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Archive for May, 2009

Kayak fishing for Cod again.

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

We have been lucky up here lately, for the last week or so we’ve had some lovely settled weather meaning the sea had been nice and flat, well, on the morning’s anyway. Not one to miss a chance to take advantage of a calm sea I arranged to meet two kayaking buddies Matty & Ben for a morning’s Cod fishing. Matty arrived at sunrise as he had to be back early where as I had a little lay in arriving at 6.30am, unloaded and setup the kayak. I decided to troll a lure on the way out in the hope that there maybe a Bass or two about but it’s still a bit early in the season up here for Bass fishing, they can’t be far away though.

A 25min paddle out later and I had found Matty just finishing his last drift of the morning, unfortunately he had to pack up a bit earlier than expected due to his Scupper Pro kayak giving him back problems. Matty had landed two Codling and lost 7-8 more including some “better fish”, obviously a few fish about so myself and Ben were hopeful of a few fish.

The cliffs of the North Yorkshire coastline

We still had about one hour remaining of the flooding tide so I decided to do a one mile drift then follow the ebbing tide back, it makes life a lot easier rather than continually paddling against the tide to start new drifts. The drift started with nothing much happening apart from getting snagged and loosing my first set of gear. I drifted about 400yds before latching into my first fish, after a spirited fight a nice plump little Cod of about 3.5-4lb came up through the clear sea. Not a bad start to the day so I was pleased, I heard Ben on the VHF radio telling Matty that he had landed his first fish of the day as well at 4lb+. I continued drifting for a further 350yds before I had my second fish, it felt a little better than the Cod putting up a good fight from 70ft below. To my surprise it was a Ling, my first ever Ling as well so I was very pleased. A strange looking fish the Ling, if you haven’t seen one before think of them as a stretched Cod

We had reached slack water (high tide) and the end of my first drift of the day, it was a big tide so we knew we wouldn’t have to wait long before the tide swung round and we could start drifting north. Whilst waiting for the tide to change we headed ashore to stretch our legs and have a bite to eat. Paddling in we could see what was remaining from a recent rock fall, it’s not very often we have a large rock falls but when they go you really don’t want to be anywhere near it!

A recent rock fall

By the time we had finished our snack break the tide had turned and bringing a slight SE wind with it, with the tide and wind working together we were drifting rather fast so a drogue was deployed to slow the drift to the same speed as the tide. Fishing wasn’t exactly hectic but I managed a few more Codling to 3lb but they were all returned to fight another day. We were a few hours into the ebbing tide by now and the fishing had slowed down so we decided to work an area a little further north, we started the new drift and within minutes I was into a decent fish which promptly feel off, checked the terminal tackle and dropped back down. Drifted 30yds and bang was into another fish, it put up a good fight and a nice 5lb Cod came to the surface. It was my biggest of the day so I was very happy, unfortunately just when we seemed to of found the fish the wind had picked up to the point that we had to make our way back in. Maybe we could of stayed out a little longer but when white caps are forming on the surface you know it’s time to make a move. The wind was expected so we weren’t caught out, it was an interesting paddle back ashore though with waves crashing over into the kayak but was also fun surfing the waves so not all bad news.

I finished the morning session with 7 Cod and a Ling (only kept two Cod) where as Ben managed the biggest of the day with a nice cod of 7lb 4oz, a new pb for Ben so he was a happy chappy

A nice little 3lb+ Codling taken on a 4oz jig

A nice Codling taken on a 4oz jig

Paddling on the Yorkshire coast

Posted in Kayak fishing, Perch Fishing, Sea Fishing, Zandermania 2009 | No Comments »

Cod fishing on the Yorkshire coast

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

We had some nice weather forecast for the bank holiday, nice sunny days but more importantly nice calm seas. You have to go for whatever opportunities come along when kayak fishing as you never know when the next calm sea will be, 2008 was a terrible year as there seemed to be 3-4 week periods where you just couldn’t get out due to to poor conditions. The sea on both Sunday and Monday morning was like a mill pond, no wind at all so perfect for paddling which is a good job as we were fishing 2 miles out!

After meeting Matty and Mack at the car park we setup, launched and paddled out to the Cod grounds which are 1.5-2miles out in 65-95ft of water. By the time we reached the cod grounds a small breeze was following the tide so I setup the drogue to slow my drift down, if you drift to fast you will end up snagging up on the rough ground and loose a lot of gear. The terminal tackle of choice is a 4oz jighead with a 6″ curltail and two homemade hokkis above on a 2.5ft 20lb mono trace. The main line is Dynafil Braid I use braid so I can feel exactly what ground I’m fishing over, whether it be rock, sand, etc. The mono link acts a bit like a weaklink, when you snag up you will loose the jig/hokkis but not any mainline so all you have to do is clip on a new rig and away you go.

Making the 2 mile paddle out

The first drift produced a Cod for Matty of about 3-4lb but that was it, we decided to paddle back up tide for another drift but in slightly deeper water. It soon became apparent this was the right choice as we were all into fish, we were all landing Cod up to 4lb. Ok 4lb isn’t a huge fish but they provide excellent sport on the relative light gear plus you can get some decent fillets off a 4lb+ Cod. We made a few more drifts, Mack and myself landed 5 Cod each where as Matty landed 7. Overall we had a very enjoyable morning’s fishing, I headed back early to watch Formula One happy with my catch.

Looking back to shore

Monday morning was yet another fine day, clear blue sky with a nice flat calm sea. Today I was fishing with Ben and Kev, Ben is quite new to this kayak fishing marlarky so was looking forward at the chance of catching is second ever Cod. We met up at the car park at 7am and was on the water by 7.30am ready for the same 2 mile paddle out. I found the ground I thought would produce some fish where as Kev and Ben paddled a further 500yds to the 100ft+ of water and a bit more tide flow. The first drift didn’t produce anything so I headed 100yds further out and setup for a better drift. First drift aloing and I landed a 3-4lb Cod so I was happy with that, paddled back up to see if I can drift over the shoal again and prmoptly landed another cod of the same size. Paddled back again to try and repeat my luck but the shoal had moved off so no such luck this time.

A dinky Whiting taken on a homemade hokki

The next drift produced quite a few more sensitive knocks which turned out to be Whiting hitting the hokkis, I landed one but he was only a wee fella so slipped him back straight away. The remainder of the session was patchy at best, a few more Cod were had but they were well spaced out. Since we all had a few Cod we decided to call it a day and head back in, unfortunately we made that decision 30 mins to late as a strong off shore wind came out of no where. Offshore winds make the paddle back very hard going but we made it back eventually.

We now have plenty of Cod fillets in the freezer so it looks like it’s fish n chips for dinner for the next two weeks!!

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Piking with ‘Kato’

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Last Sunday I received a text from a mate of mine Pete from the Lure Anglers Society asking if I fancied an afternoon’s Piking, obviously I didn’t need asking twice so we arranged to meet at a venue that Pete hadn’t fished before (it’s always nice to try somewhere new). I was up early to make sure I had finished my work by late morning, the van was already loaded so I was ready to make a quick get away.

I arrived at the venue to find next to no one fishing which is always nice as I do like to have a bit of peace and quiet and the chance to fish the swims which are normally taken up by match and Carp anglers. Parked up, setup the rods and made my way to the first swim. Last time I fished here I had a fish first cast so couldn’t help but hope the same would happen, I clipped on my Perch pattern BBZ I painted the night before and hoped for the best. I made my first cast and made my steady retrieve with the odd pause added, nothing! Well that is no good is it, what’s the world coming to when you can’t catch a fish first cast!! Made the second cast to my right, got half way through the retrieve when bang! I had my first take of the day, I was very pleased as it meant my Perch BBZ worked but the Pike was only on for a second or two and was off. Ten more minutes in the swim trying a few other lures produced no more takes so a move was in order.

I decided to fish a swim I don’t normally get to fish due to usually being taken up by Carp anglers so I was looking forward to fishing some ‘virgin water’ (well, new to me anyway!). Since this swim had more open water I decided to switch over to the homemade Perch shaped lure made by Mart from the LAS, this lure casts really well allowing me to cover more of the open water. I had a lot of confidence in this lure after last week’s productive session, clipped it on and within 2 casts I was into a lively fish that seemed to like tail walking.

