July 2016 Update: Carp, Tench and Lure Fishing

A fine summer's evening

Last week, I decided to renew one of my Club Tickets to make the most of all the waters within walking distance from my home, and target stillwater species in conditions which are tougher from a river perspective. The species that have been on my mind of late are carp, tench and eels. I have also been contemplating getting into light lure fishing, which was also on the agenda for my local river. For the first outing, I decided to venture down for a short afternoon's session on my local club lakes after some carp and tench. As the light started to fade, and the workers on the peninsula of the lake had stopped strimming, I started to get some takes. The result of this was a few bream and tench, but sadly no carp were around to make an appearance in this duration. I think they key to catching these fish is to introduce some bait, so that the carp can potentially dominate the swim in their, at times, greedy fashion.

A powerful little tench!

On the next session, I set my stalls on another club lake to try and stalk a carp or two out. My choice of bait was a single piece of fluffy bread flake which I was hoping to trigger a couple of fish into slurping in. I arrived at the lake, brimming with enthusiasm as I saw plentiful carp, some of which were bathing and others were slowly cruising. There was also some slurping that was taking place with carp sucking naturals off the Canadian Pond weed. The first swim I chose, I saw a group of fish and a common which looked as if it was up for a helping of flake. After casting just over the fish and teasing the piece of ever-expanding bread towards the fish's path, a few agonising minutes were to follow. The fish carried on taking naturals off the weed and slowly made its way to my bait and paused. The mouth extended and sucked the piece of flake in. I let the fish take the bait and was baffled at the fact that I had managed to strike into thin air! This fish was well into double figures, which was a great shame as it would have been a lovely fish to start with. After missing another fish, cheaply getting away, I found myself right at the corner of the lake which was also thick with weed and a nice group of lilly pads. After drifting my bait to the edge of these pads, a small pair of lips came up and slurped in a medium-sized piece of flake. I struck more positively this time and connected. Despite this being the smallest fish that took my bait, the reward was a lovely dark little mirror.

An enjoyable tussle in the weed!

For the final session, I decided to head out and do some light lure fishing. Having chatted with a mate, Mark Lindsay, about fishing light jigs before, I decided to get myself a light lure rod and some braid for a 1000 sized reel. With the rod having not arrived yet, I decided to dig out a telescopic rod I had found in the garage from a previous holiday. After loading my reel with some light braid for some perch fishing and finding some abrasion-resistant fluorocarbon, I headed to a stretch close to home with some depth. This stretch is very weedy and boggy, but I knew that I was in for a chance of seeing some nice perch and pike in the gaps in the weed to cast to. After fishing a few swims and failing to tempt the perch, despite appetisingly pausing the lure in their field of vision, I headed to a stretch downstream of here. Within a very short amount of time, I had managed a few tiny perch which tend to congregate in this little pool which was certainly a start! Following the fact that I had seen a few little pike in the gaps in the weed and chasing minnows in the silty and stagnant areas, I decided to have a go for a few with my little jig. After getting a few chases, but failing to get a take, I casted the jig in a gap in the weeds which looked a likely area for a pike to be hiding. As the lure started to work, in light-speed a pike came out of nowhere and snatched the lure. The take was amazing through the braid, as you felt the fish crunch into the lure. With a quick strike, I managed to hook the pike comfortably in the scissors and it gave a wonderful little tail-walking scrap.

Maybe one day this will go from a minnow mincer to a duckling worrier!

It's wonderful with these small jigheads how easy it is to quickly unhook the fish and release them back into their watery home. I took a stroll onto a silty and stagnant section nearby and saw this tiny baby pike with a stunning green hue sitting boldly in the silt. With a little flick just over its head and the lure fluttering in its view the lure was absolutely devoured! With an energetic and lashing fight, it was lovely to see another one of these stunning juvenile pike in my hands. The immature markings on juvenile pike are wonderful to feast your eyes on, especially from my local chalkstream. By the time I had managed my third little pike, my lure had been bitten in half, so I felt with my family wanting to have some supper that it was a good idea to go home.

See what I mean about the immature markings?

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

Tom