Sunday 21 January 2018

First cast of 2018

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First day on the new syndicate today, had the short window of around an hour and a half before I was instructed to return home and cook the pancakes.  Got on site and met a couple of the regulars who discussed the topography and fish, I then set to with a drop shot rod. The water is exceptionally shallow but in the absence of any bait in the house to coarse fish with I had grabbed the drop shot gear. I gave a couple of swims forty minutes or so. No joy, very tricky with the drop shot in two feet of water with lots of leaf litter on the lake bed.
I was after perch, I know the place is alive with small roach and pike are doing well, stands to reason the perch are as well yet no-one I have spoken to is fishing for them so into the unknown with that one.
So the drop shot was proving problematic, and seeing several pike topping I decided to try a rubber lure on a moderate retrieve.IMG_20180114_132435737_BURST001
First cast produced a nice jack pike. Heart pumping I played the fish in on the light drop shot rod. The green paddle tail soft rubber on a fluorescent green jig head on a short wire trace did the business. The retrieve was tricky as the depth meant that I was retrieving the lure a bit too quickly to get a bite but had to keep it off the bottom. However a fish was caught, well happy!
The pike was safely returned and I re-cast twice and then had a second fish a little bit bigger but was hooked awkwardly, and it took me a bit longer to unhook. I wanted him back as quick as possible so I could steady and recover the fish before release so I didn’t bother with a photo. Fish welfare is always more important.
After this the swim died and I couldn’t get any more bites, I moved next door but this was the same.
Really happy with the short session, and will gather more suitable tackle for my next visit

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