Do I have a problem?

[domavius]

Hi, I'm new here, I've been a guest here for sometime now, but just decided to be a member because I have alot of questions, but I don't want to spam huge amounts of threads because I have problems with this and that. But please correct me if I say something or do something that is agaisnt forums rules or regulations. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Ok my problem: I've always loved fishing especially lure fishing, but I never have time to fish, only during the summer holidays which is a bad time to fish in general. I wanted to find out if theres any problem with this set up. I'm using a Shimano Alivio BX spinning rod 2.7 metres and throws 10-30 grams, I'm using a unknown ferm rear drag real which is mostly based for feeder fishing, I'm using Powerpro braided line 9.1kg breaking strain and a 15kg 20cm leader (Akara fishing WolframX leader or something like that). The lure I mostly use is the original rapala in 7cm (silver), skitter pop 5cm (silver blue) and x-rap 6cm (glass ghost). I fish mostly in dirty water with perhaps 30cm visibility. So is there a problem and how would I fix this in order to succed during summer.

Sorry for the paragraphs. >

[fishing_in_israel]

Aug 31, 2010 19:43:00 GMT -4 domavius said:

Hi, I'm new here, I've been a guest here for sometime now, but just decided to be a member because I have alot of questions,.....

Ok my problem: I've always loved fishing especially lure fishing, but I never have time to fish, only during the summer holidays which is a bad time to fish in general. I wanted to find out if theres any problem with this set up. I'm using a Shimano Alivio BX spinning rod 2.7 metres and throws 10-30 grams, I'm using a unknown ferm rear drag real which is mostly based for feeder fishing, I'm using Powerpro braided line 9.1kg breaking strain and a 15kg 20cm leader (Akara fishing WolframX leader or something like that). The lure I mostly use is the original rapala in 7cm (silver), skitter pop 5cm (silver blue) and x-rap 6cm (glass ghost). I fish mostly in dirty water with perhaps 30cm visibility. So is there a problem and how would I fix this in order to succed during summer.

Sorry for the paragraphs. >

Welcome aboard The only stupid question is the one not asked

Where abouts are you from and what kind of waters are you fishing? Once we know that it will be easier to try and help with specifics.

[domavius]

Lithuania (currently living in the UK), I fish natural and man-made lakes, ponds, small and very large rivers, sometimes but rarely canals. Also I don't fish off a boat, off the edges of the lakes, river, etc.

[fishing_in_israel]

Sept 1, 2010 7:21:24 GMT -4 domavius said:

Lithuania (currently living in the UK), I fish natural and man-made lakes, ponds, small and very large rivers, sometimes but rarely canals. Also I don't fish off a boat, off the edges of the lakes, river, etc.

I think I shall leave the advice and tips to the Brits on the forum.......

[Tom]

and i think i can help you ;D
Your set up should be fine, small reels are great for the lures you described. Your original floater is a great lure for perch, but you need to buy some lures for the murky waters you are fishing. Spinners are a MUST, i favour the abu reflex, but any spinner will do as long as it works. I would use your skitterpop a lot, the fish will find it easily even in the murky water. Otherwise i would buy some more lures in brighter colours, for pike i would highly recommend rapala's silver blue (as is your skitterpop), orange is a succesful colour for me too, firetiger is probably worth a try too, if you are unsure, this is a common colour pattern with an orange belly, yellow or chartreuse sides, a green back with black stripes.
For perch, anything with lots of red on it will do (perch have a colour biase towards red). If you still have any questions, just ask me in a personal message or on here or something. Hope this helps
P.S i hope your using a wire trace where pike are present, pike will bite through fishing line no problem, and you cannot justify leaving hooks in a pike, which is surprisingly a very fragile species. If you learn how to "chin" a pike, it will make unhooking a lot easier. Wire traces are available from every single tackle shop i have ever visited near me, so just ask at your local tackle shop, and buy yourself half a dozen, they will probably last you all year.

[domavius]

Thanks everyone for the help . I going to save up money for a reel, I heard you should only use a front drag reel for spinning, but what gear ratio would you suggest for braided line and what company makes reliable reels (shimano, okuma, abu garcia?).

The original is a great lure I had bites but I didnt get anything out of the water but I have problems casting this lure, it doesnt fly very far. I have one spinner a blue fox vibrax hot pepper in clown in size 2 but I'm thinking of getting a mepps agilia/black fury, do you suggest any universal colours for these?

I use to have an all orange, feathered, with glitter on the sides pencil popper, that was catching everything in the lake, but I lost to a pike of a lifetime which was 3 summers ago (that time I was using mono) so I am going to buy a firetiger and a hot tiger colour. I am afraid of buying a silver blue because it blends in with the sky and fish wouldn't see it . Amazingly the colour that worked perhaps for me in any lake, river, canal was the redhead 4-5cm sinking crankbait that thing catches on the worst days which I also lost on this summer but the most random way possible (LoL).

I know how to 'chin' a pike but I never caught a pike worth 'chinning'. I've always use wire leaders but they never failed me once (ok one time they did)

PS. I wouldnt mind advice and tips from other countries.

