TRAVEL ROD-CAST 14
The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer… What a relief, spring is finally here! March is a significant month in the fishing calendar, with the coarse river fishing season coming to an end. Many anglers will now wait until June to get their rods out, but as one door closes another door opens. Wild trout season has officially started! It’s great to see so many of you not wasting any time, and making great use out of the first couple of weeks of the season. Whether it be on rivers, streams or stillwaters there’s no denying brown trout offer excellent sport.
They have to be one of the most spectacularly marked freshwater fish in the UK; colourful and diverse, no two trout are the same. This particular example was caught by George Lamb whilst filming a YouTube video you can watch here. The venue was a secluded lake that’s hidden in the forest, a real wild fishing paradise. If you do decide to watch the video, you’ll be able to see the full set up shown below in action.
For those of you that are unsure where to start with a travel trout fishing set-up, let’s take a look at George’s. Starting with the rod, featured here is the reliable semi-telescopic Fish Rig 180. This rod’s soft whippy action allows it to cast light lures, and it also excellently absorbs headshakes from the trout on the end of your line. It’s paired with the RR1000, a perfectly sized companion. The line is our 15lb braid, down to a 12lb fluorocarbon leader. You could go lighter here if you wanted to achieve a bit more distance on the cast, but stronger line will help you get free from snags and help you to land bigger fish. The lure is a single hooked barbless spoon, part of our small spinners and spoons set. Everything featured here is available on our website!
It’s not only the wild trout fishing that’s starting to heat up, but the stocked trout fishing too. Here’s Martin from ‘@vildmark.co.uk’ with another stunning rainbow trout. This fish was caught on our Infinite Fly 2-in-1 travel rod, as you can see in the background. Fly fishing will likely only get more and more productive as the year goes on and we can’t wait to see what else he catches. There have already been plenty of dry fly catches reported this year, exciting times ahead!
As well as rainbow trout fishing Martin loves to catch pike, and what a beast this one is! Coming in at 12lb, this Norfolk predator was a very welcome blank saver caught on the S Max, a popular choice for deadbaiting! March is an interesting time for pike fishing, if you judge it right you can catch them at their heaviest. Judge it wrong and you won’t catch anything at all! When pike spawn they don’t feed, so having a good understanding of their spawning behaviour in your local waters can be very beneficial. Looking at the size of this pike’s head, it’s likely big female which may be feeding hard to regain energy lost during mating. Sounds familiar!
It’s around this time of year when UK carp anglers come out in full force, especially with the warm weather we’ve been getting. As we know from the last roundup, Harry from ‘Bang Average Fishing’ is over in Japan and this is probably his most notable catch from the journey so far. Caught on a chunk of bread fishing near mount fuji using his Fish Rig 180, now that’s a story for the grandkids! The small rod wasn’t built with carp in mind, but it’s fantastic to see it can handle one when the opportunity arises. To watch the video, click here.
Plenty of carp have been caught on our rods in the UK too. Nothing huge just yet, but as you can see a fish doesn’t need to be massive to make an angler happy. Always fun to see a mirror carp on the bank especially, great work Brad!
Check out this beautifully coloured carp caught by Trish Norris while camping in Staffordshire. The world traveller combination was her set up of choice, a great compact rod for taking on your camping holidays.
Now here’s a really interesting catch, and quite an intimidating one at that! For those that don’t know, it’s called a Lizard fish and this specimen was caught by Mark Putt (AKA @torbay_lure_angler on Instagram). The rod of choice was the X5 combination that accompanied him on his holiday to Lanzarote.
Next up we have a truly special fish, a real pleasure to be able to share with you. For those that don’t know, it’s called a crevalle jack, and a big one at that! Taking a whopping 40 minutes to land, this impressive fish is as beautiful as it is strong. Caught on the X5 Max, our multi-purpose spin/bait/fly travel rod. Although bigger and more powerful than it’s younger brother, the X5 Adventure, we never expected it to be put to the test on this sort of scale! Wow…
Thanks for taking the time to read our social media roundup of March 2023. There have definitely been some great fish caught, and perhaps even an early fish of the year contender with the crevalle jack. With the weather warming up fast, soon we will see our waterways explode with life. If you want to show off your travel rod catches, then feel free to send them in via email or tag us on Instagram ‘@riggedandreadytravelrods’. Good luck with your fishing and tight lines for spring!