One of the better fish of the day

Quickly unhooked, took a quick photo and slipped her back safely. I cleaned off my hands, checked the trace, hooks, etc and started my fishing again. I must of moved the lure 10ft and I was into another fish straight away! This was a smaller fish of only 5lb or so but it provided great sport, unhooked and returned. I landed 4 Pike within 15 mins from the same spot plus a few missed takes so obviously there was a few Pike laying up in this spot.

Pete was due to arrive at anytime so I decided to head back up near to where the van was parked so I could look out for his arrival. I returned to the swim I started off at but there was no sign of activity, at which point Pete had just arrived so went over to greet him and have a quick spot of lunch.

With lunch over and Pete setup ready for fishing we made our way to the lake, I had been saving a swim for Pete and I that produced a lot of Pike the week earlier so I had high hopes that Pete would latch into a few Pike. Unfortunately there seemed to be a distinct lack of fish, best laid plans and all that. I was expecting a plenty of action in the afternoon considering I had landed 5 Pike within the first hour but for some reason the fishing slowed right down, this coincided with Pete’s arrival so he took the blame for the slow sport

Homemade lure still working nicely

We moved to a shallow and very weedy section of the lake in hope of some action on the surface lures, Pete fished a Heddon Meadow Mouse where as I fished a weedless Spro Bronzeye Frog, we both had a few takes on each but we just couldn’t transfer the takes to solid hook-ups. Surface lure fishing is good fun so the lack of hook-ups isn’t really a problem, slightly frustrating I guess but enjoyable nonetheless.

The remaining four hours were slow going with myself landing two more Pike to 6-7lb, Pete had plenty of take/follows but couldn’t hook-up at all We had just about made a full lap of the lake when the sky behind the hill opposite turned a rather nasty looking dark colour with the odd flash of lightening. We did hope it might missed us but I put on the waterproofs just in case. I was just changing over a wire trace when I could hear a strange noise, I looked up to see a wall of hailstone making it’s way down the lake! within seconds we were being barraged by hail with lightening cracking directly above us! We figured this would be a good time to sit in the van to enjoy a cuppa and pasty, glad we did as the heavy rain/hail feel for the next 15-20mins. I would taken a photo but my camera really wouldn’t of liked being out in that weather so kept it tucked up in the carryall.

Once the weather had passed the lake became very quiet with no a breath of wind, we fished for another hour or so but with only a few takes/follows it was slow going. We decided to call it a day as the sun was setting, unfortunately poor Pete had blanked and I finished with 7 Pike. The fishing was slow in the afternoon/evening but Pete and myself had a very enjoyable fishing session so it’s not all bad I guess Hopefully we’ll be out fishing again soon with some better results.

Pete fishing at sunset

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A change of colour

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Now and again when a do get the time I enjoy painting lures, whether it be giving old lures a new look or changing new lures to something a bit different. One of my favourite lures at the moment is the Spro 4″ BBZ Shad it has been producing plenty of fish for me since we got hold of them back in February, even though they have been very productive I fancied a different pattern. So last week the day before I was due to go fishing I made the last minute decision to spray up a BBZ Shad in a Perch pattern. It didn’t take to long to spray up, let the paint dry and I had time to quickly add one coat of epoxy ready for next day’s fishing. I would prefer a thicker coating of epoxy but like I say it was a last minute decision.

I’m up fishing in the Lakes at the weekend so I look forward to giving the Perch pattern BBZ a good testing

A 'Golden Rudd' and the new 'Perch' pattern BBZ

An older 'Golden Rudd' and the new 'Perch' pattern BBZ

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Zandermania 2009

Monday, May 18th, 2009

We are just about unpacked from the Zander match we sponsored during the weekend and a very enjoyable weekend it was to. We were the proud sponsors of the Zandermania 2009 event run for the Lure Anglers Society members, 44 anglers entered the match which is a good turn out. In total 18 Zander were caught on the day with the biggest being about 6-7lb, that was a good result considering the awful weather we had on the day. Heavy showers and very strong 50mph+ gusts made life very difficult for the anglers as well as us trying to keep the Baxter Angling gazebo on the ground!

A bit of bad weather won’t put us off though and everyone soldiered on, the anglers were rewarded for their troubles with some nice Zander making an appearance. One of the funny moments of the day was some of the unusual captures, one being a full kitchen table! The best one for me though was what looked like Mr Crabtree had dropped his rod in the canal a few years ago, it had obviously been in there for a while as it was covered in mussels!

