Lure fishing advice? 🙏

[Dry_net_Norm]

Hi guys, I come cap in hand after some advice. I've been into carp fishing for the last few years, but last year I decided to get it on the river, experience a bit more of nature and do some lure fishing for pike. I got some kit off eBay, watched every YouTube video going and off I went!
4 months and around 8 trips later, and I've only had 1 bite and zero fish... Is this a record??
It's not the kit, it's not the river Derwent, it's me... It has to be. Ive not even had a bite off a perch to keep the spirits up! I would have thought that the law of averages would have seen me foul hook a gudgeon at least, but nothing!
I have a day off next Monday and I'm willing to travel upto an hour or so. Does anybody have any advice for me, or a suggestion of a lake/ stretch of river to try in the Derby area?

Any help appreciated

 

[John Aston]

If - IF - you are confident fish are present in the stretch then you need to concentrate on exact location and presentation more than anything else.

Don't imagine pike are always in deep, slow water in wintertime , they will be where the prey is , or very close by . If that means the dace or grayling are in a three foot glide then fish it. Keep on the move too , because if a pike is going to hit your lure it is far, far more likely to do so on the first cast than the fifth , let alone the twentieth . I fan cast a swim , one cast at each point of the clock, and then move.

Presentation - most people fish too fast . Slow it down , let the lure sink to the bottom and tweak it back . For this type of fishing, I use paddletails (often only 7-9 cm ) on 1/0 jig hooks and rather larger shad baits . Big lures doesn't necessarily mean bigger fish - but they always mean more disturbance The key is to avoid mechanically casting and retrieving and imagining how your bait looks to a fish . Build in pauses, let the lure breathe, be stealthy and find your own rhythm . There is some useful stuff on YouTube but some of it is dire and it is often entirely irrelevant to the water you're fishing .

There is a tendency for some to fish absurdly heavy tackle - I use heavy braid to reduce lure loss but my rods are relatively light . In clear water I use (cue hate mail from PAC) beefed up perch gear for my pike ( typically 4- 8lbs with the odd low double ) and it's fine , barely taking any longer to land a fish than on my 'proper ' pike gear. Using it enables me to fish with less disturbance and with smaller lures all of which are on singles BTW

Finally time of day - it isn't compulsory to be out at dawn or dusk . Most of my pike are caught between 1 and 4 .

 

[ian g]

Great reply , I struggle with lure fishing myself . I enjoy it but the results aren't great . I'm targeting perch but have similar results . I know the fish are there , I catch a few on worms.

 

[John Aston]

Try dropshot lobworm on a decent big hook (I use Fox dropshot size 1s and they are excellent). It is deadly - as long as you can find the perch . And there is the problem - they rarely stay anywhere long and while chub swims are a thing , perch swims aren't . They don't read the articles wanging on about 'structure' (or 'features ' in old money ) and nearly every big perch I catch is in open water .Here today , somewhere else tomorrow ...

 

[ian g]

I know a good few swims on the Severn where perch are fairly resident but another factor you touched on is feeding times , I have sometimes sat for a long period and then almost by magic they feed with abandon , never sure if they have just moved in or just switched on , I suppose if we knew all the answers we'd take up golf

 

[keora]

You may not be doing well because we've had some lengthy cold spells this winter compared with last year. If the water temperature is consistently below about 4 degrees C, fishing in general can be difficult. In three pike trips I've had just two takes.

Have you tried the slower stretches of the river, especially those where part sunken trees obstruct the current. How about float fishing with deadbaits - sprats, small smelt or half sardines.

 

[Dry_net_Norm]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. I've probably learned more tonight than I have in the last 4 months trolling YouTube, which as you said, can be irrelevant to where I will be fishing.
I think what in starting to understand is that my issue is simply finding where the fish are. On my last trip I even put on some micro spinner baits in the hope that would open up some more options for me, but again I didn't get a sniff.
I feel that I say least think I know where the pike might be. Ive lost count of the about of times I've said to myself 'there's definitely going to be one hiding in there'
Thanks for the tips on the retrieve, I'll definitely try a more measured approach next time!
One thing I do struggle with is the river flow. If I cast downstream of the bank I'm on, and retrieve against the flow, great, but anything upstream then the current takes control of the lure and doesn't allow it to act as it should.
Any tips for that? Heavier jig head? Only fish downstream?
Again, thanks for the reply, I'm day here taking it in like a sponge convinced I'll catch something next Monday

 

[Dry_net_Norm]

You may not be doing well because we've had some lengthy cold spells this winter compared with last year. If the water temperature is consistently below about 4 degrees C, fishing in general can be difficult. In three pike trips I've had just two takes.

