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I assume that there are plenty of people out there who, like me, have never ventured into this increasingly popular aspect of our sport. So it seemed quite a good idea to give a blow by blow account of how I made my first faltering steps into this brave new world. I will not be attempting to baffle people with clever talk – indeed, as I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t know how too. What I will do, however, is give an honest appraisal of how I fared. So in advance, I make no apologies for my lack of knowledge on the subject. In fact I hope my total lack of understanding will be what makes the articles interesting.
Please feel free to comment……The Forum is at your disposal!
Part 4 – Choosing my lures (cont)
In my previous article I described how the types of lures I wouldbe using were split into the following categories:
- Crankbaits
- Jerkbaits
- Spoons
- Spinnerbaits
- Soft Plastic baits
Having previously covered the crankbaits, jerkbaits and spoons Iwill now attempt to justify buying the strangest items of my everincreasing lure collection. The spinnerbaits and soft plastic baits(Rubbers).
Again, the following is a breakdown of what I finally bought andthe intended use for each of them. Once again, I would welcome somefeedback on the forum, as I’m sure I will have got a lot of thiswrong, And I would greatly appreciate any advice that any lureanglers reading this could give me.
Rubbers
Well, here was I thinking that having fun with rubbers was a thing ofthe past – not so!
Unfortunately the rubbers I’m talking about here would be boughtfrom a tackle shop and not the toilets of your localpub……….although the names arepretty similar!
From what I can gather nearly all ‘rubbers’ are imported fromAmerica where they were originally designed to capture bass, but weremodified from small ‘grub’ patterns into much larger lures used by’muskie’ fishermen.
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| Orange, Springdawg – Orange/Green, Ugly Joe – Orange |
One of the most interesting aspects of these baits is the feel ofthem. They actually feel more like jelly that rubber and are so softthat once two or three pike are captured on these, its usually enoughto shred the lures into nothing more than a useless lump of jelly.Sometimes all it took was one missed take to destroy a rubber lure asmy boat partner; Eric was soon to find out to his apparent dismay!
So, selling at about £ 13 each they would have to be prettydamn good to make me part with some hard earned cash. Unfortunatelythey are, so out came the wallet again.
Bulldawg
Everything I had read up to this point told me that if I could onlyuse one type of lure then it should be this. In the last couple ofyears this strange creation has took the lure-fishing world by storm.In recent times this lure has probably resulting in putting more fishon the bank than any other type or pattern.
I ordered two of these via mail order. A flouro orange and arainbow trout pattern. The orange for coloured water and the dullertrout pattern for clear conditions. I bought the medium sizedversion, which weighs around 3oz and although it can be used oneither a crank or jerkbait setup I intended to use one on my jerkbaitrod. Although its stocky body, bulbous head and long curly tailresemble nothing that swims, once retrieved in the water you canactually see its appeal to predatory fish. As the bulldawg isweighted a jerky retrieve caused it to rise and fall invitingly withthe long tail pulsing vibrantly giving for all the world theimpression of it being ‘alive’. One thing I didn’t really like wasthat the rear treble was no more than half the way down its body andas such I was worried that fish would ‘come short’ of the lure,snapping or hitting the tail section and thus not gaining a hook up.I have since been told of a method of modifying the lure to set thetreble further back but have not yet attempted to alter thedesign.
This really is a versatile lure it can be cranked, jerked or evenjigged, in fact I’m told it is often taken on the drop as the lure isbeing counted down to the required depth. I suppose given all thegood press this particular lure had received, I had already decidedto give this one a real good try once I was finally fishing atBlithfield.
Springdawg
This is basically a smaller version of the bulldawg. It is muchlighter (around 1.5oz) and as such can easily be cast and worked witha crankbait rod rather than needing to use a jerkbait set up. I alsofancied using this one if the fish were coming short to larger luresor were generally a bit sluggish as they can be prior to spawning inearly spring.
It has just the one large treble mid-way along its underside so Imodified mine by crimping a second smaller treble to some wire thencrimping this to the slit ring on the first treble before nicking thesecond one into its tail. Again this was to hopefully snare any fishthat decided to nip at its tail and gave me much more confidence inthe lures effectivness.
I chose a green/orange pattern in the springdawg, for the highlytechnical reason that I liked the look of it.
Ugly Joe
Another big gaudy lump of rubber which I bought mail order, the chapin the ‘Friendly Fisherman’ rated this one higher than the ‘bulldawg’and strongly recommended the largest pattern which must be around 10″long. Unlike the ‘Bulldawg’ the ‘Ugly Joe’ is actually shaped like afish, with twin tails instead of the single longer one on the ‘dawg’.This one I found didn’t cast as well as the ‘dawg’ but had a niceaction when ‘jerked’ hard. This caused the twin tails to pulse andthe main body to rise and fall invitingly.
Another one bought in bright orange – I hope these big girls likebright patterns or I’ve got quite a few useless lumps of wood,plastic and rubber in my box !
