27/06/2012 - River Soar

Another meeting in Leicester, so another opportunity to snatch a couple of hours on the way home. Dropped in at Kegworth again and headed up to the weirpool at the top of the section. Whilst still above normal level, the clarity was good and well worth a go, especially given that thunderstorms were forecast for the next day. Rigged up a crayfish and started hopping it across the bottom of the pool. Was probably into the 'teens in terms of number of casts when I had a definite clonk on the end of the line and tightened up into a fish.....yes, a fish! It did it's best in the flow to elude me and a bit if tail waving convinced me I'd got my first chub on a crayfish, but it turned out to be a jack with a liking for seafood.


Cray muncher

Swapped the crayfish for a shad and worked my way downstream, dropping it into any likely spots, but got to the tail of the island without any further action, so went and had a few casts upstream of the Deep Lock. Again, the weed growth meant the shad was out of the question, so it was on with the Magic Swimmer. However, even this was coming back trailing weed, so tossed it up into the lock itself before moving on. Happened to see a perch with eyes much bigger than its belly following it back on the retrieve so changed yet again, this time to a dropshot rig. Worked down the lock - casting over to the far side, "shaking" the lure, then lifting the rig so it swang into the near bank and repeating. Had done this a couple of times when the tip pulled down and I was into my first perch.


First to the "dropshot"

Winkled out a couple more of his mates before I got to the end of the lock cutting. Moved downstream onto the main river having rigged up the crayfish again. Had a couple of tentative pulls before I had another proper clonk as I hopped the cray past the base of a willow. The fish snagged me almost immediately. Again, I thought it would be a chub as that's the sort of underhand thing a chub would do. However, after wading out and putting some pressure on to get it out of the cabbages it was stuck in, I was suprised to see a big, spiny dorsal and a deep, stripey flank. Stepped backwards as the fish started to move out into the river and.........the hook pulled out. That was the last act, but headed home at least having caught something for a change! 
  

4 comments:

  1. Good stuff Ian, had my first river lure session of the season the other night also on the soar. Had some small perch and lost a couple of jacks but it was good fun. Do you Texas rig those crayfish?

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  2. those jacks love the crawfish, I had 2 in 2 casts the other day after fishing the swim with other lures for a good 30 minutes, put a baby craw on and bam,bam !

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  3. Yep, Texas-rigged with a float stop to keep the worm weight up against the eye of the hook. Perch and pike certainly seem to like them. Still waiting for a chub. Cheers, Ian.

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  4. Sorry, forgot to mention, I use ringed worm hooks. Otherwise you have to tie a loop to create a "hinge" effect, so the lure sinks vertically when you stop jigging. Cheers, Ian.

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