Have you tried the slower stretches of the river, especially those where part sunken trees obstruct the current. How about float fishing with deadbaits - sprats, small smelt or half sardines.

One of my sessions I did drop a deadbait in the slacks, but the river was raging so I didn't hold out much hope, but I got the experience of setting up my rig etc which is all part of the fun.
What I did notice though is every time I pulled in the bait, it was crawling with crayfish. Maybe a crawfish lure is the way forward!

 

[Ray Roberts]

Fish aren’t evenly spread evenly throughout any fishery, neither do they feed constantly throughout the day. The best advice as others have said is to move around from swim to swim.

Unless you have a follow, or an aborted take, then half a dozen casts in more swims is far more productive than thrashing the same swim to foam.

If you have an aborted take, then a few more casts can be productive. Last Sunday I had two pike miss/not get hooked at their first attempt, but I caught them both a short while later. On the same trip, I fished from around 10am until 4pm and covered around three miles, although due to running out of light, I only fished about one and a half miles. I have done similar on the same venue a fair number of times, and a pattern starts to emerge.

The first fish this trip came on the fourth cast, fairly near the beginning of the fishery. I didn’t have another fish for the best part of a mile. Previous trips have been similar too. The middle part of the fishery has, so far anyway, been fairly unproductive. The far end of the fishery has a fairly wide side channel entering from the far bank. Probably eighty percent of the pike at this venue that I caught, have been caught near to these two hot spots which cover less than a hundred and fifty yards combined.

There is a thread on this site by the late Derek Gibson, which as far as I’m concerned anyway, is the best thread ever on this site about lure fishing for pike. It may not cover the particular type of fishing you do, but most of the principles are the same. In fact reading, and to a small extent contributing to it, inspired me to have a crack at lure fishing for myself.

What I would advise; is that if you find a particularly good spot then keep it to yourself. Derek, in his thread, mentions this, and my own experiences bear it out.

A few years ago I did a work party on a club lake. It was late autumn and I mentioned to the club president that I was off for a few hours lure fishing, once we were finished. He mentioned a couple of swims on a nearby river that were reputed to be very good. I went straight there and had it off. I had forty perch and four pike in a couple of hours. Stupidly, I mentioned this on the club f/ book page and the places have been hammered ever since. Not a mistake I will repeat.

 

[John Aston]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. I've probably learned more tonight than I have in the last 4 months trolling YouTube, which as you said, can be irrelevant to where I will be fishing.
I think what in starting to understand is that my issue is simply finding where the fish are. On my last trip I even put on some micro spinner baits in the hope that would open up some more options for me, but again I didn't get a sniff.
I feel that I say least think I know where the pike might be. Ive lost count of the about of times I've said to myself 'there's definitely going to be one hiding in there'
Thanks for the tips on the retrieve, I'll definitely try a more measured approach next time!
One thing I do struggle with is the river flow. If I cast downstream of the bank I'm on, and retrieve against the flow, great, but anything upstream then the current takes control of the lure and doesn't allow it to act as it should.
Any tips for that? Heavier jig head? Only fish downstream?
Again, thanks for the reply, I'm day here taking it in like a sponge convinced I'll catch something next Monday

If you are fishing jig heads they may feel fine when retrieved from downstream but they are invariably fishing high in the water and as such often of little interest to a fish , assuming they can even see it. But don't think so much about retrieving a lure as working it - and that means in an up and down plane too. Fishing a jig on my local rivers (pacey in winter ) I am using a 5-7g head and - critically - I am not fishing it downstream but at an angle of 45 degrees UP , and sometimes parallel to the bank in slacks. It will sink nicely and be so much easier to work .

 

[ian g]

Slightly off topic , my first real experience of lure fishing was on a local mere . The water was crystal clear and the mere had a great head of perch . I mainly fished shads or mepps spinners but to be honest anything would get hit . The water clarity meant that I could see the perch hitting the lure with a few more fishing following , often the fish one would come off and a second fish would hit the lure . Water clarity made a real difference here.

