Goin' fishin'

[Keith_Beef]

This weekend, I'm going fishing with my son, again.

This is a small pond, down in the south west of France, about half an hour's walk from the house. Up the lane, past the farm, down the path, over two streams, across the field.

I was there with him last weekend, and we checked to see if there were any fish. The water is murky, so we couldn't see what is in there. We caught some small grasshoppers, and threw them, one at a time onto the water. Each one was grabbed by a fish after about 15 to 30 seconds of hitting the water.

We didn't get a view of the fish, it was too quick.

Anybody here able to hazard a guess as to what it might be? This pond seems to be fed from a spring, normally it's isolated from any watercourse.

We'll be using grasshoppers tied onto Mustad nº6 "limerick" shape hooks, on 18/100 line.

Keith.

 

[Ahjno]

Sounds like a carp or maybe (but I don't think so) a pike to me mate ... or ... SHARK

Happy fishing!!!

 

[Keith_Beef]

Sounds like a carp or maybe (but I don't think so) a pike to me mate ... or ... SHARK

Happy fishing!!!

Thanks.

Could be a carp, I know there are carp in other ponds around the area. There are pike, too, but I don't know if a pike would bother that much about a grasshopper.

I suppose I'll just have to catch it, and see. And make sure we have plenty of tomatoes, chillies, spring onions and ginger.

Keith.

 

[Kepis]

Probably trout, carp will take insects of course, but they are more bottom feeders than chasers and opportunists, although they will take floating baits off the surface like bread, pellets, chum mixer.

I fish a lake that has Catfish in it, one of the guys i fish with prebaited the lake for two weeks with mashed up herring and mackerel for the cats, went out one night and fished it and his reel started singing, thinking he was into one of the cats (45lb plus) he slowly bought it in, only to find a 26lb carp had taken a whole mackerel flapper on a size 2 hook, he never did get a catfish

 

[Moonraker]

The murky water points strongly to the presence of bottom feeding carp for sure. As to carp eating grasshoppers well they eat nearly everything and taking them of the top with floaters is my favourite way to catch them.

I have used grasshoppers here on small trout streams up in the mountain (using a long rod and trotting the grasshopper freelined down the stream, avoiding a silhouette by standing back from the bank) which works well.

But for your lake I would suggest chub perhaps which love natural foods dropping into the water.

You might try a small hook size KB as a No. 6 may drag the grasshopper down. Also use a reasonably strong line if it is snaggy and use something to make the line float to help keep the grasshopper on the surface. Surface fishing is often very exciting

 

[Keith_Beef]

Well, the plan changed a little, and we went to the other pond which we know contains pike and we're told carp, too.

I took my son, and at first we tried with grasshoppers stuck on the N° 6 hooks. These didn't sink too fast, but we got tiny little fish coming and biting the grasshoppers into pieces...

So I switched to a Mepps spinner, then to surface lure, intended for sea bass.

We saw two pike jumping. My guess was, that the small fish were coming up to grab flies, and the pike were surging up from below to grab the fish.

After I took my son home (he got a little bored this time) I managed to grab a pike. No fight to it, and it was a bit smaller than the big jumping pike I'd seen, so I put it back (no keep net, no landing net).

After about another three quarters of an hour, I caught the same pike again. I recognised it by its size, and the fact that it was blind in the left eye (looked like it had a cataract, if that's possible for a fish).

Well, this one clearly had a deathwish, so it came home with me. Only 1200g, for about 80cm. I've just finished stripping the flesh of it; I'll make knyll from it tomorrow.

Might go for the lake I mentioned in my first post next weekend. I've been reading The Compleat Angler a little... I wonder if I saw Bream or (as Moonraker suggested) Chub. Any recipes or hints on preparation?

Keith.