First time out....

[Sunday Spinner]

Went for my first outing on the river today. No luck. Not a sausage...... clearly I'm a total novice at this.

I fished the Wreake. It's a slow flowing river with a good looking stretch that has a fair few features. My tackle is basic, and I used rubber lures from a guy called FFSLures, with size 6 jig heads. I also have some spinners which I also had a go with.

I fished the bridges. No luck. I fished near and under over hanging trees. No luck. I fished the edge of the reeds. No luck!. I roamed the banks, flicking 6 to 10 casts on slow retrieves, fast retrieves, I jigged.... anywhere that I thought looked fishy got a go.

I walked to a shallow section which has lots of twists and turns. The water was clear as gin. I got to a section that was made ankle deep with lots of overhanging trees. When I crept up to the edge of the bank, I spied a fish!! Whoop whoop!. It was floating in the current on a shallow stretch, head upstream, close to the near side bank. I cast a 2 in lure up stream and jigged down on the current. No further sign of the fish. I cast and cast and cast. Gosh I'm rubbish...

I walked further down to a shaded deep pool on a bend. I fished this with the same lure and tried a small spinner after a while. Nothing.

I lost some tackle due to some terribly bad casts, got stung to buggery by the nettles. Sweated and tangled my line in the reel. I must of looked like a right comedy act!

I tramped home. Oh well.... better luck next time eh???

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[mikench]

Don't worry it's all part of the fishing, not catching, experience. I still fail miserably and reproach myself. If it was easy it would become boring.

 

[Another Dave]

This is normal for lure fishing, especially when you start out. Gradually you start to get a few follows, takes and fish. Only then do you start to get some kind of confidence in particular lures for certain stretches. In the meantime just tell yourself you want to go out to play with your lures. Practice casting them, practice getting the action right (certain lures have a good vibration feel on the retrieve that can become almost hypnotic). Do not set the measure of success as whether you catch, you are merely out practicsing your new sport. Your casts will get better and your tangles fewer.

You will lose many more lures. But it doesn't matter because you will also buy more lures than you can ever use, let alone lose.

And some days they are just not having it, no matter what you do. For me this is still at least 50% of the time, 2 years down the line.

Do you have a good set of polarised sunglasses? If you fishing shallow clear rivers it really adds to the excitement when that take finally comes.

 

[Sunday Spinner]

I really enjoyed myself. Time alone and the requirement to concentrate on the task in hand is in limited supply nowadays.... I'll be back out on the river either tomorrow or next weekend. In time I'm sure I'll learn the river and the fish.

Is it best to target a single type of fish when I go out, or should I just fish in general terms?

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[Another Dave]

I really enjoyed myself. Time alone and the requirement to concentrate on the task in hand is in limited supply nowadays.... I'll be back out on the river either tomorrow or next weekend. In time I'm sure I'll learn the river and the fish.

Is it best to target a single type of fish when I go out, or should I just fish in general terms?

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I'd stay general until you know what lives in what stretches. For me personally i like to use a light setup that covers perch, chub and baby pike. Lures up to about 2 inches i suppose. If i target chub i get pike, if i target perch i get chub, so these days i want something that will do all 3 and that means a light wire trace.

(I'm also working on on a slightly heavier setup purely for pike but i am still woeful at that, could use more practice but rarely get to go further downstream where the larger pike live, at least that's my excuse.)

 

[Sunday Spinner]

I'd stay general until you know what lives in what stretches. For me personally i like to use a light setup that covers perch, chub and baby pike. Lures up to about 2 inches i suppose. If i target chub i get pike, if i target perch i get chub, so these days i want something that will do all 3 and that means a light wire trace.

(I'm also working on on a slightly heavier setup purely for pike but i am still woeful at that, could use more practice but rarely get to go further downstream where the larger pike live, at least that's my excuse.)

What size hooks and what's your fishing technique? Do you jig or spin a lot? I say that because that's a technique I'm familiar with due to being well used to shore fishing......

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[john step]

What size hooks and what's your fishing technique? Do you jig or spin a lot? I say that because that's a technique I'm familiar with due to being well used to shore fishing......

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I think you could get bogged down with concerns about hook size. Some lures come with smaller hooks than others. You can get baby perch on lures as big as themselves. You can get bigger perch on tiny lures. Same goes with pike.

Its more the way a lure works and flutters or vibrates. Keep at it as its the sudden whack on the end thats the best bit.
It may be of course that as a sea fisher your perception of light is a bit different to a canal angler. I know after a few carp or pike trips using the appropriate b.s. of line the line and hooklengths for say roach seem like spider web by comparison.

 

[Another Dave]

Agree with all that.

I need to actually get out and do some autumn lure fishing before i dish out any more advice. Got my rod ready for a chance at a bit of urban spinning but my brownie point credit has run out so don't hold your breath.

 

[Molehill]

As someone with a single season of fishing with jigs, my experience is that some days the river is empty of fish, work and work at it for a couple of hours and not a sniff or follow from a fish.
The following day every swim and pool has something in that will take the same jigs.
As soon as you have caught your confidence comes, because you now know you are not doing something very wrong, no need for introspection at tackle, lures, river, methods, you are fishing fine but the fish were not feeding before.

My advice, keep it simple and plug away for short sessions, they will come.

 

[ian g]

I must go out on those days when the river is empty. I used to fish a Mere nearby which was crystal clear and was full of perch . You would get follows and hits most casts , this is easy I thought but the Severn has been a bit of a reality check . Though I'm pretty sure I'm not to far away from a decent day.

 

[David Gane]

I don't think you need to get too disheartened. I fished The Soar at Kegworth on Saturday, so not a million miles from where you must have been. The fishing was slow for me too (I had three fish in about 5 hours and two of those were jacks of no more than 1 lb). I put it down to the very bright conditions and, as someone else has said, it can just be slow some days.

I do recommend that you get a few more lures. Apart from anything else the ability to fish up in the water and at different depths is a real boon at this time of year when weed is pretty widespread and can come close to the surface. I caught two of my three on Savage Gear 4-Play lures (the slow-sinking ones without a lip); the better one went for the pike pattern. The other one was on a size 4 Mepps, which I always like to use because they will catch perch nicely too.

Hang in there!

 

[nottskev]

I get that you're into lure fishing. But why not consider trying a simple rig eg a light link leger with a couple of shot just to see if you can get bites on bait? Worm or maggot will tell you if there are perch around; bread will catch chub. If you catch or get bites, you'd get a sense of what fish if any are in the lengths you're trying to catch from, which would feed into your confidence to lure fish. If you can't get bites on such baits, it would at least tell you something.

 

[xenon]

Agree with Nottskev. The wreake basically means chub, which will fall to a link ledger approach-breadflake or chessepaste is as avantgarde as you need to get baitwise and putting the bait in features (weedrafts, tight up against reed beds, overhanging trees etc. ) should get results-if nothing shows after 20 minutes, move on.