At last I`d managed to get not only to the Lakes with the `Yak but I`ve got my good mate Ken with me too this time! So all we had to do was hope the weather held off as we were camping too and wind is no fun when on the kayak!
Coniston was to be the venue as there was a convenient campsite on the banks and we arrived there mid afternoon after a 90min journey and after booking in (incurring many extra charges for extra cars, tents, kayaks, fishing, boats being yellow, being too good looking etc,etc! and they didn`t miss a trick!) we pitched, yaks off the roofs and set up, rods rigged and lures clipped on and we were finally afloat and it didn`t half feel good!
I had the fishfinder on mine and one of the first things I noticed and was concerned about was the depth, 70ft of water in no time at all so I opted to fish the lures over the drop offs close to the bank and seek out some shallower bays and plateaus and the weeded areas. One such place was a short paddle south of the site which was a bay with moored boats and a boathouse and with depths averaging about 15-20ft and in some places weed right up the surface. So after drifting with the drogue and casting all manner of lures as well as trolling some of them around I anchored up in this delightfull looking bay and after trying a few different lures notably spoons, spinnerbaits, replicants, springdawgs, sliders and a few different cranks I thought f*** it! and I`ll clip on a surface lure! and so I did, a Mouldys Hawg Wobbler, which is my favourite Pike surface lure and as Ken was in earshot and we were discussing heading back, this beastie came from the depths and nailed my bait, right on the surface! Brilliant!
I love catching pike on surface baits but doing it on such a water was very sweet!
She was probably only about 7-8lb but big-water pike don`t half go and alot of fun in a kayak!
So after a few more chuck, we headed back to camp for bits of animal on the fire, beer, whiskey, stories & the telling of lies, talking fishing, bushcraft, knives and general bollocks! whilst getting ever so slighly pizzled! it was a great evening, Ken as ever great company and a great laugh and we finally got beaten by tiredness and those fearsome midges!
Saturday morning was totally different, flat calm & bright and although a joy to be out it was hardly good fishing conditions but hey ho! and off we went.
After last nights events we did have another stab on the surface lures but its was a little romantic, and I quickly gave up whilst Ken (as you can see in the picture) worked his previously successful maas marauder to death but to no avail!
I opted to troll for a bit along the drop offs around 20ft of depth with the known big water baits like swimbaits, (mini)depth raiders and spoons and rotated between them , a castaic trout, the buchers and a brass kusaamo professor(try for a bonus trouty thing!) but nothing, apart form a few small perch hunting about but nothing at all esox looking to inspire me.
So as the water was calm we ventured across the water to look for bays, and we did find them, good looking ones too but nothing, I tried with a few shallow raiders and shallow diving cranks such as my favourite Manns 1minus, but again nothing!
After trolling about for a little while we met a couple of guys we were expecting to see, those being Noodle and Jono from the LAS forum so that was good to put faces to names and they gave us some good info for future trips so that was nice!
We bid our farewells and headed off elsewhere, but we were starting to get tired and with the camp to pack up and the long drive back we slowly headed back, I via the moored boats for a few chucks but Saturday ended with a big fat blank!
A great weekend though, and I caught again and got some great piccies and got some more paddling in, so all in all a belter of a weekend with good weather, food, booze and company.
I love kayak fishing!
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