Tuesday, November 24th, it’s my 65th birthday – and there’s ONLY one way to celebrate that – by fishing!

So, I decided on having a lure session on Dudmaston Hall’s Big Pool – and only one way to do that – with my favourite Savage Gear 19cm Olive Pearl 4Play Soft Body in a red scull lip…

And I also had an ulterior motive to the choice of fishing style – to explore the 50% of the pool that I’d never previously visited especially as that section looked quite conducive to locating pike and other predators being reed lined and also the deeper part of the pool – as can be seen the opposite, and previously visited, part of the pool is quite sparse in weed growth as the field beyond is used to graze cows who come to the pool to drink.

And so, I arrived at the pool around 1000, and immediately walked to the furthest point on the pool that I would be fishing from knowing that if I fished from the first point I reached that (a) I’d have an aching back before I reached the furthest point and so would give up before I’d been there… and (b) would have a long walk back with an aching back.

Anyway, for the next 3 or so hours cast out and retrieved the lure, casting along the reeds at the banks side , out into deep water, did steady retrieves of various speeds, stuttered retrieves, sink’n’draw, etc – and not one touch was detected nor any seen follows in the crystal clear water.

And so at 1330, I decided to call it a day and headed back to the car stopping just a couple of times for 2-3 casts enroute…

Friday, November 20th, I had an appointment at the doctor’s to provide a blood sample for my upcoming annual diabetes MOT at 0950 meaning that it was going to be a late start to the day and so Liz and I decided to just go for a few hours lure fishing at a local pike pool (Pike Pool 24).

We arrived at the pool at around 1030 and lured until around 1300 when we left and headed to a local hostelry for a beer…

Lures were for most part Savage Gear 13cm Soft 4Play bodies in their relevant scull lips although a few other plugs (deep divers, Big S, etc) were tried when the water/environment conditions required…

Unfortunately, we both blanked although I *may* (90% certain it was a fish in my mind – more of a ‘snatch and pull’ sensation than a ‘snag’) have lost a fish early in the session when I seem to have had a snap link failure…but that was really strange as I use links of the type pictured which have always been very reliable and as you can see failure is extremely unlikely due to the one piece type of design – and yet a failure I seemingly had as I had the wire trace still attached to the line and the wire loop was unbroken and solid meaning that the wrap of wire of the link itself would have to have come detached and then the link straighten to pull-out…. unbelievable but it does seem to have happened…

However, I’d have had no problem in accepting the fact with this ‘safety pin’ type…

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…which from past experience will seemingly fall apart just by looking at them… and these days I use this type only in conjunction with items being part of a ‘weak link’ … eg links to ledger leads … where their weakness can actually be an asset.

Anyway, apart from that one second of activity, neither of us had any other indication of any pike (or other species) interest at all….

Oh… the wet landing nets?? Well, we did suffer a few spells of showers, one of which was quite prolonged and sharp.. 🙂

Friday, November 13th, I set off for Big Pool on the Dudmaston Hall estate arriving in the middle of a quite brisk shower at around 0730… but ,despite a few more showers and quite brisk breezes at times, the day was quite pleasant and warm…

Two rods were set up to fish sunken float paternoster style – both using single+double hook wire traces – one baited with a pair of sprats, and the other a single skipjack – and set to present the baits at 12”-18” from the bottom.

However, despite casting around into different areas over the course of the first 4 hours of fishing not a single bite/nudge/tug was forthcoming and so, at 1230, both rigs were changed over to straight ledger ones with standard twin treble hooked wire traces baited with blueys (aka Pacific Saury) and so fished until 1430, again without any result, when I packed up my tackle and headed back home.

Plans for next week – Tuesday probably back at Big Pool, possibly with just the spinning rods and lures and thus explore the whole pool, half of which I’ve not actually seen yet… and Friday I have a doctor’s appointment for a blood sample to be taken as part of my diabetic checking so, as the appointment is for 1050, it will be a late start out for us (Liz is intending to come too) and so we’re intending to head to Pike Pool 1 for a few hours as its close to home…

TEMPS: 

0930: Air 11.6C, Water 13.9C
1430: Air  7.0C,  Water 14.4C

TEMP TRENDS:

Monday, November 2nd, I again set off for Pike Pool 24 with the intention of fishing the opposite side of the pool to my usual location – and I did so… 🙂

I arrived on the banks around 0730 to a misty start ….

… and it remained so for much of the day.

As the water temperatures where quite high still and really not the best conditions for static-bait-on-the-bottom deadbaiting I decided to fish two free running submerged float paternoster rigs with baits set to be held suspended 18”-24” off the bottom and at 15 minute intervals the lines were tweaked in about 2’-3’ to add, what was hoped, extra incitement to the targeted pike… . I shall describe my free-running rig in a later posting as I need to do photos to such end. Terminal tackle, as the baits were smelt and ‘jack’ and hence not large enough to warrant a twin treble hook trace, was 20” of 25lb wire with a size 2 single hook mid-trace with a home-made double hook consisting of a size 12 single whipped on to the back of the shank of another size 2 at the end… the mid-trace ‘2’ being located at the top of the bait’s back under the dorsal fin and with a bait flag to ensure the bait remained attached and also to provide an attraction and a target for the strike of the pike, the ‘12’ of the double hook being in the top of the jaws so that its attached ‘2’ stood proud and free for hooking… and this way the bait fish was suspended horizontally.

However, none of this seemed to have excited any passing Esox into any form of interest at all…. Again.

Trouble with this pool is, is that it holds large quantities of many species of fish of large size including pike – it is a small pool in area – about 2 acres BUT it is a deep pool (avg depth around 10’ 2 rod lengths out but does have areas where the depths drop to over 40’) and so has a large water volume – meaning that the dropping air temps can act only on the small area and thus the rate of temperature drop of the water as a whole is very slow compared to other waters of comparable size… and, personally, for deadbaiting I prefer water temps to be at 8C or below…

So… I packed in the deadbait rods at 1330 so that I could pack up and have an hour’s lure fishing as I walked back around the pool to the car – and this I did but again I could entice no action – and so left the water unmolested…..

TEMPS: 

0910: Air 10.3C, Water 14.2C
1345: Air 13.3C, Water 14.4C

TEMP TRENDS: 

Saturday 31st October , a day later than planned, I set off for Pike Pool 24 arriving at a little after 0715 and casting in after the usual pre-campaign preparation at around 0800. I fished my usual bank but in the swim before my usual one… the one usually fished by Liz.

Tactics for the day were 2 rods both set up as submerged float paternoster rigs with the dead baits (smelt on one and a ‘jack’ – like a small skipjack, 4” – on the other)… and baits were injected with a mixed fish oil emulsion to enhance their attraction.

Anyway, I fished until 1400 as I had to pack up at that time in order to pick Liz up from work – and I blanked. In fact the only action of the day, despite putting baits in different areas and distances from the bank, was a 15 minute spell at around 1315 when the smelt baited line could be seen to twitch about ¼” between rod tip and water and small ripples emanate from the line’s entry point into the water – from experience this was probably chub toying with and attempting to suck the contents out of the bait’s belly.

In fact, it was a quiet day all round at the pool – the other 3 angler’s there, carpers, also had a very slow day despite fish jumping and rolling frequently…. In fact the best fisher there was the kingfisher that was in the bush alongside me who caught at least 5 fish that I saw…

TEMPS: 

0800: Air 12.9C, Water 13.4C
1400: Air 14.5C, Water 13.7C

TEMP TRENDS: