Fiiish Black Minnow and a Crazy Day

Firstly a big thanks to Andrew at 'The Pike Shop' for turning my latest order around so quickly!

 Today was my first legitimate day as a salmon/sea trout angler - having duly purchased the appropriate license.

Having had the run around on my UUL with my first salmon at the weekend I decided heavier gear was in order - so I took the Daiwa Gekabijin 10g outfit out today.

I started with the 70mm Black Minnow but wasn't getting any interest so quickly put on a 90mm one on. I started to catch the usual stamp of brownies around 8oz and then had what I think is my first sea trout on a lure ( I've had loads of small ones on the fly in the past) Often difficult to say for sure - but the silvery, almost tuquoise colour of this makes me think it is a sea trout - coupled with the fact that there are no red spots at all.

I had a few brownies of a similar sort of size but decided to try one of the 120mm to see if it would maybe pick out a better stamp of fish. The 12g heads I have for this sized body in addition to the weightof the body was a bit too much for the outfit so I thought I'd experiment with a 6g 90 head on.

It looks a bit odd I know but a quick swim in the margin revealed that it had really changed the normal shimmy into a more pronounced body roll. I liked it (and I'm sure the pike will too!) and thought it had to be worth a go.

Within half a dozen casts this fish decided it liked it too..

I kept getting hits from chub which I'd rather not catch out of season so decided to move right to the bottom of the stretch and cover some water at the top of a long riffle hoping I might pick up a resting salmon that was tired after a long climb.

I suddenly felt a jag and my heart missed a beat but then it locked upsolid and no amount of pulling would free it - I even put the rod down to try the 'ping' trick to no avail. SoI picked the rod up and was thinking about pulling for a break - I thought the jag must have been the lure swimming into a branch. All of a sudden there was a slight movement and I thought I had moved the branch. I thought with steady pressureI might just drag it in.

Then a funny moment - as I watched the line I noticed it was moving slowly upstream!?

A bit more pressure and the 'snag' moved again and it was clear I was into a fish-but what was it. I couldn't do a thing with it  - it was just plodding upstream slowly. Monster pike? Monster salmon? I had no idea what it could be. After a lenthy tug of war I finally started to gain ground on it and was now convinced I was into a big salmon- my heart was going like the clappers. 

I couldn't quite believe my eyes...

A 9lb 10oz Barbel! A first fairly hooked barbel and a PB- unfortunately an accidental out of season capture - I'd love to work out a method of catching them consistantly on lures.

I've only recently started using the Fiish Black Minnows and have caught pike, perch, brown trout, sea trout, salmon, chub and now a barbel on them  - absolutely amazing lures! I am seriously considering a 'one lure season' using these just to see what they can really achieve - I'm really looking forward to June 16th so I can go all out for all the rivers residents!