Getting the Best from
your lure-fishing Venues
by Brian Barwell

INTRODUCTION by Managing Editor, Nick "The Doc" Caine
Brian has been our Deputy Editor since the very early days of our website, and he has always been a tremendous help, not only on the editorial side, but also on the practical aspects of lure fishing, particularly rod technology.

Here though, he changes tack a tad, and talks about how to get the best from your own fishing venues, and suggests that it may be best to pretty-much ignore advice, boasts and claims from other lure-anglers who fish very different waters — here's what he has to say.

GETTING THE BEST & IGNORING THE REST
Enjoying your lure fishing is about getting the best from the venues that are easily accessible to you personally. Yes, it may be impressive to read about how this angler and that angler caught 20+ lb pike from their venues, but then they often go a tad too far and start pontificating about how you should do this and that, as if it applied to everyone-else's venues. AS IF ?!

It's very obvious though, isn't it, that we personally can only catch what there is to be caught from our own waters, be they canals, rivers, streams, lakes, big or small. If you only have easy access to a small local river, and catch plenty of predators, that's great, and more importantly, it doesn't make you any the less of an angler than someone who has access to venues such as trout reservoirs and the like, that hold 20 + and 30+ lb pike or mega-perch.

BEING THE BEST ON YOUR OWN VENUES
Getting the best from your own venues is not about tackling-up to catch a 30+ lb pike, especially if there's not one to be had in that water — it's about matching your tackle and techniques to your particular venues and the species and the sizes of predators that it contains.

Of course, with the money and time, anyone can travel to and stay at venues that hold mega-pike, zander, perch, chub, trout etc., but that's something that probably most of us don't have the time to do, especially if it means long-distance travel and extended stays in that area, except as a special treat.

Apart from holiday fishing, most of us fish on a daily basis i.e. traveling to and from our venues within a day. This often means that our venues e.g. Club waters, although they may be prolific, may not hold specimens of the sizes to be found in larger waters ..... but make no mistake about it, tuning your tackle to get the very best from your own different and perhaps smaller venues, is every bit as skilful as, for example, someone who trolls large lures or casts big jerkbaits on lochs, lakes and reservoirs ..... and don't let anyone else try to tell you anything to the contrary!

WHERE TO START & HOW TO PROGRESS
If your new or local venues are Day-ticket or Club waters, then don't be afraid to ask the Tackle-shop selling the Day-tickets, or the Secretary of the Club, about the predator species in these venues. Also, if these venues are Match-fished too, you can often get good feedback from Match-anglers who are usually pretty forthcoming with their information, especially as they don't see the odd lure angler or two as a threat or as Match competition.

If there are nice perch to be had, they will usually appear during Matches, as will pike if only to be reported as " being troublesome " ! Chub too, sometimes appear in Match catches though the bigger specimens tend to make themselves scarce during all the commotion of a multi-angler Match.

Failing any of that, and if you're having to tackle a new venue from scratch, my advice, depending on the size and depth etc., of the venue, would be to start on the small-size as far as lures are concerned. Also, if the venue appears snaggy, it's worth using cheapish lures for starters, so that you won't mind losing them so much. Alternatively, you could use the so-called snagless or weedless lures

START WITH SPINNERS & SPOONS
So, for the reasons I have just explained and because of the fact that they will attract the whole spectrum of predator species, spinners and spoons are excellent choices for starters.

Spinnerbaits are also brilliant, being much more snagless than spinners and spoons, although of course there are snagless versions of spinners and spoons too. An even bigger bonus is that spinners, spinnerbaits and spoons produce results pretty-much all-year-round, even in very cold weather.

I should say that, along with small and medium-sized lures, comes the obvious fact that you only need the tackle to match, so there's no-need to lug-around a heavy old 9ft or 10ft rod with a heavy reel to-match — a 7ft or 8ft rod with a small fixed-spool reel (preferably one with a low retrieve-ratio of 5:1 or less), that will hold 100 yards or so of 20 or 30 lb braid, will do the business just nicely.

I've read other so-called lure fishing experts recommending 2lb - 3lb Test-curve dead-bait rods for everyday lure fishing .. they're having a laugh aren't they? What planet are they from? Planet JERK-baitS?

For more info on rods, reels and lines etc, have a look in our Top Tackle Tests & Reviews Section. I must just mention main-lines though, and if you're not using them already, to point you in the direction of modern hi-tech Spectra® and Dyneema™ Super-braids — there's even a chance of winning a Spool in the regular Competitions on this website, so keep an eye open .....

Of course it goes without saying, doesn't it, that a wire trace, forceps, long-nosed pliers, a pair of side-cutters and a good landing-net are essential tackle too.

If you need more info on these and other items, please browse our Top Tackle Tests & Reviews and our Lure-fishing Techniques Sections.

