Lure success (kind of)

I managed to sneak out for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon with the lure rod, so moving further up the locks from rose bridge, I tried the basins around top lock and the Kirkless inn.

The usual snags were plaguing me again though as the first cast with a drop shot setup resulted in a snag and eventually my 6lb flurocarbon leader snapping.

Setting up again I switched from a drop shot to a small jig head, initially a ecogear shirasu head but after 2 more snags took the only 2 of those I had, I switched to a fox micro jig. Targeting the canals perch, my main lure for the day was a ecogear grassminnow s. Moving up a basin to just outside the Kirkless inn, the lock overflow was pouring in and creating a crease in the water along the near margin. I targeted this area on a slow retrieve, opting not to jig along the bottom to try and avoid the snags. To my surprise I felt a little bite and an over keen strike saw me lift a small perch clear out of the water. It stayed on the hook for only a split second before making an escape. A bit eager on my part but at least the take was more success than I'd had on my previous outings so I was feeling good about it. I moved on at this point and tried a few other areas, thinking the commotion will have disturbed any other perch in the area. Sadly the other areas were not as productive so on my way back home I tried the basin outside the Kirkless again. After trying a few casts around the same crease with no success I was ready for home when I decided to try out one of the more unusual lures that came in my ecogear pocket in set. It's an 'extra zone' bug ant style lure that resembles a small crayfish I suppose. Anyway, I gave this a few casts and on my second retrieve I was lucky enough to get a strong take and a giddy fight soon saw another small perch making it's way to the bank. Sadly this came off the hook again before I properly landed it, in this instance though I'm pretty sure that the jig head I was using was a bit small for the lure so I'm going to try a bigger head next time. 

Anyway, all in all I think it was a successful trip and certainly an improvement on my previous lure Fishig sessions. I still need to plan a longer day with the lures and try to find somewhere with less debris beneath the surface.

My attention is now turning to hall lane. I think I'll be needing some new rigs for this one as I think I've pushed the limits on the ones I have tied up at the moment.

For any snapchat fans out there, I've recently moved into this domain, search for fishernutstu. I plan on using this to upload instant shots from my fishing trips.