The mussel rod!

The one thing we do enjoy most about LAS events is the relaxed and friendly atmosphere, we really enjoyed chatting to the anglers and generally just having a good laugh. You won’t find a better bunch of anglers than the guys/gals of the Lure Anglers Society, a real pleasure to fish with and they are always more than happy to help their fellow anglers.

Myself & Phillipa would like to say a big thank you to everyone that attended Zandermania 2009, it was a real pleasure to meet you all and we looking forward to attending a few more LAS events this year.

The Baxter Angling gazebo at Zandermania 2009

The next event we’ll be sponsoring will be the LAS Nottingham Match on Sunday 18th October so what this space for updates during the next few months.

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Zandermania!

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

In a few days time we’ll be heading south to Gloucester for the popular Zander lure fishing match called Zandermania, this is the biggest Zander lure fishing match of 2009 for the Lure Anglers Society. We’ll be there to provide sponsorship for the match plus we’ll have the Baxter Angling stand setup with various lures, rods, reels, etc on offer. Plus we have our own section of the venue so you can try out any of our lures, rods & reels.

Only Lure Anglers Society members can fish Zandermania, non-members are more than welcome to join on the day though. At £19 for a years membership it is well worth joining, I’m a member of the LAS and I highly recommend it to any lure angler out there new or old.

So come along to Gloucester on Saturday 16th, join the LAS and catch some Zander. You never know you might win yourself a new rod & lures

Details of the event can be found here Zandermania

Looking forward to seeing you all there, good luck!

Zander

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Yorkshire Pike & Perch Fishing

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Finally got out for a day’s lure fishing at the weekend, I haven’t been out since the few hours fishing I had during the last bank holiday so I was looking forward to a full day’s fishing. A good friend of mine (Phil) decided to join me for the day, Phil is still relatively new to Pike fishing but has plenty of Bass fishing experience so lure fishing isn’t an alien thing to him. After the one hour drive we arrived at our venue of choice, it was nice to see that there was next to no one fishing which made a pleasant change. The lack of anglers wasn’t a total surprise though due to the fact that there was a hurricane strength wind blowing down the lake! Fortunately the venue does have one or two more sheltered areas so you could find a quiet, wind free spot now and again.

One of the wind free quiet spots

We setup the rods and made our way to the first swim, Phil had already made a few casts before I had even clipped on a lure. The first lure to go on was the homemade Perch lure that Mart of the LAS (see 5th May post) had made for me, I had a few fish on this lure a week earlier on a different venue so was keen to try it out again.

Well amazingly like the last time I used this lure I hooked into a fish first cast, Phil was just about to say “a fiver for the first fish caught” but I hooked up before the words came out of his mouth. I missed out out £5 and we had only been fishing 2 mins! The first fish of the day was a scrappy 5lber, ok not exactly massive by most standards but very welcome all the same and very satisfying to catch on a homemade lure (even if I only painted it!).

The first fish of the day was unhooked and returned safely, I was pleased with myself but cursing the fact I would of been £5 the richer if I waited 30 secs longer before making my first cast! Anyway, checked the lure/trace and made my second cast of the day and bang! 2nd fish of the day was on, another jack Pike but smaller fish of about 3-4lb. Not bad going for two casts

Phil's biggest Pike of the day at just over 7lb

We spent another 5-10mins in the first swim but nothing much else was happening after the the two jacks, a move was in order so moved 70yds up the bank. The wind was behind us here so we could cast out quite a bit further allowing us to fish more water. We soon discovered that this swim seemed to be full of Pike, we must of had about 12-15 takes within 20mins. Unfortunately a lot of those were missed takes but it did provide great entertainment, several Pike were following the lures in with some of those converted to takes. We fished a few more areas at the north end of the lake resulting in yet more takes, some missed and a few hooked up. Again there didn’t seem to be any sign of larger fish but the jack Pike made the day go by nicely.

