Lure Fishing Challenge 2013

[Jimk2]

Not now mate, they lost all fish last winter due to a water problem. Biggest I seen dead was about 6 pound which had a trace attached to it. There was a fair amount of smaller jacks a monster eel and double figure carp.
I have fished it since and a mate of mine has without catching.

[flatrock]

is there still pike in barmston pond in washington jim?

[Jimk2]

Here is a thread I posted on the freshwater forum earlier this year after a few sea anglers looked into having a dabble with pike. I wrote up some basic info and maybe some of it can be useful.
I'll maybe have a look at what I can put together for lure fishing and let Mark proof read it

http://www.nesa.co.uk/forums/freshwater-fishing/109315-pike-fishing.html

[Jimk2]

If you`re going to try and organise meets for fw species, June onwards would be best - the rivers re-open and all the predatory fw species are up for lures. On some river venues it`s relatively easy to get 3 or more species in a session through the Summer. Things are a little more hit and miss with lures in the colder months.
Re Pike, if theyre to be included, it would be worth stressing at the start of the comp that those who`ve little or no experience of Pike fishing are best to go with someone who can show them how to handle the fish etc. Theyre a very fragile fish despite their looks, and we don`t have many in our area to begin with, so they need to be looked after

I've got to 2nd what Mark has said regarding pike. Handling and unhooking can be very daunting at first and the fish is very delicate.
And to be honest the smaller the fish are the harder to unhook on most occasions.
When lure fishing for pike you have to be prepared to cut hooks if they cannot
be removed easily. So the right unhooking tools are a must.

[boysandtheirtoys]

Looking forward to the challenge

I fish on the fly from April-October (so Rainbow and Perch are a guaranteed 2) but thought I'd give salt water lure fishing a bash. Went out at the start of the week with my shiny new Powermesh X Spin and Okuma Trio 55 FD...and the big box filled with hard- and softbaits that led to the comment from my other half that gave me my username

In various sizes and colours I've got Red Gill Evolution sandeels, Sidewinder Sprats and Bloodhead Joeys, Savage Gear Side-down and Top Prey, Vibrax lures and Yo-zuri Poppers, Crystal Minnow Suspending and 3D Crystal Shrimp. Got some Marukyu Power Isome and Shirasu jigheads on the way, so going to try and fish right through 2013 on artificials only (even when beachcasting), which should be an interesting experiment.

cheers
martin

[phill_itofish]

Mike (Thunderpants) has kindly agreed to include the lure challenge on the species hunt card

[Piker]

I'll have a word with Thunderpants and see if we can incorporated somthing on his card to save people carrying 2 cards.

As for the outings we'll need some dates, we could look back over last years catch reports and see what the best month was for each fish, could do with pointing in the right direction with the fresh water species

If you`re going to try and organise meets for fw species, June onwards would be best - the rivers re-open and all the predatory fw species are up for lures. On some river venues it`s relatively easy to get 3 or more species in a session through the Summer. Things are a little more hit and miss with lures in the colder months.
Re Pike, if theyre to be included, it would be worth stressing at the start of the comp that those who`ve little or no experience of Pike fishing are best to go with someone who can show them how to handle the fish etc. Theyre a very fragile fish despite their looks, and we don`t have many in our area to begin with, so they need to be looked after

[phill_itofish]

Yes, I like both of those improvements, plus some kind of card or ID system too, it looked as if it worked well for the NESA species hunt.

It's still a bit of fun at the end of the day, but it will remove some ambiguities!

I'm thinking we could organise some specific outings to get the count up too, like a Wrasse hunt, Bass hunt, Flounder hunt, micro species hunt, Pike hunt etc. where we could all arrange to go somewhere and target that specific species on that day / weekend. It'd be good to get people to meet up and share tactics for that particular species, it's also probably the best way to learn.

I'll have a word with Thunderpants and see if we can incorporated somthing on his card to save people carrying 2 cards.

As for the outings we'll need some dates, we could look back over last years catch reports and see what the best month was for each fish, could do with pointing in the right direction with the fresh water species

[Wreckingball76]

Yes, I like both of those improvements, plus some kind of card or ID system too, it looked as if it worked well for the NESA species hunt.

It's still a bit of fun at the end of the day, but it will remove some ambiguities!

I'm thinking we could organise some specific outings to get the count up too, like a Wrasse hunt, Bass hunt, Flounder hunt, micro species hunt, Pike hunt etc. where we could all arrange to go somewhere and target that specific species on that day / weekend. It'd be good to get people to meet up and share tactics for that particular species, it's also probably the best way to learn.

[Piker]

I`ll be up for it this time round mate. Allowing freshwater species is a good idea imo, adds even more variety

[phill_itofish]

I’m proposing a couple of changes for the challenge in 2013,
Firstly opening the challenge up to include fresh water species
Secondly to extend the challenge over the whole year

What do you think? Has anyone got any other ideas ? all comments welcome.