Beware of the teeth!

Predator action aplenty on new hooks policy

Bury Hill Fishery is now a few days into its Predator season and as usual the Old Lakes Zander and Pike stocks have been providing customers with some fantastic sport with quite a few big doubles having already been caught. Although Winter is the best time to fish for the Zander, unlike Pike they don’t like the conditions to be too cold with fairly mild, wet and windy conditions best for prolonged sporting action. This year the fishery went over to a single barbless hook policy banning the use of treble hooks for dead bait fishing, which has caused a bit of a storm to some in the Predator world. However with that said, the fishery’s decision to ban treble hooks and bring in the single barbless hook patterns has been done with fish safety in mind and at the end of the day that is the number one priority of any fishery.

There are three hook patterns that are available to use with single hooks and all of them can be purchased in the onsite tackle shop that I manage for the fishery. All of the hook patterns are made up with strong swivels and 30lbs traces so they are of good quality and plenty strong enough to withhold the power of a big Zander or Pike. In fact the new hook patterns of single hook, single hook with a hair rig and double single hook pattern, do offer much better bait presentation and those that have had success with the hooks have been very complimentary on the hook rule change. In my opinion the single hook pattern with a hair rig set up is the way to go for the sometimes shy biting Zander.

Filming for the Zander

Over the past few weeks I have been busy filming some fishing tasters for the fishery website with a view to helping and promoting the fishing at the lakes. One of the tasters that, (can be seen on my YOU TUBE channel) I have completed is a fishing taster for the PREDATORS which I have done in two parts. Part one is the intro plus tips on the best dead baits to use and how and of course what tackle and instruments are needed before you line up on the bank side to fish for Pike and Zander. I also demonstrate how to bait up the hair rig method and show on camera the new hook patterns in sizes 4 6 and 8 which are the only sizes that can be used. Part two is the main catching action shots where I land some nice fish and show the ease of unhooking and placing back into the water stress free. I also run through my rod, reel, and terminal tackle set up which I know is a top way of catching and getting good runs.

By clicking on these links you can take a look at both of the fishing tasters, I hope you enjoy them.

 

Next time I will blog how my match panned out for the John Hollands Memorial match at Buckland Reserve and Fishery near Cliff in Kent where I was visiting the lake for the first time and representing the KDAA for whom I am patron to.

“Tight Lines”

Russ Evans