My biggest of the day with lovely markings

We fished the southern end of the lake for a few hours but with only one or two follows to show for our effort we headed back to the north end which appeared to be holding much of the Pike population. Within a minute or two of fishing the north end we were into fish, again only singles but provided great sport so we weren’t complaining. After a few more fish I decided I’d have a go for the resident Perch, having never fished here for it’s Perch I wasn’t sure what to expect but figured I’d have a go just in case. Phil had spotted a few smaller Perch in the margins earlier so the ultralight rod was setup and rigged up with a 7g jighead and 2″ curltail. Running the jig just off the bottom I could feel little plunks at the tail so at least I knew fish were in the area, a few more casts and I final landed one of the culprits. A little Perch of about 5oz was my prize which I was delighted with, I guess I’m easy pleased Fished the area for another 10-15mins in the hope that one of his bigger brothers/sisters was in the area but only managed similar size fish.

With only 30mins of the session remaining I decided to head for a ‘Perchy’ looking spot where a small pontoon extended 8ft out into the lake, I had a peak over the side and spotted two Perch. I lowered the small jig over the side to the fish that were about 6ft below me, the smaller of the two Perch nailed it straight away. A nice little 8oz Perch came to the surface with the jig in the top lip, I had a quick look at it’s beautiful colours and gently slipped it back to his home below the pontoon. I did spot a larger fish below it a few minutes earlier but it wasn’t to be seen so I worked the jig tight to the structure in the hope it would make an appearance, well a few minutes later it appeared just to my left. I gently worked the jig 8″ in front, it slowly swam up, paused then flared it’s gills and inhaled the jig. A nice plump Perch of about 1lb came splashing to the surface, I was over the moon considering it was the first time I had perch fished this venue so a good result for me.

A lovely Perch taken on a 7g jighead

Overall despite the galeforce wind we both had a great day’s fishing, we had landed plenty of Pike and a few bonus Perch. Hopefully I’ll get back out for some Pike & Perch fishing soon, would be nice to land a few more Perch and maybe land some of the 2lb+ residents. Watch this space

Posted in Perch Fishing, Pike Fishing | No Comments »

Homemade Lures

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

I was sent up three homemade lures from Mart of the LAS (Lure Anglers Society) for spraying up, apparently painting lures isn’t his strong point (I’m no expert either!) so figured he send them up for me to have a go at. For the trouble he said I could keep one of the Perch pattern lures Mart has already taken a few double figure Pike on his Perch pattern lure so I knew my lure would do the biz. Well I managed to get a morning’s lure fishing in yesterday, naturally the first lure to be clipped on would be Mart’s homemade lure. I made my first cast of the day, two turns of the reel handle and bang! Straight away I was into a fish, ok it was a small 3lb jack Pike but very welcome all the same.

The slow sinking lure has a fantastic action, will dart/roll side to side when jerking the rod tip but has a lovely wide side to side movement on a straight retrieve. I landed four Pike in total on the lure with a few missed takes as well, Mart obviously knows what he is doing when it comes to making lures. Keep up the good work

Examples of Mart's lure building skills.

Posted in Lures, Pike Fishing | No Comments »

2009 Bass fishing has started…slowly.

Friday, May 1st, 2009

North Yorkshire Bassin

Well with this nice weather we’ve been having lately I figured it was about time I dusted off the Bass fishing gear and have an evening session. Bass don’t normally appear on the North Yorkshire coast until late May/early June but it’s always worth having a go during April/May just in case one or two are about.

We arrived at one of our Bass marks to find there was still a bit of colour from the previous few days swell, we probably only had about 2ft visibility so not exactly ideal conditions but not impossible so made our way down the cliff. Apart from the sea still holding colour the weather was spot on, a sunny evening with a small surface ripple. The lures came out first with shallow sub-surfaces lures being the main choice with the surface poppers making an appearance when we fancied a bit more noise/commotion. After a while we felt that the combination of coloured water and being early in the season meant we were probably flogging a dead horse, so out came the bait rods!

We fished Ragworm & Squid about 100yds out at the entrance to the gulley in the hope that if there was any Bass about that they would be in the deeper water, the plus point of fishing bait of course is that you stand the chance of catching other species which could save us from a blank! Well you guessed it, we blanked big style! The only things that took a liking to our baits were the resident crab population

Rods cast out, just waiting for that first bite.

We switched back to lures at dusk as a last ditch attempt but it wasn’t to be, the fishing was poor (as kind of expected) but it was great to be back out in search of Bass again. I hope to be out every week from now on, ok, there will no doubt be a few more blanks yet but it won’t be long before those Bass appear.

The sun sets on the Yorkshire coast.

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