I padded off down to the lake this afternoon to try out the
paint brush handle before the water had a chance to freeze up again. I briefly
had the place to myself and threw the new lure without my usual restraint, it
flew like a rocket. The hardwood and rear weights kept it on course enabling me
to place it rather than hurl it and hope for the best. With the rod tip lowered
and a steady jerk on the retrieve I could keep it subsurface gliding and
bucking with its silver sides flashing.
I slowed my retrieve and added long pauses so it sank to the bottom and
kept some depth. In among the jerks I felt the rumble of a fish but it had
gone after putting a couple of bends in the rod. I cast again and again while
trying to remember the sequence of tugs and pauses that had triggered the
attack. In the end I contented myself with the thought that it would have all
been too much to catch a pike on the lure’s first outing, especially in the
middle of winter: it didn't stop me vainly casting along the same stretch of
water.
When the Essex boys turned up I switched to a lighter drop
shot rig and a soft plastic fearing the water would quickly be covered by a web
of carp lines. Moving out of the way
while they set up I threw jellies along the reeds. One of the lads asked if I had
any old lures going spare so he could do a bit of spinning while waiting on his
bait alarm. I fished out a jig head with
a soft plastic lure, but he didn’t seem that impressed so I gave him a Phox
Minnow that I had managed to spray up in the style of a multi coloured sock.
Although I give away lures a little too regularly I still get that nervous feeling
that comes from handing over my work to be judged by someone else.
I moved a little further round the lake and continued my campaign
to either catch a fish of freeze to death in the process. Back over the lake my
Phox Minnow had claimed its first victim a small pike and I headed over while
they waited for me. I waded into the shallows and unhooked it claiming it as my
own as I had made the lure and was having no luck myself. I wandered back to
the reeds and gave a few half-hearted casts before deciding that despite Christmas
winter on the whole is crap, so I packed up and headed home.