CONTRASTING SURFACE LURES
In complete contrast though, to fishing the depths with spinners and spoons in the cold winter months, in warm weather and clear-water conditions, it's time to try surface lures ! And there's more good news: still with a greatly reduced risk of losing your lures, with surface lures you will soon find-out if there are any predators present in your venue such as pike, chub, and, less frequently, perch, that are keen to take surface-lures.

Surface-lure-fishing is a brilliant & heart-stoppingly exciting learning-curve — my favourite trio of surface lures is the Heddon Moss~Boss, the Meadow Mouse and the Arbogast Jitterbug, but if you want to know much more about surface lures, please have a read of the article dedicated to them, in our Lures & Lure-fishing Techniques Section.

Top-water lures are especially good in shallowish, warm, clear-water conditions but never forget that, in general, pike are ambushing predators that lie deep-down in cover, and that, if you forget this, you will tend to retrieve your normal lures many feet above your target species — slow and deep is the key, usually!

Like the rest of life, in lure fishing, nothing is certain, and that's all part of the fun and challenge!

GOING-ON TO GREATER SUCCESS
Once you've mastered the basics of your venues, their features, snags and predatory species, it's time to apply all this valuable acquired knowledge to even greater effect and success. You can experiment with different lure types, but if I was to give you one sure-fire suggestion about which plugs to use, it would be use use neutral-buoyancy suspending or slow-sinking lures. I guess the best-known is probably Rapala's Husky Jerk but there are many others out there — also with a bit of simple DIY, it's pretty easy to turn a floating plug into a suspending one. Sinking plugs also have their part to play in getting the most from your venues — these can also be fished deep and slowly, often the key to greater success.

GET FURTIVE AMONG THE FEATURES
If your venue is usually a clear-water one, no matter what anyone-else says to the contrary, it pays to take a furtive, stealthy approach to your favourite swims and features — camou clothing and a feather-weight footfall will load the odds more in your favour, for sure. As you fish more and more, you will get to know the underwater and surface features where predatory species are likely to be hiding in-ambush. These are the areas to tackle with all your skill and concentration.

Personally I always wear glasses with polarised lenses because these protect your eyes from any errant lures, and reduce glare and reflections from the water's surface, and thus enable you to see more of what's going-on underwater. When you're stalking fish in your venues, remember, if you can see the fish there's every chance that they can see you, that's if they haven't already heard you !

As I've already said, if the venue is Match-fished, then it makes good sense to target Match-fished swims where fry and other small fish will be feeding on excess bait, and where they themselves become bait (prey) for pike and perch, and chub.

By the way, you may be wondering why I haven't mentioned zander very often ..... well, that's because I've only ever caught one, and that was in the Fens of East Anglia, and because there are other much more authoritative articles about zeds, elsewhere on this website.

If you're lucky-enough to have trout and sea-trout and grayling in your venue(s), then you'll find that small hackled spinners will usually get rapid results, and with grayling especially, they grab lures enthusiastically even in the coldest of conditions — and what beautiful fish they are, to be sure !

Another advantage of lure fishing with small and medium-sized lures is that you can easily carry all the lures that you'll need for a good day's fishing, in a small bait tub or float box. There's no need to lug-around a 5 litre plastic bucket full of lures all in a complete tangle ... yup, believe me, I've seen it many times !

PROGRESSING FURTHER
From small and medium-sized lures, you can progress both ways: up into the heavyweight class to jerkbaits and the like, or you can take the much more subtle and some say much more skilful method of ultralight lure fishing.

Exponents of the latter technique (e.g. see Paul Dale's article) seem to manage to catch a whole range of predators of good sizes too, if they are to be had in their venues, and with all their lures for a day's fishing kept in ..... a large Bryant & May or Swan Vestas Matchbox !

Of course, which ever way you go, either the jerkbait route or to the finesse of ultralight lure fishing, you'll need a suitable rod and reel to match each lure weight range, in order to balance your set-up. Having tried both, I have managed to convince myself that macho mega-lures and jekbaits are fine for large venues, although I personally didn't find that there's as much skill required as on the other days when I fish my own smaller venues with small, even ultralight, lures. But far be it from me to preach to you ... I'm just giving some pointers and making comments. Like any sport, lure fishing's a personal thing, so it's up to you what you do.

AND FINALLY
No-one, not even me or Nick's Tackle Team, can tell you how to get the best from your own particular venues — only you can do that ! We can only make suggestions and give some broad hints and tips. As for which lures to use for which species in your own venues, that's for you to discover .... and when you do, please let us know — we might even publish your article .... in exchange for some nice lures or other tackle ! And, as always, if you have any questions etc., please email Editor Nick "The Doc" & Co., at Ask The Team!

And one final point .... I am convinced after 40+ years of lure fishing, that it's a complete fallacy that only big lures catch big pike. Big lures do catch big pike, but sure as hell they won't catch smaller predators, whereas small & medium-sized lures will catch big pike (where they are to be had), perch, chub, trout, grayling — FACT !

Have fun !

Brian Barwell
Deputy Editor

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