OPD? Obsesive Predator Disorder??

So far on this blog for anyone who has read it you will have seen that since the first day I caught a Pike I have very rapidly become obsessed with the species, this however took another turn in the last post as I caught my first ever predator fish from a river and that was a Perch. Recently though I have found myself looking on the club waters, forums and the angling press for information on other species such as Eels and Catfish, however it has not stopped there I have even been looking into things like Wrasse also and sea fishing is not something I have ever been interested in!
        
           One good thing that has happened lately is a few friends of mine have taken a interest in the lure fishing aspect of the sport and a small group of us are beginning to come together now, Dan who is someone I have mentioned on here before as being the first person I fished with in years and really sparked my love for all aspects of fresh water fishing, more recently though we have been joined by another old school friend, Bironn. As a group our first trip seen us go to the very place I caught my first Pike as I knew there was a whole lot of fish in the water and at the very least we would be able to help Bironn snare his first and hopefully one of many to come. I had a gone with him the day before to help him get a rod, reel and some braid, I told him not to worry about lure as like most lure anglers a have a couple he can use, the idea I put to him was that he can use a wide array of mine and then make his choice from there where to go with starting his collection. I cannot fully remember as he tried so many but I believe his only fish of the session fell to a savage gear 3d sardine shad in yellow. I could tell he was a very happy angler and I was also happy to see him with a fish as to be fair to him he worked very hard for the bite, he had hooked into a few and lost them and then it seemed like everything he tried after that wouldn't work but then he struck into a mint little jack and landed his first Pike ever.

I believe at the start of this trip Dan had set his stall out to catch himself one of the handful of nice Carp that reside in the reservoir, this however didn't last very long as he had a chat with the clubs lakes manager and was told the baits he had would be pretty much useless on here. With that it didn't take him very long at all to have the carp gear packed away and the Ugly Stick out. It didn't take him long to have his first trip of the session this one would also turn out to be his only one. Myself however had set up in a swim I knew nothing about as there was a Carp angler in the only known decent Pike swim on the water, I had put together a quick dead bait set up and cast a popped up Roach into about 16ft of water and sat eagerly waiting, I did not at this point attempt much spinning as the water in front of me that was at a cast able distance was very shallow and after a few goes I had no confidence there was any fish there. There were also no real features to cast at in this swim as I had chosen it mainly because I knew I could get a bait out into the deeper section and I could keep an eye on the angler in the better swim, it was not long into the session and he had began to pack up and at that point I started to pack down what little kit I had ready to move the exact second he did.

The moved proved to be the right move as I had a fish first cast, this one fell to a Berkley Soft Shad in the Perch pattern. After five or six more casts I decided to switch over to the Savage Gear lure that Bironn had his fish on as I had only just bought those and wanted to give it ago, again this proved to be the right move as for the first time ever I had a fish take on the drop, not only was that a first but the Pike was also my biggest on lure tactics to date weighing in at a mighty 4lb on the nose.

I had originally planned on publishing this post about a week ago now but with all the problems with work seeming to be sorted i did return on Monday last week and have found myself extremely tiered because of this. I feel like I'm making excuses and do not want to look that way as it genuinely did take it out of, so much so i needed a fishing trip this weekend just past to relax from it! This time it was to be just Dan and I as Bironn had hurt his back and was in no fit state to go fishing. With that being said this meant we were open to any of the club waters as Bironn is not a member and if he wanted to fish we would have made sure to find a water that offered guest tickets, it was because of this though we headed out to the Northfield White Lake in Ringwood, Dan aiming to get his first club Carp as he had not been a member very long and me, well I fancied a go at some of the double figure bream that drive the Carp anglers like Dan so mad from time to time.

            It was this trip though that would show me that my obsession had reached a new peak as I found myself only thinking one thing the whole time i was there, that was the water is stocked with Pike, Perch and Cats, a thought i could not drive from my mind so i could concentrate on the task at hand of hauling some monster bream from the depths. These for a time were only thoughts until Dan sat looking in the edge of where my rods were positioned and called me over to show me a Perch of a few ounces swimming through a group of small fry, again for a little while this just added to the thoughts and i went about bringing in my rods to re fill the feeders and get them back on the spot. After a further three or four casts with the feeders I could no longer take it and brought in the rods, headed to the car and grabbed out the spinning rod and my lure boxes. I began frantically thrashing the water to a foam casting a fair few times with each lure in my swim to no avail, by this point Dan had fallen asleep so a had a few cheeky chucks in his swim before heading of to some of the more likely swims with overhanging cover and things. Unfortunately I still had no takes and after bringing in my other rods earlier in the day no Bream either, what I am trying to say painfully is I blanked.

           Sorry it has been so long between posts again and I will try a lot harder to get more published more regularly! Thank you for reading and I wish tight lines to all!