TRAVEL ROD-CAST 13
Hello and welcome back to the Rigged and Ready social media roundup! As you’re aware, we usually aim to write one of these every month, but this winter we have decided to combine January and February. We are sorry to leave you waiting twice as long as normal, but hopefully that means we can jam-pack this edition full of exciting content. The fair-weather anglers amongst you will have put your rods away a while ago, but with spring just around the corner it’s nearly time to dust them off. We don’t blame you for taking a little time out, the fishing has been slow and the weather has been extreme at times. Nonetheless, some of the more dedicated members of our community have fished through the cold and have been handsomely rewarded for their efforts!
One of the best parts about winter fishing is that the grayling season is in full flow. The lady of the stream is one of the most beautiful fish in our waters, and not much beats catching them with a snowy backdrop. This stunning example was caught by George Lamb from ‘Adventure Fishing UK’ who was fishing a private farm stream in Lancashire. The X5 Adventure coupled with the RR3000 was his set-up of choice, and ledgered maggots was the method. If you want to see the video, then click here!
One of the stand out features of grayling as a species is the often spectacular dorsal fin. While the shorter and girthier fish shown above didn’t demonstrate this as well as it could have, this next one certainly does. This even bigger fish was caught on the same set up, slightly tweaked to incorporate a maggot feeder as oppose to a standard weight. The venue was another interesting one, being a mystery stretch of river George had never fished before. A risk trying a new venue, but definitely one that paid off! If you’re interested in watching the video, you can find it here.
There might be snow here like there was in the first picture, but that’s about the only similarity! Moving much further afield, this winter scene is a picture taken by Harry from ‘Bang Average Fishing’ who is currently travelling in Japan. His journey started around Hokkaido, and to see the first video instalment of his fishing expedition click here. Pictured is the Fish Rig 180, RR1000, Travel Unhooking Mat and folding landing net. We are very excited to see what kind of fish he catches!
The landing mat is being put to great use in the UK, and this very sizeable Pike was caught by ‘@harry_luke_fishing1’ on Instagram. Pike thrive in the colder months, and come January/February they’re often at their biggest. Either full of spawn, or full of baitfish, it’s definitely worth heading out piking this time of year if you have your eyes on a weighty personal best! If you can brave the cold that is.
Here’s another sparkling example of a big winter pike, this time caught by Martin from ‘Vildmark.co.uk’ dead-baiting with the Smuggler S Max. A river monster even Jeremy Wade would be proud of, and possibly the biggest pike to have ever been caught on a Rigged and Ready travel rod. If you, or someone you know has caught one bigger, we would love to hear about it!
Even though using bait for winter pike is typically more productive, some nice fish have been lure caught over the winter months. This was George Lamb’s first pike of the year caught on the Predator rod/RR3000 combo whilst filming a YouTube video that you can watch here. According to George, the most effective way to catch pike on lures in cold water is to retrieve bigger lures slowly, near to the bottom in deeper water.The trout is a fish we don’t necessarily associate with winter in the UK, with the official season starting in March. However, this season is for wild fish and stocked stillwater trout like this rainbow can be caught all year round. They’re much trickier to tempt than in the warmer months when they’ll readily take a plethora of natural imitations, but it’s not impossible as proven here by Martin from ‘Vildmark.co.uk’. The rod featured is our 2-in-1 Travel Fly rod, which has both 6 and 4 weight options.
Before we wrap things up, there’s one more interesting thing we wanted to show you! In our time we’ve seen travel rods in all sorts of vehicles from van conversions to kayaks, but this is a new one! A semi-off road electric bike, what an effective way to get around. Definitely a stealthy way to quickly move between swims, and the Predator rod certainly looks the part attached to it!
Thanks a lot for reading our January/February roundup. We hope you’ve all had a great start to the year and we couldn’t be more excited for spring. Over the next few weeks the coarse river season will end, but that brings with it the start of the wild trout season. Hopefully through March some beautiful wild brownies will be caught on Rigged and Ready travel rods. If you happen to catch anything you’d like us to see, then you’re welcome to send it in via email or tag us on Instagram @riggedandreadytravelrods.