The Competition

Image Above: Homemade Balsa and Bamboo Skewer Floats

I took a break from testing lures this morning to do a bit of float fishing. My motives were not entirely pure I had an idea to check out the competition; the bait fish that compete with my lures for the pikes attention. I really wanted to catch a roach or a small bream as I hope to make a similar shaped and coloured lure.

On the way to the lake I stopped at the petrol station and bought a small can of sweat corn to use as bait. Without homemade lures for company I would be fishing with homemade floats made from balsa and bamboo skewers. The lake was still and I set up a rig and plumbed the depths so the bait just lay on the bottom. My reactions were a little slow and I failed to strike as the float dipped at least half a dozen times. Quietly the float sank away and this time I hit it on the nail and felt the tug of a fish. It seemed I had hooked something a little larger than I had expected as rod arched and the line ran away. When it broke the surface I was little shocked to see a large freshwater eel wrapping itself around the line and float. It got more than a little slimy and rather than attempt to remove the hook from deep within its jaws I cut the line and tossed the fish back. Eel slime is not dissimilar to snot and by the time I had rigged up again I felt like I had blown my nose without using a tissue.

A little later when my reactions had warmed up I caught a small roach and spent almost too long a time admiring it. The scales were a thing of beauty, each one a little piece of crystal artwork and as I turned the fish over an iridescent sheen washed over them. I thought about my own lures and felt a little like Dr. Frankenstein realising that by comparison to this little fish I was creating monsters.

Image Below: A handful of Roach