First Foray Into Freshwater

I have never fished a fresh water venue before, so I jumped at the chance to meet up with Matt N at a Cornish Reservoir, and spend a day hunting for new species. Getting my one-day license online the night before, paying the day visitors pass for the Reservoir, selection of small plugs and light fishing kit in hand (Nories RockFish Bottom UL 1.8g-7g rod, Daiwa Certate 2506 loaded with Sunline Small Game 0.4PE / 8lb), it was off to check the water conditions and cast a few lures.

The wind was blowing, a lot harder than predicted, but I was assured the water clarity was good, so confidence was high. Few words of wisdom from Matt on where to search out the fish, and it was game on, walking the path, fanning out the casts at each peg. We had it covered with me using various small plugs, and Matt fishing spinner baits and soft lures.

It was a while till we found the first fish of the day, casting short near the bank, I had a take. Excited to see what my first fresh water catch would be, as it came to the surface, a small Jack of around 2lb, and Matt netted it, for the unhooking and photo. Thee lure it hit was an Ecogear 70S;

 We fished on, both sides of the Reservoir, trying different things, but no more fish. So Matt grabbed his light gear, and we fished for Perch in a weir pool, lots of knocks, but difficult to keep a fish on. Managed to land just one small Perch myself, really stoked to catch such a cool looking fish.

 A small run off stream nearby had Matt’s interest, and he floated a small plug downstream, and on his first retrieval, was hit by a Brown Trout. He went onto repeat this twice more further down, with the fish  bigger each time.

 Heading home in the car, reflecting on the session, was happy to have caught my first fresh water fish, extremely happy that it was a Pike and Perch, the fish I really wanted to target. Big thanks to Matt  for the heads up on the day, and looking forward to bigger and better fish in the future.