Long, Streamlined & Full Of Teeth

Garfish and pike, two species that, from a design perspective, are very similar. They both have long slim bodies, are aggressive predators with mouths full of teeth and they are exciting sport on lures. If only the gar grew to pike sizes! In the last month I have mostly focused on these two fish, with varying degrees of success! We'll start with the day that was much less successful for me, but was a personal best for Ellie.

Exeter canal always captures my imagination. It is not an easy water. It's quite likely one of the most highly pressured pike venues in the South West. But that's for a reason, the place always throws up twenty pound plus pike every year. If you live down this way, it's impossible to resist.

Me and Ellie met up with Adam one morning, to fish the Turf Locks end of the canal, my favourite stretch. It's deep and quite awkward fishing at times, mainly due to the warm autumn not killing off summer's weed and bank vegetation growth. There were still many areas completely unfishable due to excessive surface weed, so we were slightly limited. That didn't stop Ellie though, who soon had a fish on only a few metres from where we parked. Though it was no monster it fought gallantly, diving into cover at every opportunity, Ellie could not hide her excitement as I scooped it into the net. Her previous biggest pike was little over a pound so this fish was a new personal best, weighing in at just over three.

So it was a good start. Ellie kept up the strong form only fifteen minutes later where she just missed another slightly bigger fish. Adam soon had a Jack of his own and the pressure turned on me to catch. I had a couple of near misses with a small fish then a much larger girl that took more weed than my lure unfortunately, leaving me to blank. But Ellie's best moment was to come. In the deeper waters of the marina she decided to use her Savage Gear Spinnerbait, her favourite lure, mainly due to the way it feels as the blades vibrate the line on the retrieve. On the first cast in a new spot she had a fish, larger this time. Again, the fight was superb, these autumn fish have so much more energy than when you catch them in deep winter. A few hairy moments aside, Ellie played it well and although it wasn't quite as big as we hoped, at just under six pounds it was a fantastic fish for Ellie. We all hope for personal best fish when we set off in the morning, that day she landed two, and it was a pleasure to help her catch, although I got the deserved ripping for being the only one who blanked!

I had planned to have another go at the canal but work had other plans, so with only the morning free I joined Maurice on a short local LRF session. I'm glad I did because the weather was glorious and so was the fishing. We arrived at Millbay to find it out of action, the giant mound of earth that worked as as a wind break was being demolished (shame!), so to West Hoe Pier we went.

I had fished it recently with Olly on low water, after garfish with the traditional float fished mackerel strip, I had hooked a couple but quite typically they shook the hook. This time me and Maurice were using small jigheads with various soft lures. We had plenty of hits, knowing the gar were there in force, it was exciting if not slightly frustrating. The experience of Maurice soon showed as he raced into the lead with both a gar and a mackerel in quick succession. His secret was to stop reeling once you had the first hit, then strike after a second or so. The theory being that the gar stun the fish first then eat them on the second go. This technique, combined with the switch to an Ecogear Aqua Shirasu lure was the game changer for me, as I landed my first ever lure caught garfish and forty eighth species of the year.

We had great fun in the sunshine watching these bizarre looking fish chase and harry the lures right to the wall. We lost so many more than we caught but it didn't matter. These fish do everything, they jump, they dive, they head-shake, they are just excellent sport on LRF tackle. I will say though that they are awful smelling, and shed their scales easily, so try to handle them carefully and bring a rag with you when fishing for them.

Adam joined us for the last hour as we moved onto targeting the bottom dwelling species. I quickly caught a goldsinny but again Maurice showed his nous. Switching onto dropshot he had a corkwring, tompot blennies and his own goldsinny. It was a real pleasure fishing with him properly for the first time, he's full of interesting knowledge and tactics, and modest with it. LRF might look strange to some people (angler's included!), but the way it has got me fishing with new people, in new ways, cannot be understated in it's importance to me. It's a great hobby to be a part of.

I went down the next day with Ellie, to see if she could get a gar too, but the wind was up and it was difficult fishing. I managed to get one bigger gar that put up quite probably the best fight I've ever had from a fish of it's size. It went ballistic! Stripping line from my reel for fun, I thought it was a decent mackerel, so I was impressed to see what it really was when I got it to the surface. Having a small audience of passers-by made it all more fun. A few people having never seen a garfish before. We left soon after though as the wind proved impossible to cast into.

After one more blank on the canal, terrible weather cutting my session short. I was in the mood for easier fishing and Olly was too. We decided on Simpson Valley, with a view to catch trout and then try for pike. I like Simpson Valley and the people who run it, but sometimes it can be a little uninspiring. Though myself and Olly caught a few trout, giving excellent fights as always, there's only so many times you can catch similar sized fish again and again, with the chance of a bigger fish unlikely. We moved onto Upper Fuzzy, where last year I had caught a seventeen pound pike. Unfortunately the lake was mostly taken up with carp angler's so our fishing was limited. I still managed two pike but both were small. We cut the trip short and went to see Robbie at a different venue instead, where he managed to catch a nice perch of just under two pound.

I had the next day off too and fished Bake Lakes with Ellie. Trying out deadbaiting for eels. The eels didn't show but I did manage to catch a few decent carp by freelining Power Isome on the surface amongst floating casters. The thrill when you see the carp slurp down the imitation worm then strike is fantastic. Three to four pound carp give such a great account of themselves on LRF tackle too. After that short session we headed off to get some food.

During the whole of November is the Osborne & Cragg LRF Lure competition. With this in mind I will be trying to write shorter blogs, but more often to cover where I'm fishing and sharing hints and tips for various marks and harbours that I fish. Hopefully you will join me with this and hopefully I can catch some new species along the way.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 48 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel, Bronze Bream, Whiting, Dragonet, Brown Trout, Koi Carp, Scad, Pouting, Couches Bream, Herring, Thick Lipped Mullet, Chub, Dace, Bleak & Garfish

Olly - 34 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod, Mackerel, Scad, Couches Bream, Conger Eel, Rock Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Minnow, Bleak & Garfish

Ellie - 25 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback, Mackerel & Sea Bass

Shane - 17 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel, Giant Goby, Dace, Bleak & Minnow

Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe

Robbie - 14 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock, Mackerel & Thick Lipped Mullet

Head over to www.fishingtails.co.uk for quality articles and fishing reports.

As always, thanks for reading

Canal Pike & Slob Trout

The promise of Autumn pike for me is too hard to resist. It doesn't matter what size, I love them. So as a nice consequence of having to drive a lot of miles recently, I got to target them on two of my favourite waters - The Taunton and Exeter Canals, whilst also catching a few new species along the way.

Due to an early job interview in Weston-super-mare, I found myself with a free afternoon in Somerset. I don't often fish the area, but I really fancied having a go at the River Tone, knowing it had a real variety of species to target. I visited the local tackle shop and left full of verve and excitement for the afternoon ahead. It's worth saying how excellent they are in Taunton Angling Centre, very friendly and helpful with a good variety of stock, a real gem of a tackle shop, it certainly boosted my anticipation for the afternoon ahead. 

I arrived at the 'fast stretch', finding it to be a place of polar opposites: on one hand, it's a charming fast flowing river, absolutely stacked with fish; and on the other, it's a semi-urban walkway with all the character that comes with it. You park under a graffiti covered bridge (most of it actually quite decent, makes a change from 'swilly 4 lyfe' and pictures of dicks we have in Plymouth!), you then fish downstream past trolleys and, on this particular day, an inflatable banana! It's an unusual mix, making the fact I caught countless minnows (a famously clean river fish), all the more surprising. It was difficult to get away from them, but eventually my real target fish started to show, the always welcome chub and dace.

Tone dace have a real fight to them, plus a lovely dark hue compared to fish I've caught before, whilst the chub were classic snag searchers, though I didn't catch one big enough to really test me. I also caught bleak, a fish species I haven't caught since I was twelve years old, still as greedy as I remember them. Time flew by as I enjoyed the simple pleasure of stealthily approaching each swim, baiting up with maggots and trotting down it, all in the hope of a different species every time the float dipped under. The bigger chub, grayling and trout all avoided me, perhaps laughing at my amateur attempts at stealthily trotting. 

Pike were on my mind that day too though, as they often are, so I decided to use the last hour to fish the canal. I remained convinced that a shallow weedy canal would be an excellent place to use senko worms, something I was less convinced of by the time I left. Though I had two hits from pike, they seemed hesitant in their attack, something I put down to a lack of movement and attraction on the lure. The bug had hit me though and I was eager to get back on the canal to try again. 

I didn't have to wait long to be back in Taunton. With myself, Olly and Shane travelling up to Bristol to watch a gig, it would have been rude not to try it again. It also gave the guys a chance to catch a couple new species they'd never caught before. We briefly fished the Tone, Olly catching minnows and bleak, Shane catching those two plus a nice dace.

Then it was back on the canal to try for pike. With a lighter I had melted some old curl-tails onto a few of my senkos to boost attraction, it nearly paid rapid dividends as a large fish snapped at my lure in the opposite margin, weedless hooks require a firmer drag to set the hook though, something I had failed to remember. The excitement drained from me as the drag gave way and so did the hook hold. Still it was a start, we moved on whilst casting where the thick vegetation would allow us. The canal was crystal clear and weedy, becoming an aquarium and giving away a few secrets - like some fantastic looking perch and big shoals of roach. Every so often you would see tiny pike - little green crocodiles balancing the act of being both predator and prey.

We fished round and had little interest in our lures, whilst Olly seemed to be taking more interest in the opposite trees, so often was he losing tackle in them! I will give him the excuse of being hungover but he nearly gave up in a grump a few times. Luckily enough it was him who had the first fish, a classic canal jack of around a pound. I then followed his fish up with one of my own, a fish that leapt clear of the water twice, not coming to the net without a decent fight, but still only a modest fish. Shane lost one and then an almighty wind knot turned his braid into a bird's nest, signalling that we should probably head back.

As always though I wouldn't be satisfied without a better pike, a trait that usually gets me a last cast fish. This time was no different. I had moved on to my favourite Crazy Fish Vibro Worm in Motor Oil, rigged weedless on a one and a half gram bottom jig. It allowed me to fish tight in the margins without sinking into the weed or catching any along the way. I managed to sneak into an awkward spot that had a very promising margin to cast along. As the lure came into sight it was engulfed by a much better pike, my words were a very casual, 'that's a big pike', as the fish briefly stayed still. It obviously didn't think it had been hooked, but then it realised, proceeding to go ballistic. Pushing my new LRF rod to the maximum, the fish dived in every weed it could. I just held on tight and worked the angles to try and subdue it. After a brief tangle in the weed at my feet was solved by a shove by the net, the fish was ready. What a stunner it was too, pushing seven pounds, glorious greens and gold sparkling in the sunlight. A scar near it's tail confirmed my suspicions that this was the same fish I had caught previously in March, on the same stretch. It looked in much better health now though and had put on a bit of weight, fantastic to see and a great surprise. My appetite finely sated, we headed home.

My next short session (there is a theme here), was on the Plym again after mullet. The tide was excellent but the water clarity was not. It was dirty and heavily coloured. We couldn't find the mullet but I did catch a surprise brown trout on bread. Simon of Osborne and Cragg later informed me that it was a 'Slob' Trout. A trout that doesn't make the full transformation to sea trout, but instead feeds in the estuaries, never truly going out to sea, hence retaining its brown colouration. So that was a new one for me, but I unfortunately can't call it a new species.

Having to pick up Ellie from Exeter was an obvious chance to fish the canal. Since we only had a couple of hours, we fished the free section. It turned out to very entertaining, I had a fantastic tussle with a decent jack for couple of minutes, the light gear did not have the required backbone to bully it though, so it eventually wrapped my line round a sunken bramble bush, unhooking itself in the process.

I had two other pike hooked briefly but lost them, all in quite a short time. I then had a pleasant surprise in the form of a small perch. It had managed to hook itself somehow, even though the lure was almost the size of it! It was soon time to head home though so that small 'stripey' was my only catch of that session.

My most recent attempt on the Exeter Canal was another esox blank for me, but my fishing partner for the day, aka my Dad, was more lucky. A long lean jack smashing the lure I had recommended greedily. It was great to see him catch, he's blanked the last few times we've been out. Again this was only a short session (must actually free up a whole day soon), so we left soon after that. My highlight being when I hooked a much heavier fish, who shook the hook. I then changed lures and watched the same fish follow in twice without taking. She was a lovely looking predator, definitely a double, but you don't get to that size without seeing a few lures, she wasn't stupid and casually swam away.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 47 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel, Bronze Bream, Whiting, Dragonet, Brown Trout, Koi Carp, Scad, Pouting, Couches Bream, Herring, Thick Lipped Mullet, Chub, Dace & Bleak

Olly - 33 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod, Mackerel, Scad, Couches Bream, Conger Eel, Rock Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Minnow & Bleak

Ellie - 25 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback, Mackerel & Sea Bass

Shane - 17 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel, Giant Goby, Dace, Bleak & Minnow

Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe

Robbie - 14 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock, Mackerel & Thick Lipped Mullet

Head over to www.fishingtails.co.uk for quality articles and fishing reports.

As always, thanks for reading.