Still being new to this game, decided to visit a Cornish reservoir, in search of Pike & Perch. The reservoir I decided on was new territory to me, but with a few wise words from friends, I headed out, with ultralight gear. Rod of choice was the Nories Slow Retrieve SR74F (0.9-5g) paired with a 2506 size Daiwa Certate, spooled with Sunline Small Game 0.4PE 8lb braid. As Pike were a possibility, a 30cm wire trace was needed. I have found the Drennan Soft Strand 10lb wire, with a rig made up with crimps, a good trace that does not affect the use of small 2' soft lures on ultralight jig heads.
Conditions were good on the reservoir, with a light wind, but superb water clarity. It's a reservoir that you can follow the footpath all the way around, so pick a direction, and head off, taking care not to disturb the resident carp fanatics!
Shortly into the session, a hopeful short flip in between some trees, saw the line scream off the drag in a short burst. Playing the fish, it turned, and surfaced, with the toothy face of a Pike looking back at me. I had to get myself into a position to land the fish, as there were partially submerged logs to navigate, and the fish was landed, up onto the bank for a quick photo, unhooked and safely returned. This was my biggest Pike to date, but not hard to beat my previous, as this fish took my tally up to number three!
From then on the bites dried up. It was not till I had made my way round to the other side of the reservoir that I had my second Pike landed of the day. This one was much smaller, but gave a good surface action show, as it thrashed and turned. The lure which I caught both fish on, was an Ecogear Grass Minnow in size 'L'. I had it rigged on a 3.5g jig head for the deeper areas, and switched to a 2.5g in the shallower parts of the reservoir.
As I neared the end of the looped path bath towards the car, the tree line thickened, with some opportunity to switch up to a 2' Ecogear Para Max on a 1.8g jig head, for a bit of jigging amongst the submerged structure for Perch. Was not long until a flash came out from under cover, and grabbed the lure, leading to my only Perch of the day, in super-micro size! That signaled the end of my session, but a good first scouting of this particular spot, and I think I will definitely be putting in some more time here over the Winter months, try and improve upon my freshwater tactics and techniques.
with a so light gear pike fishing must be fun.
ReplyDeleteIn Portugal we only have pike in north, is a rare fish like that perch, perch in Portugal are very different with lots of colours :)
Interesting, i fish there in the same end in the spring. I do however find the Pike to be the most docile gutless fighters I ever hooked. I had an 8 pounder there on fly a few years ago. I chucked it back in still hooked to see if I could give it a second chance to impress. It just sat at my feet with thefly in its mouth !!
ReplyDeleteI photographed an 18 pounder ther 10 years ago. It went down hill , perhaps theres a new generation of fish in there ?
The bigger one of the two did turn into a dead weight after its first single burst, the smaller one was a bit more feisty.
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