Today marks the end of my first month’s fishing after an absence of 40 years.
So what have I achieved, where have I failed and what have I learned?
Missed Bites & Flurocarbon Fails
The first day – 4th August 2023 – started my learning curve with a bang! Full of anticipation and wielding my new rod togged out with braided line, fluorocarbon leader and a bright new size 4, 3 gram jighead I made my first cast.
Manipulating the jig as I had learned from viewing YouTube videos, I soon had my first bite. And missed it.
Many casts and several missed bites later, I hooked something! And then it let go – the hook wasn’t set.
I have to admit, I was feeling pretty frustrated, but enjoying the excitement of fishing with a new method and getting bites, so I continued.
Small River Carp
I then hooked something of a nice size and we had a fair old fight – when I got him near the bank and within netting distance he bolted and – PING! – my leader snapped. I had a glimpse of him – a nice looking river Carp.
I set up again and hit another fish, but he seemed to let go – after winding in I saw that the hook knot had come undone.
River Pike Breaks FC Leader
Still feeling confident, I tied up a new jig and continued. This time I had a smashing take and an exciting fight, I brought the fish in to the margins hoping to be able to net him – although my net was far too small – he bolted and PING! the leader snapped. This time it was a Pike of perhaps 80 to 90cm.
I thought perhaps the leader had caught his teeth and given way but, no, it had snapped at the knot joining the leader to the braid.
Results of the first day’s fishing: 5 fish hooked, none landed. Fail!
Day 2
After thinking a lot about those lost fish, I came to the conclusion that, apart from the weaknesses of my FC leaders, I needed to concentrate more on my striking.
Perch on a Jig
I only hooked one fish in the morning session but my confidence grew when I actually managed to land the little Perch – my first fish for 40 years!
Pike on Micro Jig
In the afternoon session I missed a couple of takes and decided to change to a little Fox Rage 4cm micro grub tail lure – the same style as my first day’s lost Pike took.
On my first cast I hooked a snag and, after freeing my hook, I wound in to find I had two jigs attached – the one I was fishing and, tangled up with it, the one I’d used to hook the previous days Pike.
On my second cast I had a take and managed to set the hook.
The ensuing fight was epic, the fish tore off downstream and, when I turned him, rocketed up stream heading for the bigger snags – tree roots etc. – I turned him again and once in the main flow in front of me he leapt out of the water. Twice.
On my third attempt I managed to get him in my little landing net – note to self: buy a bigger net!
Once on the bank I measured him – a beautiful 67cm Pike on 6lb fluorocarbon leader.
Results of the second day’s fishing: 2 fish hooked, 2 landed. Success!
The Next Couple of Weeks
Over the next days I had some enjoyable success on jigs, ledgered bread and sweetcorn and freelined bread and sweetcorn including some very nice Chub up to 47cm, more Pike – one of 62cm which took a single grain of sweetcorn on a size 14 hook, Vimba to 36cm, Dace, Roach and a few other small species.
A Successful Month?
So all-in-all I consider the first month to have been a success. Especially as all these fish came from the same swim using the same rod and reel.