22/05/2012 - Kegworth Cut

Had a meeting down in Leicester, so was able to stop off at Kegworth for another couple of hours. Headed for the area around the Deep Lock again. The cabbages and in-stream weed had really taken hold since last visit and it was difficult to fish the Big Hammers effectively without snagging up. Therefore switched to a small Sebile Magic Swimmer softbait from Harris Sportsmail.

Weedless

Rigged up, the hook point sits in a little groove in the back of the bait making it 99.9% snag free, so you can chuck it will relative impunity into all sorts of places, even twitching it over the top of lily pads. By altering the number and position of the belly weights threaded onto the hook you can also change the sink rate and action. I was impressed with it anyway! Pike were too, it was just a case of keeping the bloomin' things on. Had three solid takes, one literally as the lure hit the water, but had all three come adrift in the fight. Seems there's a knack to fishing with weedless lures that I need to get the hang of. Ideally you should pause after a take to allow the fish to take the bait into its mouth and compress the body to fully expose the hook. Oh well, live and learn. Fishing isn't meant to be easy!