surface lures

Just a quickie!

With my fishing time being severley curtailed - i am finding the only time i get is for quick after work lure sessions.

Recently my imagination has been fired by tales of surface lure fishing. Now i have never caught a surface lure pike - so i have purchased a few

Chico - Smity scuttlebug
Small black jitterbug
Savage deviator - described as a wake bait
scum frog and a scum frog popper

Went out last night for a v quick trial and blanked - though it all seemed to work ok - just didnt find any pike !

so looking for tips - advice and anything about surface lure fishing .please!

Healdy

Best bit of advice I guess, think like a pike,and target the areas where you would hold up waiting for a meal to come past. As I use scum frogs almost exclusively I can tell you they work. You wont connect with every fish,but you'll soon learn that once you get a hit,wait a split second before either striking,or lifting into the fish,then just hold on,cos they generally turn and power off into the lillies or weed cover.
I fish them by casting them to the far margin,sometimes even casting onto the far bank,then twitching it so it resembles a frog hopping off the bank into the water. The retrieve is very slight twitches of the rod. You don't want the frog to hop as such,it stays on the surface the whole time,but the twitches make the rubber tails (legs) swim,so you'll work out the timing to get the right swim action. I always stop a few feet from the bank to check if anything followed it in. The one the other day was a couple of feet in front of me,and could clearly see a big fish nose to nose,with one twitch the fish engulfed the frog and motored off.
Just stick at it,you'll probably get to the point where you think you wont catch a thing,that's generally the time you get a strike and you shat your pants
Truly a great way to catch pike.
Best of luck.

Same as Tim really but the only difference is that when the lure hits the water let all the ripples settle befor you strat your retrieve, the Pike in the area will know its there the second it hits the water so leaving it a few seconds will only help wind the Pike up. The scum frogs are top class and they are almost impossible to snag be it in trees or lilly pads the scum frog will get through. If there not on scum frogs then a Crazy Crawler or a Rebel Buzzin Frog might be enough to get a take. Last night should have been perfect really because it was warm most of the day but cooled down towards evening, so pick your days and the results will follow.