Formerly Loughborough Fishing

Sunday 26 May 2013

Fish in distress

I went fishing for a few hours today on the canal at Swingbridge Road. The fishing was terrible, caught one very small chub on maggot - but the boat traffic was unbelievable. 

As I was fishing by the reeds, I spotted a large fish in the reeds, wiggling around but not moving anywhere. I assumed it was a spawning fish so left it alone for a few minutes, but it had not moved ten minutes later. I had found loads of loose thick monofilament line all over the floor around the area - picking them up to take home for the bin - and so began to think that the large fish could be wrapped up in loose line. Fortunately I had a landing net with me, and putting the net under the fish I could feel resistance from the reeds - it was trapped in loose line. I pulled up reeds that were moving as I tried lifting the net and eventually managed to free the fish from the reeds at least. 

I got the fish on the bank and immediately found thick monofilament wrapped around the fishes head and behind the pectoral fins. The fish was obviously in a lot of distress so I quickly cut line from around its body and freed it. 

3 pound bream free of line

I took the picture above and then released it back into the water. It must have been trapped for some time, as it can be seen in the picture that there is a large amount of swelling around where the line was tight. 

There was no hook in sight, so it was not a fish that had snapped off a light line. This was caused by pure negligence and laziness of so called 'anglers' leaving loose line lying around, it getting caught up in reeds and then fish getting wrapped up and potentially killed. 

TAKE LOOSE LINE HOME AND CHUCK IT IN THE BIN

Some may be thinking the trap could have been intentionally set by a poacher. Well it happens around here, there were signs of poaching in the area - i.e. sticks stuck in the bank side to hold nets - but from the way it was all just tangled up in the reeds I do not think it was intentional. Of course it could have been collateral from poachers chucking loose line around without a care in the world, one likes to hope anglers take more care. 

Next time you get a birds nest on your reel and you cut it off - put it in your pocket, please. Or you're worse than a poacher - killing fish out of pure contempt.  

"Bitchin' Twitchin' " lure making update

I finally got around to assembling some of the spoons I had made into rigs. See the post below for details on the concept and how I made the spoons.

The picture below shows the 3 perch coloured spoons I made.

Homemade lures

The top rig is built as the bitchin' twitchin' concept from the totally awesome fishing show (youtube it) and is designed to be fished with a sprat held by the single hook through the upper jaw and the treble in the back of the fish. The spoon flutters in front of the sprat, and creates the illusion of a large bait fish chasing a smaller fish. This scenario is an ideal ambush situation for a predator, who takes the larger fish that is distracted. 

The two rigs below are set up as spoon rigs as I am so impressed with the look of the painted spoon that I think predators will go for the spoon on its own. I also added the tail end of a rubber grub, to add extra flutter and appeal to the spoon. Finally, the plastic spoon is set to just hit against the top of the treble hooks, which creates a very loud and noticeable rattle as it flutters around - alerting any predators in the vicinity of the lure. 

Homemade perch spoons

I am still in the process of painting up some different designs on other spoons I have created, and will post pictures of those when I am finished.

If anyone has any questions on how the lures were made or rigged, ask in a comment below. 

Wednesday 8 May 2013

"Bitchin' Twitchin' " lure making

I haven't been fishing for ages - way too much work to do for uni. However I have been spending a few minutes each day making lures which I thought I would post about.

Before I start, the idea came from the 'Totally Awesome Fishing Show' on Youtube, link: Totally awesome fishing show - bitchin' twitchin' rig
This video is definitely worth a watch as well as all of the other videos on their channel.

Basically the rig is a standard twitched sprat with a spoon ahead of the sprat - to act as an extra attraction for predators. The spoon can be made very cheaply from plastic disposable teaspoons - I got some from ebay for about a pound. 

Plastic teaspoon

Breaking the handle off at the base, the spoon blade is left. The rough edge is sanded down with emery paper I got from Wilkinsons for hardly anything. A small hole is drilled in the handle-end of the spoon. I don't have a drill with me so I improvised and used the peeler on my swiss army knife. The hole is about 2mm diameter. 

Spoon blade with hole

The inventor of this rig then used this blade on the rig. However, I think to take it a bit further, the blade could be painted with different designs that may be more of an attraction - just to experiment with.

For example, perch-like lures tend to work very well for predators. I used some old Humbrol enamel paints to create a perch pattern on some blades.

Homemade perch designs

I used a clear red to give the impression of a bleeding fish, which lets the light from the reflective surface through surprisingly well. 

I think the painted lures look awesome - although I might be a bit biased. I am definitely looking forward to trying them at some point soon. I may even scrap the sprat part of the rig entirely and just use the painted spoon blade itself as the lure. 

I will be painting a few more different designs over the next few days, and will post with pictures when I have finished them and rigged them up. 

Here is an example of one I am half way through:

Current project

I have painted the whole blade with the clear red and I intend to put some orange stripes and black dots on top - inspired by the 'Hot mustard muddler' Rapala colour scheme. 

If I am feeling ambitious one day I might try and paint a scale pattern on a silver blade - I'll see how it goes.

I hope if you read this I can inspire you to try making sure lures yourself - I enjoy it and I can imagine catching a fish on a homemade lure will feel a million times better than on something bought from a shop.

To be continued...