In the water it actually looked like one of those fancy goldfish(I think they are called comets) that you could buy in garden centresor pet shops.
Spinnerbaits
Just when I thought I had finished spending I remembered my first bitof advice:
“Make sure you have a few spinnerbaits, they may look stupid butthey can be devastating on their day”
Sod that, I thought. I’ve spentenough………. Then again, what if Eric startscatching on them and I haven’t got any. Oh well, in for a penny infor a pound (or two). This time its Dave Lumb’s mail order firm thatget an ear bashing off me. I must say at this point that Dave wasreally helpful and freely gave me plenty of advise (which I neededdesperately and soon I’m the proud owner of three bent coat hangerswith fluorescent squid and silver blades hanging off them. They werecalled marauders and came in a variety of weights, colours andpatters.
Along with these I scrounged a couple off Eric which he hadbrought back from Spain, of all places, and had used with somesuccess.
OK that’s about it for the lures, but I also needed to buy someother bits and pieces.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
Traces
Again I bought these from Dave Lumb, ready made. They were whipped ortwisted very neatly using 60lb wire for the crankbaits and 90lb wirefor the jerkbait set-ups. This was much heavier than my usual 20 -30lb wire I generally used for dead and livebaiting. However, I hadbeen assured by several experienced lure anglers that the thickertrace did not deter from the lures action, was much less prone tokinking once a fish was hooked and perhaps most importantly, wasstiff enough not to tangle with the trebles when the lure was beingworked in the water. I am told this can be a major problem,especially when jerkbaiting with supple wire.
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| Split Ring Pliers |
Long Nosed Pliers
As the size, and hence gauge of the hooks on the lures I would beusing were much larger than for bait fishing, my usual, arteryforceps would be useless. Unable to produce the required leverage toextract large hooks from bony-mouthed fish I purchased a set of longnosed pliers from B&Q for around £ 5.
Mini Bolt Croppers
A tremendous and invaluable tool if fish welfare is to be treatedwith any kind of importance. These little babies’s cut through thestrongest of trebles like it was a dry twig and were also bought fromB&Q for under a tenner. A hooked fish can be quickly freed fromthe hook without pulling the large barbs back through the fish’smouth. I just snip and protruding trebles off whilst the fish is inthe net and the lure then just falls out. I find them particularlyuseful when lure fishing as a fish, once netted can cause terribledamage to the net, but more importantly to itself if it is allowed totwist within the net. The mesh snares the trailing trebles and pullsthem into the fish as the pike rolls. By instantly cropping thetrebles whilst the fish is still hooked in the net, this problem isall but eliminated.
Fish welfare must come first, remember a couple of trebles comecheap, probably around 50 pence. Large pike are rare and fragilecreatures and deserve to be returned in the same immaculate conditionthat they are caught.
I must confess to not having a pair prior to starting lure fishingbut I can see what a big mistake I have beenmaking…..do yourself, and the pike a favour – buysome.
Split Ring Pliers
It was only after Eric had seen both my thumbnails split and bloodiedthat he told me about this clever little tool – thanks mate ! It isbasically just a pair of small pliers with one of the sharpened tipsbent through 90 degrees and inverted onto the other. This allows itto be inserted into a split ring sufficiently to either work an oldtreble out or a new one in – great little invention.
Hook Sharpener
This one speaks for itself really. I bought one on a little lanyardto make it easily accessible whilst I was fishing. As most of thelures I bought were had quite large hooks I spent the evening priorto fishing at home sharpening all the points. Although most of themwere probably sufficient, if I only got one change I wanted it tocount.
Whilst fishing I also regularly checked my hooks, especially afterfeeling my lure hit bottom and re-sharpened as required.
Swimfeeder Lead Strips
These self adhesive strips of lead were designed to increase theweight of feeders for river fisherman but I found they made anexcellent little fine tuning accessory allowing you to increase therate of sink and even the action of your lure with very little fuss.I have never actually put this theory into practice, but feel sure itwill work.
That just about covers all the extra gear I purchased for my eightdays on Blithfield reservoir. Items such as anchors, scales, landingnets, etc I already owned and am familiar with so I will make theassumption that I do not need to discuss these items in this seriesof articles. Hopefully I will get to see that it has all been moneywell spent and will continue to use lures on other venues as analternative method. Maybe I will come to enjoy lure fishing a lotmore than I do at present, I certainly hope so. I suppose what Ireally need is a confidence booster. A couple of ‘clunkers’ would gosome way to doing that.
My time on Blithfield was now approaching fast; I was to fish foreight days in total, comprising of four sets of two consecutive days.The last of my gear was assembled on day prior to my fist trip and Ihad now done everything I could conceivably think of to push the oddsa little in my favour. Despite the continued torrential rain andhowling winds I was as exited as a five year old on Christmas Eve, atthis stage there was still some doubt as to whether the reservoirwould be fishable – tomorrow would show if all my efforts had been invain.
Lured into Lure Fishing – Part 5 – ‘Blithfield – Days 1 and2’
