Image Above: Pike on a homemade jig head
Image Below Right: Polyurethane jig heads and spinner bait (note the missing point on the last jig)
Image Bottom: Bungee sacrificed in the pursuit of pike
Blanking once is bad enough but to blank twice in a row is a
bit of a confidence breaker and when it’s your own lures on the end of the
line, well it doesn’t get any worse. I have a list of familiar doubts for these
occasions but with pike I take comfort in the fact that I have only been fishing
for this species since February this year a little less than tenth months. My previous
pike experience was a couple of fishing trips to a gravel pit about five years ago;
even then I was fishing with homemade lures and enjoyed some success. I still have a lot to learn and winter is
proving to be a harder master than I anticipated.
I
suppose things have slowed down and I have still been fishing as if the sun was
still cracking the flags. Pike like most fish get a bit lethargic in the cold
and without that extra kick of solar energy heating things up chasing down every
plug that rattles past them can not only be costly but just plain impossible. Most of my lures require some speed to create
action or in the case of floating/diving lures to dive down to the fish.
Slowing things down requires something else; a lure that has action, depth and
moves slowly enough to annoy the pike for a little longer. Looking for a bit of
inspiration I turned to the late Charlie Bettell’s book entitled, ‘The Art of
Lure Fishing’. Amongst the anecdotes and fisherman’s tales he gives some sound
advice on using lures that run a little slower and deeper like spoons trailed behind
weights, spinner baits and jig heads (my current favourite).
So last night I got the polyurethane resin out again and
cast half a dozen jig heads from some recent moulds I had made. Taking Mr
Bettell’s advice I knocked up my first spinner bait with a blade cut from a
scrap copper fire surround. To dress the jigs I got the feathers and flash out,
added some brass jingle bells (nearly Christmas) before butchering a bungee elastic
to make rubber skirts. Finishing touches came by way of my sister who is helping
to sort out a friend’s fashion design studio by getting rid of off-cuts. I managed
to retrieve to pieces of stretchy fabric one with a glow in the dark coating
and another with fine silver scales, these had come from an outfit she made for
a guest on ‘Top Of The Pops’ ; a television program I watched almost religiously
until its demise.
It was a cold start at the lake but the spinner bait was a revelation
the blade turned even on the slowest of retrieves and as it pulsed the feathered
tail gave a mesmeric wiggle. Following Mr Bettell’s instruction I bounced it off
the bottom and as if by magic its design kept it almost snag free. I worked the
lake but nothing was in the mood and not having brought my wellingtons I didn't fancy
dampening my feet to get over to the island and the sunlit shallows to see if
anything had come to warm up. I went through all my jig heads giving each a try
and retrieving them in slow bounces until I had an almost mental picture of the
bottom of the lake. Finally I pulled out my bungee corded friend and sent it
across the lake. Within a few casts I had hooked a jack and despite the cold it
set off at a pace for a patch of shallow water a little further down the lake. I was just about to jump into the shallows
when I remembered my lack of boots and quickly walked the fish to a place I where
the bank was low enough for me to unhook it while it was still in the
water. As if to pour scorn on my lethargic
pike theory it bolted like a torpedo.
I moved further up the lake and within five minutes was into
something a little larger that set my drag ticking like a bomb. On my knees at
the bank I reached down to turn the hook again and release the fish without
lifting her but the barb wasn't going to come back through so I got the snips out closed my eyes and let
the point and barb ping over my head. I felt a momentary pang of disappointment
realising that was the end of my jig but feeling the pike surge out from my
gentle tail pulls more than made up for it.