[Tom]

You don't need to buy a new reel in my opinion, i use rear drag reels, although my favourite is a front drag, not for that reason, but simply because it is loaded with 50lb power pro, which has only snapped once, when i deliberately cast a treble hook up a tree in an attempt to get my long lost ssr9-sb back
Don't worry about the silver blue blending in with the sky, the fish just see it as a silhouette anyway.
As for spinners, the best 1 i ever used was just a plain copper spinner with a reflective sticker on it, it was made by amega. That lure got snagged up on a rope, and the best spinner i have at the moment is an abu reflex with a plain stainless steel crinkle blade. It has a red body and red wool dressing the hook. Colours don't seem important for spinners, i don't know what the others think, but thats what i've found. Spinners seem to work well because of the vibration and flash put out by the spinning blade.

[domavius]

The reel on my rod is bulky and heavy so I need something lighter anyways ( I'll just put it on my feeder or float rod). I had a bunch of spinners but all of them got bent in half, the sticker come off and got worn and rusted away beyond freely moving. I have and had a bunch of spoons aswell but I never caught anything on them because I always cast them across the road and into another lake, they also make too much noise then they land in the water, etc. I also don't like jigging using rubber/softplastic (or just jigging in general), I've caught pike and zander while jigging but for some reason I dont like it, buzzbait/spinnerbaits I dont like using aswell. I pretty much accept crankbaits/topwater baits, spinners, certain softplastic worms and heavy flies

[Tom]

A lure you need to buy is the storm wildeye 6inch roach, they are about £5 for a pack of 2, and i have caught dozens of pike on them, although some people would call them jigs, i don't jig them, i just reel them in dead slow along the bottom.

[domavius]

I use to have a storm wildeye pike but that thing fell apart because every where I fished it, it got caught in underwater weeds or a tree stump, etc I had to dive down to get it, because people regulary come in the lakes and rivers to swim, play around, wash, etc. But I am going to try get this lure

[Tom]

i caught a pike on a storm wildeye pike at the weekend, thena fish trashed it, it bit the tail off. I then caught the same fish on a storm jig, and it weighed 17lb 4oz

[domavius]

These are the rapala lures I'm thinking of buying (of course not at the sametime, but I will slowly get there)

MaxRap - 11cm FHC
Flat Rap - 6 or 8cm HT or G
DT Fat - PRT
Jointed - 7cm FT or TR
Tail dancer 7cm - HC
X-Rap shad shallow 6cm - CLN
x-Rap Subwalk 7cm - CGH
CountDown - 5cm BCF
(or the clackin' minnow when its out)
Would you suggest me buying these lures or only some of them or would you suggest larger sizes and different colours (I forgot the silver blue, lol)

[Fishooked]

The sizes of the reel and equipment are foreign to us inm the USA since we dont use the metric system, ;D I would have to see a picture of your setup.

Are you saying your reel is too small or too large?

And do not worry about making lots of posts - we encourage it!
That is what a discussion board is all about my friend. Welcome aboard, and thanks Tom for helping him out...

[domavius]

Thanks for the warm welcome , pictures are unavailable at the moment, sorry ):

Reel is awesome, you can catch wahoo or tarpin if I was in america with this reel , the reel is inbetween small and large, but its bulky and heavy for its size, so I need a lighter reel.

I thought I might get some americans stumped, I'll try write in both metric and imperial units

[Tom]

1 thing i will say is your are using lures that are in my opinion too small. At first i was reluctant to try larger sizes, but after using them, i catch way more pike on large lures than i ever did on small lures. lures of 7cm are fine for tiny pike up to about 5lb, but if you want to catch anything bigger, i would buy some lures a lot bigger. I recently bought an 18cm original, and that is by no means the biggest lure in my tackle box. You may think im stupid when you cast the large lures, they do make a big splash when they hit the water, but if you give them a fair try, you will catch a lot more, and bigger fish.

[domavius]

the simple thing is that I'm afraid of buying larger lures because I'm afraid its a poor invest and its going to break my rod while casting it since my rod only cast up to 30 grams (my last spinning rod broke because of casting a larger lure). the answer could that i should get a baitcasting rod and reel but i find them expensive and some sort of uncomfortable to hold and use. plus the lure size is kinda intimadating to me, but i'm going to try larger lures

[Tom]

my rod is 5-25 grams, i use lures up to about 70g lol. It is a good rod though, made by greys, i don't know if you have ever heard of them, it was expensive, but its my only lure rod, and the best rod i have ever used. i bought it 4 years ago, and i have never gone fishing and not used it

[Tom]

im not suggesting massive lures, if you read pike and predator magazine, you will see that lures people use are huge, 10inch replicants are about average size. What i mean is 7cm is at the very bottom size of the lures i use, something like a f12 or the 6 inch roach i said about will be ideal, they are not huge, but they have a bit of size to them, and will be seen much more easily by the fish than a lure of say 5cm.

By the way, i sent you an important personal message, just check your inbox.

