riverbank. We are making some pretty sweet sports games, but that's just not fishing!

I keep finding myself drifting back into the office to just finish this or re-draw that, and I think the answer is to make some plans and stick to them.

Plan A: A river pike fishing expedition, travel light and chuck a few plugs about in the Thames for a day. Step one, select a handful of plugs!

Plan B: Catch a 5lb+ bream, something I really should have on my fishing CV, I don't know what it is but I've never had any luck with bream. I'll be packing as much ground-bait as I can carry and heading off to a local reservoir.

Plan C: I really have got to track down a barbel...