One of Lee’s favourite fishing places is a string of pools
we know as Michael’s in the Midlands. We met Michael many years ago on the banks of
the Wye and he offered us the chance to fish his pools. I have taken 3 carp over 20 on crust from
them and Lee has taken pike to 17.5lbs on lures so lee was keen to try again
when he flew from Edinburgh to Birmingham.
We arrived at abut 11am and were a little disappointed to
see the water was very cloudy after the previous days rain but decided to try
for pike anyway. Lee likes spinning with an Ondex whereas I prefer using a
surface lure as I love the takes and thought that the disturbance would help
attract the fish.
Initially we had little joy, with Lee catching a small jack.
I witched to a bit of surface crusting seeing some carp moving about and
quickly had 3 but only to around 5lb. I then started scattering bread and
fishing with a float on the drop to catch small roach and bream. Lee tried the
next pool with a float fishing on the bottom to catch a string of small bream.
The disturbance I caused attracted jack pike so we reverted
to our lures. Lee foulhooked a bream of
about 1 lb followed quickly by foulhooking a lump which drifted to the surface
and was a carp of well over 20lb. As we
use barbless hooks, the lure eventually fell out much to Lee’s disappointment,
but as the day drew to a close we caught a series of jack pike to around 6lb.
Whilst it had not been the most productive day, we had a
great day out with no pressure, just relaxed fishing and lots of mickey taking.