u/br07fk

No… he did not take the moustache mouse 😆 I was after some bigger pike, my local canal is absolutely terrible for big fish due to a lot of things. People taking fish is a big one, mishandling too but there’s also lots of cormorants, mink & goosanders. You’re extremely lucky to get a pike 2lb+, so much so my PB from it is 1.5lbs, despite fishing it for 2 years, but a 7-8lber was caught recently on the stretch I fish so I thought I’d chuck around some of the bigger lures. Got a little fed up towards the end so stuck on the 10cm rocky roach & it livened up. I landed this little bugger first, I also lost one slightly larger due to it tailwalking & spitting the hook along with having a few ambitious tiddlers swipe & attack it a few times lol.

Biggest was about 60cm or so. It was dark when caught so I didn’t get a picture, just wanted to get it back into the water. I managed 5 tench all in, including this absolutely gorgeous golden tench. I spent all year fishing for this exact fish last year. Maybe 10 sessions & only managed 2 fish thought those, first cast last night & I had her. 5 is a new record for me on this large water. Also had many pulls that didn’t end up taking along with my dad losing 2. A whole lot of fizzing though so I imagine as I said, they were feeding right up to get ready for spawning so taking advantage of all the bait out. All fish released of course, barbless hooks. Caught, netted, on the mat, quick picture & off again. They all went of like rockets, it amazes me how such pigs of fish are so incredibly fast. I was fishing method feeder, one with salted caramel pellet with either salted caramel wafter or strawberry Scopex wafter. The second rod had Krill & halibut pellets & a crab pop up. I had many times where both rods were tapping at once. Tight lines guys!

I don’t have many materials at the moment to tie up different nymphs. The first is a random nymph I tied up using Dyed Black Cock Hackle, Crystal Flash & Peacock hurl. The second is the same kind of thing but instead of using Black Cock hackle I used a pheasant tail & no peacock hurl. The last fly is an attempt at making a variant of a blue collar worker nymph, but as I don’t have blue thread at the moment I used red. Still a whole lot to learn, but after less than 24 hours flying I think it’s most definitely a start. I’ll try all my flies out on my euro nymphing setup soon.

I thought I’d show my setups after showing all my lures after some organisation. From top to bottom we have:

Greys Fin Euro Nymph Rod & Reel Combo 10ft 3wt

MaxCatch Extreme Fly Combo 8”4ft 3wt

Tsurinoya Clever Trout 1-4g & Loongze B51 MC BFS reel, Zukibo Feke Braid (10lb) to Savage Gear Fluorocarbon (6lb)

Cheap £15 Aliexpress glass BFS Rod 1.5-9g & Anatono Silver Rhino BFS reel, Zukibo Modern braid (4lb) to MaxCatch Fluorocarbon (2lb)

Mitchell Epic MX2 1-5g & Shimano FX1000, Zukibo Firebird Braid (10lb) to Savage gear Fluorocarbon (6lb)

PureLure Creek Dance 1-7g & Tsurinoya Dark Wolf Ultra Pro BFS, Thornsline Dragon braid (8lb) to Savage Gear Fluorocarbon (6lb)

AceHawk CU Double 0.5-4g & Histar Aurora Air BFS, Kingdom MicroFly braid (8lb) to Savage Gear Fluorocarbon (6lb)

Mifine Illusion Slash XUL 0.2-0.8g & Handing M1 500, Mifine Devils Wire (5lb) to maxcatch Fluorocarbon (2lb)

Mitchell Traxx Baitcast combo 28-84g, Agitator Braid (50lb) to Daiwa Pike Trace (90lb)

Abu Garcia Max X Combo 10-40g, Agitator Braid (30lb) to Daiwa Pike Trace (90lb)

Took all my lures out. It’s kind of crazy how it just adds up. I’ve only been fishing for 2 damn years & this is how many I’ve racked up in that time. Some of these boxes are double sided with the other side filled right up too. This stuff doesn’t include the likes of flies, feeders & carp gear etc.

I have lures for pike, salmon, perch & trout here. I also fish for the likes of roach, Rudd, tench & bream with the micro perch lures also.

I kicked off my fly fishing journey this past week or 2. I bought my first rod & reel setup in February but bought a good amount of flies in 2025 before I bought a setup. I was also extremely kindly gifted a full box of wet flies from another angler on the river. The river season didn’t begin until late March but ever since I’ve just kind of been putting it to the side & BFS fishing. So far I’ve had 3 fish, all salmon parr on dry flies. 1 on an olive parachute & 2 on black spider dry flies. I received a new fly box today, it fits all of my dries & nymphs so perfect for my river fishing. I was rearranging my flies into said box so thought I’d show you. This is my selection of flies, I seem to have it all from Nymphs, Dry Flies & Wet flies. Honestly up until this week I didn’t think I was into it… until I felt even the smallest finger sized salmon smolt take my dry fly on the 8”4 3wt. Extremely sensitive & can feel the fishes every movement despite it being about 20cm long. Now I’m very much hooked and looking into getting a EuroNymphing setup.

I took both the lure rod & fly rod out today. I bought this rod in February & have never really used it besides 1 20 minute session a few days ago, but I got too frustrated & picked up the spinner again. Today I gave it a proper go & after some guidance with casting techniques from another angler on the river (I still, cast my own way but it seemed to work) along with some fly suggestions I managed to land my first fish on the fly. I believe it’s a small salmon smolt, it took a tiny olive parachute Adams dry fly.

I got my first fly rod in February & haven’t really taken it out. I took it out for the first time a few days ago but got way too frustrated & within 10 minutes, took the spinner out again. Today I got some help with casting techniques from a fellow angler fishing the river, which I haven’t quite got onto yet, I still kind of just cast my own way, but oh well. Along with some recommendations on flies to use. Bonus, I managed my first fish on it! It took a very small olive parachute Adams dry fly.