[Gareth]

A better start to my season this year. Well, much better than last two at least.

I had a day out with a few friends on one of the smaller Norfolk Broads, lure fishing for Pike from borrowed rowing boats.

10 of us, and 5 boats decsended up on the Broad at approximtely 8 am yesterday morning. From the start we were all able to bring Pike on to the lures, but the first Fish was not boated until approx. 10 am.

A complete change in tactics was required, as it was noticed that the fish were striking only at lures worked extremely slowly during cloudy and overcast spells.  And the slower the lure was worked, the better the chance of a fish hitting it; I missed many hits, as did my friend Lee. It was so difficult to get into the mind set of actually fishing an almost stationary lure, especially when a Pike can be seen to be following; normally you would speed a lure up to impart that panicing fleeing bait fish action which usually triggers the strike. But yesterday it was completly the opposite; the slower the better

My first Boated fish was landed at 10.30 am, falling to a 4 inch long Yo-zuri Mag Darter, in Blue Sardine pattern, fished slowly at about 12 inches depth. Nothing special; a male Pike weighing in at about 4lbs

Both Lee and I raised many fish during the day, but getting them to strike at the surface and sub surface lures was frustrating.

At around 5.30pm, I changed my lure to a bright Pink 4 inch long Yo-zuri Mag popper, surface "Walk the dog" style lure, and we moved to a very shallow section of the Broad, that we had noticed no boats had entered during the day. The first cast of this lure landed right next to the reed bed some 25 yards away, after the first 10 feet of the retreive, I realised that I was working the lure incorrectly, so I allowed it to stop, permitting me to change the technique. As the lure rested stationary upon the surface and just before I began to make my Walk the Dog retrieve, a 17lb female Pike rocketed up, clearing the water by almost 2 feet with my lure in her mouth. A fight of 3 or 4 minutes in shallow water ensued, with the Pike becoming airbourne several times before she came to rest alongside the boat.

What a great day out with my friends I had. I learnt a lot about the different techniques that are required on the shallow still water Broads, as opposed to my accumulated extensive knowledge gained on the deeper, flowing water of the rivers.


Me and the 4lber

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Me and the 17lber

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The lures that I used.

top>>>>>>>bottom
1) Yo-zuri, 4 inch Mag Popper in Pink
2) Yo-zuri 4 inch Mag Darter in Blue Sardine
3) Yo-zuri 4 inch Pencil minnow in Green Mackerel
4) Svenson Bassbuster 4 inch surfacepopper in Blue Mackerel
5) Shallow Raider, 5 inch tail prop in bright Parrot

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[fish]

great post mate,those yo zuri's are bigger than the pike though!

[froggyfagan]

Good writeup Gareth,nice read,I think lure fishing is far more technical than most of us think