"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...

Fish of a lifetime - lost

It has been many many years since I nearly cried because of a fish. The last time was losing my first ever big carp at Sherwood Forest Center Parcs. Today I felt exactly the same, unfortunately I don't have any evidence for this story so its up to you whether you believe it.

This morning was beautiful weather, due to get worse the next few days so I thought I'd give my awesome Husky Jerk Rapala lure another go on the canal, see post below for pic and details. Anyway, I wasn't getting any action in my usual spots, so I jigged a rubber grub for some perch just to ensure I didn't blank (unimaginable!). After 3 perch around a pound each I decided to go back to the Husky Jerk and try some different spots, in case I was missing some good areas. 

I had a take, and I could instantly feel that it was not a pike, it just fought completely differently. It was a big fish - stripping line off quite a tight clutch, and I knew whatever it was would be special. I saw a flash of bronze flank and initially thought it could be a carp - but then as I saw it better I realised it was in fact an enormous chub - easily pushing 4 pounds, probably more.

Now I travel very light as it is a long walk to the canal for me, and I don't use a landing net, as pike are fairly easy to pull out of the water by grabbing them under the gill flap. However, I really regret not having a landing net with me, as if I had this post would have been totally different and covered in pictures of me beaming holding an enormous chub. I tried to grab it out of the water with my hand but it was too fat to fit around. The 10 cm long lure looked small in its mouth - and as I was trying to get a hold it managed to shake the hooks loose and escape - also making me regret flattening down the hook barbs. 

I'm sorry but I'm not saying where this occurred - I will definitely be going back to try and have another chance, and I don't want someone else to get there first. But now you and I know there are some very special fish in the canal, in some places that I didn't expect. 

Somehow I can't see myself bettering that fish for a long long time, but I would love to be proven wrong. 

Grand Union Canal, 10/04/13

Its been unbelievably long since the last bit of nice weather, so the wind dropping and temperatures rising was always going to produce a good days fishing. 

With the river close season in place, obviously I would be hitting the canal. Fishing along the Bishop's Meadow and Swingbridge sections with mixed maggots and worm produced a good mix of silver bream, perch, roach, dace and bleak. Boat traffic was a major major issue, with everyone in the East Midlands who owns a boat deciding it was a nice day to go for a jolly through my nicely baited up swims, but I suppose it will have to be early morning or evening sessions from now on to avoid this. 

I have been watching ebay recently for great deals on Rapala lures, which are supposed to be the creme de la creme of the lure fishing world. I recently picked up a Husky Jerk (HJ-10) for about 3 pounds, and thought I'd give it a try out for some pike. 

Husky Jerk Rapala lure

The picture above was taken when I got home, those observant might have noticed some quite large teeth marks and scratches on it. Literally using this lure for half an hour before going home I hooked 3 pike, getting 2 on the bank.

4 pound jack pike

Moi and pike

The first pike was measured at about 4 pounds and the second was a bit smaller. The last one I hooked was a beast but unfortunately threw the hook. I do flatten all the barbs down on my lures - it may mean I lose occasional fish but I'd rather that than damage a good fish or snag up and lose the lure. I use 30 pound braid so I can bend the hooks straight on a snag for this eventuality. I certainly don't want to lose my new Husky Jerk lure!

Anyway, it was a good day, could have been much better without the barges barging through all day long but never mind.

As a side note - paid £27 for my new rod licence - why no discount for students? I am the only student who goes in the local tackle shop, which is less than a mile from the University, and I am sure people would give it a try if it was cheaper for beginners. Looking forward to reaching the OAP concession, in 44 years and £1188 time, assuming no price raise, which would be silly. 

Rubber pike strikes again

With the first warm weather for a few weeks, I thought I'd take a few lures along to the canal to see if I could catch a large perch that I have been wanting for a while. There are definitely large specimen perch in the canal and river Soar around Loughborough; I have seen one being caught before. 

The lure I decided to use was a little rubber waggly thing (I really don't know that much about lures yet), and from a range of wonderful colours I went for a silver one, as common sense tells me that a fish will probably take something that looks like normal food over something that doesn't... 

Silver rubber waggly lure thing

As I was going for perch, I fished just off a lock wierpool wall where perch tend to hide in the shadows and strike out at little fish passing by. I simply let the lure sink to the bottom, and jigged it up and down between half depth and full depth. This resulted in loads of bites - obviously lots of small perch that couldn't swallow the lure beyond the hook point. 

I managed to hook 4 perch in all, the biggest being a fat lump of around one and a half pounds.

Lure caught perch

After a while I noticed a large shoal of small fish being spooked in the middle of the canal. This could have been perch, but I guessed from the mass panic that it would be a pike. I changed lures to my trusty rubber pike (shown in a post below) and ran the lure through the area. On the second cast, the pike stuck. After a good fight, this turned out to be a fish of around 6 pounds. 

6 pound pike

I have caught 3 pike now on the same lure, all in a similar area. I briefly wondered if I might have had the same pike twice as they are territorial, but the size differences have been too big and the markings are different looking at pictures taken. 

I seem to be getting the hang of this lure fishing stuff, still looking for a zander as the ultimate target though!

Another pike

This afternoon I had a couple of hours to spare, and as it was wonderful weather I thought I'd have another go at lure fishing the canal - my second time of doing so, read about the first below.

I was hoping for a personal best perch, pike, or maybe even a first zander. 

Over a couple of hours, I hooked two fish, one came off but was quite small and felt like a perch. The other take resulted in a nice jack pike of about 3 pounds. 

3 pound jack pike

I wasn't expecting a great deal today, I spent a lot of time playing with different techniques to make the lure behave in different ways. 

The lure I have been catching pike on is a rubber artificial baby pike lure, with a jerky retrieving method. 

Baby pike lure

Today was great for improving lure retrieval techniques and for improving casting accuracy. Hopefully next time I can catch an even bigger specimen, there are pike rumoured to reach 20 pounds in the area! A zander is my main species target now, as I have until June before moving back to Middlesbrough, and they don't get that far north.