Scraping the bottom of the bait box.

The river remains at summer levels or at least very close to them and the water appears clearer than ever. How long this will last I don't know considering the forecast Met Eireann are giving for the coming week. In the meanwhile its a great time to be out doing some lure fishing to get the season under way. The recent drop in temperatures seems to have woken up the fish somewhat, they appear more willing to chase and investigate a decent flash and vibration in the water after their summer respite. I've been experimenting with a few swimbaits of late and must say I'm pleased with the results especially their versatility in the manner in which they can be fished. However I keep coming back to a couple of what you might call "old reliables". Call me old-fashioned but I find it hard to kick the habit of using some of the more traditional lures, the likes of a copper spoon or even the classic Abu Toby both have saved me from blanking on many occasions. The old saying  " if its not broke..... don't fix it" comes to mind. Here's a very recent lure caught Pike, fell to a copper Toby when he jumped out from under the bank just before the lure came out of the water! I love to get that last second smash on the line at such close quarters - puts the heart across me every time.

 With so many new lures on the market its often very easy to lose the plot. "One of these, one of those, yep need a red one, a sinker, a floater....." so on and so forth. I often wonder if many lure anglers are also avid lure collectors, do both go hand in hand or is there a point  when we have enough (can you ever have enough lures for the job). Personally I would try make sure to have a fairly complete and varied arsenal of lures ready to tempt the Pike under different conditions. I must admit though I'm impatient, I keep going through the lures until I find something they like and then fish with that. By doing this I've found that I now have what you might call a short list of "working lures" and I rotate these. Sometimes a lure will become relegated when the fish cease to respond to it and others will be promoted as it were. However the Pike can be most fickle whats hot today maybe completely useless tomorrow, thats quite often when I reach for the bottom of the bait box, break the routine and wet an old school retro lure! and they very often do the trick. Don't be too quick to dismiss some of those older lures, they may just surprise you next time out.

 
By the way don't forget to check the trebles and split rings if you do decide to dust off a few of those old lures. You may just meet an old school fish!