Welcome to the real world!

A couple of weeks ago I got a real shock when looking at my bank balance. The savings I had hoped would last me until I head to Jersey in April had all but disappeared, leaving me with no option but to get job hunting. Luckily for me, with Menai Angling opening a new store in Llandrillo, a great opportunity presented itself and after a meeting with Gareth, I had myself a full-time job again.

Now, I have always had it in my head, that even whilst working full-time, I'd still be fishing at every opportunity I get including evenings after work, but I soon realised that this wasn't going to happen, in fact after a 10 hour shift all I wanted to do was go to bed lol. I guess this deserves the classic saying 'Welcome to the real world.'Anyway, having worked nearly 90 hours during the last 10 days, my current 2 day break is the perfect opportunity for me to get back onto some fish and I certainly haven't wasted my first day.

With ridiculous winds sweeping North Wales at the moment, I made the choice to head back to the mothers house in Cheshire on Sunday night, with the intentions of a having a first light session on the Perch and Pike. Alarm set for 6am, it was time for an early night.

Up and out on time, I found myself at my chosen mark just before sunrise with almost perfect conditions, things were looking spot on for a few fish. This optimism was short lived though, for after 2 hours wandering along the canal, I was still fish-less and now a few lures lighter as well, the only downside of using 4lb line straight through. However my luck soon changed as I wandered a stretch that didn't look particularly 'fishy.' I decided to stop for a few chucks despite the lack of noticeable features and to my great surprise I soon had my first fish of the session on the bank, a nice stripey of 1lb 7oz and 35cm that took a charteuse shiner grass minnow. A few casts later, I managed to find an underwater snag and lost the lot, something I seem to be good at recently on canals.





Going through my lures to choose another to whack on, I remembered the nories spoontail shads that I'd been sent by Nick Marlow recently and thought why the hell not, I'll give them a go, they look smart. Rigged texas style on a 1/0 Skip-in-the-shade jighead, I first dropped it in the margins to have a look at the action and my god was I impressed. They have an awesome side to side rolling action and a great tail action which really looked the business, time to put it to the test. Casting as close to the far bank as I dared, a simple slow twitchy sink and draw retrieve drew a savage hit on the first cast but I failed to set the hook. Flicking to the exact same spot with my next chuck, I once again had a good take. This time I just left the fish to take the lure, feeling the headshakes on the rod tip as it slowly arched over, then I set the hook.... FISH ON and it was a decent weight! After a cracking fight and some nervous moments at the bank due to not having a net, I got my thumb in its gob and lifted it from its murky lair, it was indeed a beauty. Taking the scales down to 2lb 5oz and measuring 39cm on the ruler, it beat my previous best lure caught perch by 7oz, what a result!


Now on a real high, I walked a few metres along the canal and tried flicking to the far bank once more. After nothing on the 3rd cast, my 4th cast again provoked another good take and fish number 2 had fallen for the spoontails in super quick-time, this one slightly smaller, but still a cracker at 2lb 3oz. Then it went quiet again and I started to regret not taking a net along to retain them, perhaps releasing them back into the area had spooked any others that may have been hidden there, oh well!
Extremely happy, I then made my way back to the car having more than a few casts along the way, which resulted in a couple more lovely stripeys of 1lb 11oz and 2lb 1oz. I did picture both these but the photos didn't come out very well so I won't bother uploading them.

So how to sum up that session. Five perch between 1lb 7oz and 2lb 5oz, three of which would have surpassed my previous lure caught PB. It's safe to say that for me, that was a truly epic session and a brilliant way to spend the first of my days off.

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

P.s If you can get some spoontail shads then I'd highly recommend doing so. Next time I'm out I'll try and film them underwater to give you all a better idea of how awesome they look :)

A weekend of cold, early morning perch and pike fishing

With a nice pile of clothes ready for washing, it was time for the customary trip home to Cheshire for the weekend to visit my mum. As it happens, my younger brother Sam, also a keen angler, was also back home for a few days and I'd managed to convince him to get up early and join me in the hunt for some stripeys. Before I left for home on the Saturday afternoon though, I first arranged to fish locally with mate Terry for some Pike. We met bright and early and shortly after wetting a line, we were soon rewarded with a fish a piece for our efforts. Terry's fish being taken on the humble silver toby, whilst mine took a fancy to the Ecogear para-max. The only other action we had was when a large pike ripped my lure in two right in front of me, somehow avoiding the hook. It was a good fish, easily over 10lb and I was a bit gutted to say the least, but that'll spur me on to return and get my revenge next time!

After driving home on the Saturday, the Sunday morning came round very quickly. I'd told Sam to set his alarm for 7am in the hope of catching first light at our chosen venue. As we got there, we realised we'd probably left it half an hour to late, but to our great surprise we both had takes almost instantly. Mine turned out to be this micro-perch whilst Sam's fish revealed itself to be a small jack pike. Then it seemed to go dead, neither of us could buy a take, so we walked half a mile or so to another likely looking spot shaded by some overhanging tress. I was soon into a fish, this time a much better Perch, but as it surfaced it gave a few angry head-shakes sending the lure flying from it's mouth, once again leaving me to watch it swim off from under my nose. Soon after the sun made an appearance, killing the fishing completely, this time we called it a day and headed home. Despite the lack of fish, Sam had really enjoyed himself and was keen along with me to have one last go at it on the Monday morning before we'd both go back to our Uni digs.

Learning from our mistakes, alarms were set for 6.30am this time round and we arrived at our venue just as things were starting to become visible. We started at the spot where we'd had some success the previous day and it was soon apparent that the fish were feeding much more actively, myself getting a dropped take and Sam getting two hits in quick succession resulting in a Perch of around 1lb. We soon decided on a move though and found ourselves back at the spot I'd lost my Perch the previous day. Sam again decided to show me how it was done, this time landing a jack pike of around 4lb on his ondex spinner. The cold was beginning to get to us a bit and it had now started snowing again, so we decided we'd start walking back to the car, having a few chucks here and there en-route.

This would prove to be a brilliant decision as at our first stop, a cast down the side of a barge with an Ecogear VX-35 vibe-bait resulted in my best perch on a lure for a good few years. At 1lb 11oz it's a lovely fish, but even better, I had avoided the dreaded blank, get in! More than content now with our catches, we continued to walk back to the car, lure chucking as we went. Having no more luck on the VX-35, I switched lure to a tidy little mepps spinner I had in my box and second cast with it found myself into another spirited Perch. Not as big as my other fish, but in my opinion a much nicer looking fish, with nice clear and unfaded markings. This one went 1lb 3oz on the scales and would turn out to be the last fish of the day. With hands now feeling frost-bitten, it took me a

good 20 minutes and a McDonalds breakfast to regain warmth but it was more than worth it. So, on the whole, it was a brilliant few days fishing and to be honest, I can't wait until my next home visit so I can have another bash at the Perch and Pike.

Until then though, thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross