Adventure begins with a broken rod tip...

I finally decided to begin my adventure with fly fishing for pike. After months (?) of researching and  three books read I ordered 9' #8 Greys GS2 rod, GX500 reel and GRXI floating and intermediate line. Of course I want to tie my own flies, so I ordered some starting materials, vice and some essential tools. All past week I was tying my first flies and started to learn fly casting on the artificial (fishless) pond next to my house. I felt ready to go out fishing. Today I went to my "hot spots" and I was not disappointed. In 15 min. I had my first pike on the fly! It was only 63cm but it felt really great. What was not great is that I broke the tip of the rod in the next 15 min... Oh my God...

Fortunately the rod has an extended lifetime warranty and I will try to get the tip replacement from Greys, however it will take a while for sure, so I'll have to go back to my old faithful casting rod.

Street fishing continues

Today I had only a limited time widow for fishing, only 3 hours. Despite the short time I landed 3 pikes : 66cm which I unhooked in the water and another two : nice 88 and 80 cm. Again the Triple Devil did the job.

First pike in 2012!

Today a first session this year and a first pike -75 cm. Few minutes after landing this one I lost the yellow/black Triple Devil lure. On a long cast against the wind the braided line just tangled on my reel and simply snapped. I saw my lure fly away :-( I switched to a natural roach color, but without any success later till the end of the day. I had one more missed strike and that was it.

My top 3 lures of 2011

Number 3 : SPRO Sreamin’ Triple Devil
I started to use this swimbait only in the few last weeks of the year, but its effectives on the city canals/former polder waters gave it a third place this year. The length of the lure is 13cm and it has a real fish profile, which makes it present itself as a sizeable catch, worth of chasing in the colder months when pike prefer a bigger meal. The lure features a very loud rattles and can be retrieved very slowly, still moving like fish and producing sounds. I used the black/yellow version (Aussie Poison Frog) in the murky, shallow waters, and it was very effective on both sunny and cloudy days.
You have to use a casting rod and a multiplier reel with this one, as it weights 50g. One more thing to mention is that this lure is equipped with a high quality, very sharp Gamakatsu trebles.

Number 2 : SPRO BBZ-1 4”
Little 10 cm lure with the most lifelike action I have ever seen in my life. I use it with my light tackle and I can achieve really long distance casts with this one. The lure has a built in small rattle. Although it has only one treble under the belly, I didn’t notice any problems with hooking the fish. The bigger pikes just engulf it, while most of the smaller ones strike on the belly part, where the treble is. You can even see very clear, half-circle tooth marks on it. I found it most productive on a slow retrieve in a clear water. I’ll never forget one strike on a calm, shallow 0.5m water - first I saw a huge wave, then opening jaws and a water explosion. This was my favorite fish of the past year, although not the biggest one (only 84 cm). The little BBZ-1 has found an everlasting place in my light tackle lure box.

Number 1 : Savage Gear 4Play
Well known lure available for quite a while. I was using the 13.5cm ”Lip Lure” version. The lure comes also in a “Jerk&Swim” version, but its action is a bit dull for me (It is much better though in the bigger, 19cm size of this lure). I used this lure for my “wounded fish” tactic. Cast it , let it sink a while and twitch it, making it move for 30-50 cm, stop, let it sink and twitch again. I tried few colors, but the 3D Minnow and Golden Ambulance worked the best for me. I used 3D Minnow on cloudy days and/or murky waters. Golden Ambulance on clear waters on sunny days, specially close to the sunset, and these lure/conditions produced my biggest catch of the 2011 – 92 cm pike. One problem with the 3D Minnow is the material it is made of. It is a thin foil responsible for the shining, holographic effect. After a couple of strikes it started to peel off and now it is just shredded to pieces. I may buy another, exactly the same lure, but this time I may cover it with some kind of varnish to give it a little bit more protection against the pike’s teeth.

Street fishing 5+6+7

For the past two days the weather was not really encouraging for fishing, pouring rain and 7 degrees. I went fishing both days only for one hour. One day I blanked (two empty strikes though). The second day I landed 75cm pike and accounted an exciting strike of a huge pike just at my feet, but she missed. I'll definitely visit the same place next weekend.

Today it was a different story. I landed four fish (74, 47, 77 and 78cm) and lost another two.

Tomorrow probably I'll not have time to go out fishing, so this makes it the last fishing session this year.

Happy New Year and lots of bending rods in 2012!  

Street fishing 4

I don't have to work between Christmas and New Years, so of course I went fishing today. What a day! I landed 4 pikes, the biggest one on the picture above was 87cm. This is actually a fish I caught already this year, a month ago, on November 27th. I had two another spectacular strikes, just a half a meter away from my feet, in both cases the fish unhooked themselves, I didn't manage to land them. I fished all day with SPRO Screamin' Triple Devil lure in "Aussie Poison Frog" color.

Street fishing 3

I've been ill last week, so didn't do any fishing. This Saturday however I managed to get done few hours of street fishing. I landed three pikes - biggest one 80 cm. The guy few meters away from me landed really nice, fat 105cm.

On another note, in order to get some solid knowledge about pike fly fishing before buying any gear, I treated myself with some books. I'll try to read them between Christmas and New Years (I'm on a leave then :-)).