 

[john step]

All good advice. One is never too old to learn a trick or two.
I had a session on the Witham recently. All the usual pike looking hold ups were unproductive. Parked boats, pier stantions , trees etc. I cast a deadbait into the full flow and bang. Four runs and 3 pike. All took with gusto.

 

[Ray Roberts]

The place I was fishing is fairly devoid of any obvious features, except a few low scrubby bushes on my bank and a couple of semi fallen trees on the far bank. The most productive areas don’t look anything special.

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[keora]

There's plenty of advice on this site. Look at the articles in the sections Tactics and Lures.

Lure Fishing UK

 

[Dry_net_Norm]

If you are fishing jig heads they may feel fine when retrieved from downstream but they are invariably fishing high in the water and as such often of little interest to a fish , assuming they can even see it. But don't think so much about retrieving a lure as working it - and that means in an up and down plane too. Fishing a jig on my local rivers (pacey in winter ) I am using a 5-7g head and - critically - I am not fishing it downstream but at an angle of 45 degrees UP , and sometimes parallel to the bank in slacks. It will sink nicely and be so much easier to work .

That's really interesting advice. I felt that fishing downstream was getting the most of of the lure, but as you say, I'm sure it was pulling it up in the water, possibly away for where I wanted it to be

 

[Dry_net_Norm]

All good advice. One is never too old to learn a trick or two.
I had a session on the Witham recently. All the usual pike looking hold ups were unproductive. Parked boats, pier stantions , trees etc. I cast a deadbait into the full flow and bang. Four runs and 3 pike. All took with gusto.

This blows my mind . I would never ever think to do a dead bait in the flow. In fact I'm actually a little unsure if when to fish around with lures and when to decide to drop in a dead bait and stay put for a few hours. I guess the common advice here is try it and see!

 

[Dry_net_Norm]

The place I was fishing is fairly devoid of any obvious features, except a few low scrubby bushes on my bank and a couple of semi fallen trees on the far bank. The most productive areas don’t look anything special.
View attachment 25971


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Looks very tranquil the big difference I notice from this and where one been in the Derwent is the flow, it's pretty rapid in points. I've been looking for slow spots and slacks, hopefully if we have a few weeks of no rain then this will help me search!

 

[john step]

Looks very tranquil the big difference I notice from this and where one been in the Derwent is the flow, it's pretty rapid in points. I've been looking for slow spots and slacks, hopefully if we have a few weeks of no rain then this will help me search!

Bare this in mind. Look at the shape of pike. Long lean and perfectly capable of lying on the bottom where the current is lighter than the top, letting the flow go over its back.
One of the best places to fish for pike is a weir pool!

When you have built up a picture over time on your own stretch then thats the time to stay put for longer. Until then best to explore and find those areas.
I have always found a lure is best to explore even if takes dont occur but just "follows". Poloroids are a must.

Those waggly tailed rubber things are brilliant and cheap but dont ignore a lure like the old Big S that floats and dives when retrieved. One can be drifted down to likely places then slowly pulled back or in fact be left to hover in the current.

 

[John Aston]

This blows my mind . I would never ever think to do a dead bait in the flow. In fact I'm actually a little unsure if when to fish around with lures and when to decide to drop in a dead bait and stay put for a few hours. I guess the common advice here is try it and see!

The other thing to try is a combination of both - by using a deadbait, but keeping it on the move . Drifted across the flow , slowly retrieved in slacks and fished static when you need a coffee. On my rivers , a quarter ounce bomb or less is often enough to fish the bait well but you do need to stay in very close touch so as to detect every pull and tweak.

I think we still endure the legacy of old folklore about where pike live - invariably in deep and slack 'pike 'oles ' on the river. They live near where they catch their dinner and sometimes that is a two foot deep glide at the tail of a pool , or in a crease next to fast water . In summer months I used to get a lot of pike on plugs (or crankbaits as we seem to call them now ) from snaggy , shaded and shallow backwaters off the main flow - where I assume they had just gone to chill out .

Just as with perch, pike do not always live where generations of anglers and some angling hacks say they do. Explore- you will be surprised .