Popper

Image Above: Home Made Chug Bug Lure

It was a day of messing around in boats and not really fishing. With the tail end of hurricane Katia visiting us earlier in the week we took Reliance, the island’s main boat out of the water. Being a glass fibre version of a Yorkshire coble we rolled her up the beach with the tractor and some logs. Unfortunately the storm had brought a tidal surge which re-floated her from her position above the high tide mark; having anchored her just in case, she didn`t get out to sea. It was one of our neighbours, who’s own boat had sank that came told us what had happened to reliance, so in the middle of the night we pulled her back up the beach and this time took her way above the high tide mark.

Today we rolled her back down the beach and into the sea. I took a fishing rod along to troll a spoon handle lure on the short journey back to the pier. On the second cast and I caught greater sand eel which I kept for bait. I took the boat to the pier and picked up a new lure I had made a couple of days earlier. The Chug Bug (not an original name) is made from a spindle out of the head of an old pine bed. I turned it down a little on my drill lathe and hollowed out a concave mouth; some tin foil and a bit airbrush work and I have to say I was rather proud of my little creation. The idea came from float fishing, last week a fish had bumped my float a couple of time and chased it as I retrieved it, so I thought I would make something with a splashy action like float being retrieved.

I drifted the boat down to a small reef and had a few casts. It wasn’t until I began to really jerk it about that I got some action as a young Pollock gave chase breaking the surface alongside the lure. Eventually the fish swung at the lure and grabbed hold; I landed it without much of fuss estimating that probably weighed about a pound. I suppose the test of any lure is whether it catches fish and this one does.