A little bit of Pike Action

The Montana John

I finally got round to finishing a small number of ‘Montana John’ fishing lures.  The lip and single hook make them look pretty distinctive and as lures go I think they are pretty unique. What I like about them best is the running depth at less than two feet I can get them into shallow water without constantly pulling weed from the lip. Jerking them along really makes the best of the dressed tail as together with body it has the look of a jointed lure. The price £12.50 plus postage, See the shop link in the side bar.  

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