finesse fishing: Two For One

Saturday 31st saw an early start as I set off for another LAS event, the venue Pitsford Water near Northampton. I was fortunate to be paired with Steve Bates who has an impressive record on the water having caught eight pike over 20lb along with a string of high double figure fish.
I love the banter around the jetty as everyone prepares for the days fishing.

We fished hard all day, in all his 'hot spots', and apart from a couple of follows saw no fish action.

The pike on this water are fished for year round and were proving reluctant to take our lures. I spent some time trying to tempt a fish on the fly outfit with, unfortunately, the same result.

I did have a bit of excitement as a rather ambitious trout took a fancy to a Salmo Slider jerk bait.

As the fish was only hooked by one point of the tail treble I decided to unhook the fish without removing it from the water. I know from past experience that lively trout, lures with two sets of trebles and nets are not a great combination. I bent down with my pliers in hand to turn the hook, the trout made a final bid for freedom and neatly set the belly treble into my little finger. I now have the rod in my left hand and a large feisty trout firmly attached to the other. I had to quickly put the rod down and lift lure and fish out of the water so I could grab the fish with my left hand. Steve very deftly removed the hook from the fish whilst I supported its weight. Fortunately the hook had gone clean through my finger leaving the barb exposed and Steve was able to cut the hook point including the barb allowing me to slip the hook out. The barbs on these big lures are large and the hooks not easy to remove when stuck in flesh! A short length of handy electrical tape and I was back fishing. At least the fish saved a blank!

Passing boats often share catch reports and I was really pleased to hear rumours of 'a big fish' caught by fellow North West Chapter member Alex Roberts.

On returning to the jetty it was clear that the fishing had been pretty tough for everyone with many blank sheets and boats with only a jack or two to show for their efforts.

However Alex's 'big fish' proved to be a monster 24lb plus fish, smashing his personal best. The capture was even more rewarding as this was his first fish caught on a home made lure! What a beautiful fish!