Four-Hit Fladens…04/03/2013

Four-Hit Fladens…04/03/2013 Lovely day it was, I’d got back from work, had a brief nap and decided to set off as it looked so pleasant out there by the time I got up. Bright, mild, windless…I had nothing ready for the sea as the forecast had said otherwise but my Xtraflexx rods, LP Magnet baitcasters and assorted Fladen lures were ready to go and with the yak on the roof as ever I headed straight for Beccles, besides I had three days left before surgery would see me banned to the land for a few weeks. I was solo today, Ian and Andy were free the next day. I wanted to get some fitness in and a bit of fresh air so a decent paddle and a bit of trolling were in order. Dropping everything at the slip by the quay I went and parked up down the road and hopped aboard after pushing the yak into the dyke. Plenty of pikers lined the bank but once out into the river itself I was clear of them and dropped down the lures, an 11cm redhead minnow and a 13cm eco fat plugbait in mackerel…but I changed that one over a soon after for an eco double jointed 10.5cm redhead; I had to change that again though as trolling at the required speed didn’t work with this lure, it came to the surface on its side and skipped about, a great pity as the action is very tempting, to me if not a fish! I’d noticed the same with the eco snake when I’d tried them before so these have to stay in the casting tub. So…redhead 13cm jointed minnow, that’d be good! I clipped that onto the trace and released the spool on the LP Magnet and let it run out under its own steam…yes, that’s right, 12g of shallow lure being enough to pull the freespooled line out from the off, smoothly smoothly catchee pikee! I set off again. I made it about half a mile when something seemed to be a bit strange. I’d stopped. I then appeared to be going backwards ever so slightly, what? I looked to my left and the Xtraflexx was hooped right over and I grabbed it from the rod holder at which point one hell of a commotion occurred 50 yards behind me and I saw a good pike thrashing on the surface! In my haste to get on the water and get fishing I’d committed the cardinal sin of not checking my drag and between it being locked right down and fishing with braid on the troll the added pressure of bringing the rod forward and thus turning the kayak the fish was off and gone; I’d bent the hook out. Now, perhaps this was a bad hook or I’d damaged it previously or I’d asked too much of it – certainly the ones I’ve since checked at home have all been solid, or it was a big fish and as it had stopped me so quickly it clearly was. Hmm. Strike one to the 11cm minnow though, the lure worked! I carried on upstream, still paddling against some current and a mile further up I got a second take – so the fish were feeding with this milder weather, good show! I dipped the rod though, slacklined the fish and it was gone. Again on the minnow and again a basic mistake. Must do better! I carried on up, got about 3 miles up-river with regular changes of lure and a bit of casting, slashing, jerking and smooth retrieving the lures and now had the 11cm minnow on one rod and a redhead 11.5cm Eco Minnow on the other. Bang! The rod went down and I did things right at last…I gave an extra strike to ensure the hooks were embedded then, keeping things tight, transferred my rod-cam from the one to the other and brought the fish in on camera…the 11.5cm Minnow was doing its job as well and a nice, fit 4lb pike was in my hand and aboard for unhooking and release. I removed some of the parasites from its skin, the fish clearly having been dormant of late in this cold weather and slid it back in to swim away strongly. I’d got another point for the anglersafloat species competition with this one too so I was happy. I spied bank anglers ahead and checked the time, may as well head back. I carried on trolling even though I was now with the current for half the distance and it wasn’t until the flow reversed that I had another hit, again on the 11cm redhead among a weedy bay near the limit of navigation – the pike screamed out to the left and I again reacted badly, losing it the moment I took the rod; I was going too slow to set the hook I suspect, or maybe it ran into weed; either way I lost it. Now, it may seem like I’m making excuses for that lure but I’m not, the lure is good and I’ve just got to learn it…it had 3 of the 4 takes so is certainly alluring but with smaller hooks than I’m used to and more reactive rods (a stiff rod is a better tool for setting hooks on the troll) I need to modify my response…either way It’s already put itself into my favourites box and I KNOW it’s going to be putting bass on the table come the summer as well as providing a steady stream of pike.. I got back to the slip and after asking he swans to please depart I pulled up and landed. A surprisingly active day topped off by seeing kingfishers no less than four times including, for the first time ever and closer than normal, a pair of them. Happy days…and I’d christened my lure kit! The victors, 11cm Eco Minnow top, 11.5cm bottom: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDBtCQIo4k[/youtube]