stevetheangler

So its been nearly 2 weeks since I was last out at the waterside due to a mix of Liz and I both having bad colds, me having several appointments/visits at the doctors and the weather unsuitable on the days that were available to us…. and I still need to book the car in for its MOT and arrange fitting of our smart gas/electric meter…

However, I will ensure that the MOT and meter bookings do NOT clash with fishing days – something that is not possible with the doctor – and we’re aiming to be out on the water on Monday 12th as Friday 9th I’ve to see the diabetic nurse again to give another blood sample.

Our plans are to fish a club pool (KF-WL1) that we’ve not fished in a while – and possibly not since we’ve actually been club members as the pool (a pond really as its quite small) is available to fish on a day ticket. The other, larger, pool on site is ‘members only’ and is the one we generally fish these days. I’m planning to float fish, not sure about Liz but she generally prefers feeder fishing, as the pool is down in a dip and tree surrounded so should be quite calm down there.

In the meantime I’ve re-tackled up my two pike ledger rods …. same 40lb braid mainline, link ledger (terminates in a snap clip so that weights can be changed easily although I generally use a 3oz weight as this tends to avoid drop-back bites – if the fish swims towards and past the weight then rather than causing the lead to be dragged and creating the slack line that shows as a drop-back which would happen with the use of a lighter weight, the 3oz is heavy enough to remain seated and the line is pulled through and the bobbin/alarm operate as per normal BUT I do set up with a backbiter type dropoff bobbin anyway just in case :)) and a galaxy type clip to which the wire trace is connected… all pretty straightforward and standard BUT I’ve now added a ‘deadbait clip’…

I’ve set this to sit on top of the adjustable ledger stop that I use in order to be able to set up pop-up baits to sit at any depth .. in use a loop of line is tied to the bait’s tail and the is bait hung from the clip by use of the loop. As all the force of the casting is made through the loop it allows soft baits to be cast out further and also means that the hooks need only be lightly nicked into the bait itself allowing them to easily pull free on a strike and prevents the force of the strike being absorbed by the bait…. I hook on the loop and then also hook on the ledger weight by passing the loop through the eye of the weight – thus the weight and bait form one condensed mass and fly together efficiently – and when they hit the water the drag of the bait sinking pushes off both the weight and bait…. Also doing it this way means that a long pop-up length can be used as the length of the pop-up is halved (ie for a desired pop-up of 10’ then length of folded over line = 5’) plus it is loose line ie no drag, go rolling in the air, basically just a length of loose line … but generally I only use pop-ups heights of 6’ or less anyway.

The clips I use are actually meant for sea fishing but work fine for me … but Fox do one specially for pike fishing but obviously they cost more…

The Fox Deadbait Clip is attached to the trace swivel; A short piece of braid with a loop on the end is tied to the bait; the braided loop is placed on the clip to take the strain of the cast. Using this method, the hooks can be lightly nicked into the bait. Then when you get a run, the hooks are not buried in the bait, and the chances of hooking the pike are increased.