[domavius]

I've heard of greys, they make quality rods, but i dont have quality money , the current one im using is amazing.

wow 25cm?!, i wouldnt be looking at this lure if i was in a tackle shop, 12 cm seems to me to be more suitable for me, but ur advice seems to give me more confidence in buying larger lures, but im not ready for anything over 20cm yet

[Tom]

i don't use 10 inch replicants, my biggest rep is 8inch, they also do a 6 inch version which would be more suited to you. I agree that lures of around 12cm are perfect for your average pike, but i was just pointing out that theres no need to be reluctant to try "huge" lures, i know i was when i first started. I have never looked back.
Here is a list of the rapala lures i am hopefully going to eventually buy:
Skitterpop 7cm hot clown
shallow shad rap 9cm silver blue (replacing lost lure) (TED)
Skitterprop sureset 9cm lime frog
super shad rap 12cm firetiger
Countdown 1inch fire minnow (for perch)
Saltwater skitterpop 12cm mullet (for catfish)
DT flat 7 pearl-grey-shiner (replacing lost lure)
Sliver 13cm red-head (replacing lost lure)

You will notice that hardly any of them are really big, only the super shad rap is a large lure, and it is a very popular lure for pike across the country.

[domavius]

thats a nice list , i might get similar sizes, but what about the list of lures i said, would u recommend them and in the said colours? ( i heard a lot of problems like lips breaking off, "helicopter" effect casting, etc)

what about other companies like luckycraft, megabass, jackall. yo-zuri and salmo? do you or anyone have advice on this lures (sorry if im saying these company names in the wrong section)

[Tom]

your lures should be fine, although i would go for lures slightly bigger. As for other lure companies: i can't tell you about those you listed as i don't use any of them. Fox are good lures for cheap prices, and are available everywhere here in the UK, mepps are good for spinners, Storm is the best if you are looking for soft plastics. The shakespeare big S is a great plug for pike, i bought mine for about £3, and it is completely black, with white eyes. I like to reel it in slow across the surface.
I have never had a lip crack off, and i don't know what you mean by helicopter effect. The only lures i know of with fragile lips are the DT series from rapala.

[domavius]

awesome, ye i meant to say some of course will be in larger sizes, but are the colours ok for the lures? (plus i want an all black lure, since i heard there a univerisal colours for all waters), i dont mind buyin cheap lures, since all my best pike and perch were caught on cheap unknown brand lures

I meant saying that when u cast ur lure it doesnt go straight is spins on a cast like a boomerang ( but thats probarly a bad cast or something)

[Tom]

Yep, the colours look fine to me, i would choose the Red tiger colour. You have a good mix of bright and naturals, so you will have lures for all situations
I red in an article in P&P magazine recently, that surprisingly, red works very well in murky/coloured water, so red tiger should be good, although i don't own any lures in that colour, so i don't know first hand how good it is for pike, although it is known to be a pike catcher. Do you remember who made that orange pencil popper you mentioned in an earlier post? Also, where you bought it from? You should probably try and buy another 1, and i will keep an eye out for 1 too

The helicopter cast thing has never happened to me, except in strong winds, i doubt it has anything to do with the lure, so again, i wouldn't worry too much

[domavius]

I also use to have an all red spinner but i missplaced it so cant find it anymore
If I would know I would have bought it again but I can't remember who made it, its was 6 years ago plus it was a random buy (I didnt want to spend alot of money at that time), it was basicly in a sealed plastic bag with a price tag on it and it was in russian and i bought it in lithuania. if i knew i would tell you.

ps. do u want me to describe how it looked like?

[Tom]

you said what it looked like, i will keep an eye out for a similar one, its just i have always been interested in catching pike off the surface, and i only have 2 surface lures, and neither of them have ever caught me anything. All my surface caught pike have been either with spinners bulging the water, or shallow diving floating crankbaits reeled in dead slow along the top. Should be getting a skitterpop soon, and after that a skitterprop, so i should be able to catch my first fish on a true surface lure

[domavius]

I was going to say it in greatier detail, but I already did (hahah) its fun catching this way . but the funny thing is, my lost pencil popper caught alot of fish, but when i got the skitter pop i got less frequent strikes or not at all on it o.O, but i dunno i must be going crazy or something

[Tom]

go on youtube and watch the rapala how to video of the skitterpop, just type in skitterpop and click on the 1 by "completefisherman" You might be fishing it wrong or something. Actually here is the link

Oh ye, does the skitter pop actually "POP", and did your orange 1 too? Just my only popper, the berkley frenzy frog, doesn't actually pop, it just splashes on the top

[domavius]

i watched every vidoes a good couple of times, i read articles on poppers, different techniques, i pretty much copied everything they did or said in all weathers. ye the skitter pop works fine i have the older version of the skitter pop but it does everything on the box apart from catching fish, my pencil popper worked fine aswell it made weaks pops or didnt pop at all coz it came with a split ring and i was using a wire trace aswell but that didnt stop them from eating my lure

[Tom]

thats odd? i have always been told that the skitter pop was a great lure. Well, i'm gonna get 1 and i will let you know how i do on it.