stevetheangler

Monday August 4th 2014 at 0530 I revisited the Staffs-Worcs Canal at Four Ashes, starting at the central point and intending to walk with the spinning rod down the one length of canal using a blade spinner, switch to a Savage Gear Soft 4Play 9.5cm (Dirty Roach pattern) lure in a scull lip and walk back to the starting point and continue beyond up to the other limit of the stretch.

So I started out – and in the first five casts I had two follows, a pluck and a perch of around 8oz and hadn’t moved a foot… :)

The journey to end of the limit was quite eventful really – having at least 10 or more plucks and follows – follows mainly by small perch of 2-4oz … and landed another 2 perch slightly smaller than the first.

I had a rest and my first cup of coffee of the day… I’d made my flask before going to bed so as to be able to get out as soon as possible and I’d not even made a coffee before leaving the house… and changed over to the Savage Gear lure as planned. However, I had planned to fish all my way back up but time was getting on – and I wanted to visit Aldi on the way home too – so I just cast into likely looking spots so that I could spend some time at the other limit which I suspected could house a pike or two – Mr Crabtree looking really. Anyway, on my walk up to the far limit none of my casts in the intervening waters elicited any response from perch or other species with nothing seen to follow or any plucks felt.

So I finally arrived at my intended spot and made a few casts around the area – and then the line tightened  and the water boiled and a fish was on – a good perch or a pike!  But unfortunately, 15 seconds later there was that sickening feeling one gets when the line suddenly falls slack and the fish has gone.

However, a few casts later and I was again into a ‘better’ fish – and this time I won the tussle and a 4lb 14oz pike was successfully landed.

Shortly after this three boats almost together came through the area and with the leaves and debris kicked up fom the bottom attaching themselves to trace, lure and hooks I decided to call it a day and to head back to the car.

I did have another few casts in likely spots en route back but had no further action – no plucks or follows – and eventually lost my lure to an underwater snag when I had to pull for a break and then just carried on back to the car and headed homewards.

So I’ve done better pike-wise this year already than I did in the winter just passed when my tally was ZERO! I should point out that I normally do not fish for pike outside October-March, mainly due to health risks with pike in the warmer weather and their delicateness at such times.. and the landed pike was no exception requiring a good ten to fifteen minutes in the landing net with water fanned over it’s gills until it was strong enough to finally power away. However, in my defence I was actually perch fishing with a perch sized lure but hoping for a sign that pike were held up in that area… and now I’m happy re that and the info noted for later in the year… and happy that the pike was given a good restoral and swam away in full health. The other (lesser) factor for not pike fishing in the summer is that there are so many other species that can be sought – and I’d rather do that and switch to pike in the winter when the others become less active.

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that I wanted to call in Aldi on the way home… the reason being that Aldi started a Fishing Special sale yesterday (Sunday 3rd) and they were supposed to have had some good looking fishing chairs in… However, when Liz and I visited yesterday there had been none delivered it seemed – and we checked 3 local Aldis with the same result… Hence this morning’s visit to see if they had arrived earlier today which it turns out they hadn’t – and won’t – for a time anyway. I spoke to the Aldi manager and the reason there were/are none on sale was that a fault in them was discovered before distribution and so they were withheld from sale. Just hoping that the problem gets resolved and the ‘modified/corrected’ items are brought out for sale again soon. Aldi actually does decent equipment (usually re-badged top name stuff) a lot cheaper than the originals (bags, clothing, etc) are good although things like rod/reel combos and packs of floats/spinners/hooks/line etc can be crud – the sort of thing your Aunt buys you for Christmas as she knows you go fishing – it’s just a matter of sorting the wheat from the chaff… anyway, the chairs looked solid enough in the paper brochure… but have been removed from the on-line version now.

No more fishing this week now – visitors due at the weekend so time will be taken up with housework and shopping.

Next trip possibly next Tuesday 12th… not sure where yet… possibly a Staffs-Worcs early morning session, possibly a day session on a pool.