I’m Danny, a 25-year fishing veteran, but a guy with next to zero experience in lure fishing. This is my predator fishing story, from noob to hero hunter (hopefully).
Breaking Shads predominantly will cover my journey from absolute noob all the way to lure competitions, with any luck.
There will be no fluff or BS, I’m an expecting father (due 1st Oct ’24), work a lot and have just moved home so the Mrs is all over me for flat-packing.
What you read here will be a real account of my journey of learning to lure fish at 38 years old alongside a real life job, home, 3 dogs and a baby son.
I’ll be ultra transparent and will do things slightly differently to what you may find on Youtube and other sources. I’ll give you reel (see what I did there?) details, exact info on what I and other people we meet along the way catch, and where. So you can get on the fish too.
Breaking Shads is completely unbiased and free of sponsorship responsibility and opinion.
You’ll also find the info as I learn it, from my first kit, adventures, casts and broken shads. All the way to the 4lb perch I’ll catch next year – we can all dream.
As you can see by my first time out lure fishing (below) I’ve got some work to do to catching anything big.
How it started
Like many of you reading this, I started fishing when I was 4 years old, with my dad at my local fishery. This fishery has since become the epic syndicate Ecton Lakes, full of huge carp.
My first fish was a 16lb carp which my dad believed was a small tench when he handed me the rod. He was gutted but I was hooked.
Years fishing the local stream with bandy nets to grab gudgeon, bullheads, perch, chub and the odd baby tench as a kid.
Later targeting the same 2-foot wide stream with rod and reel to land chub up to over 4lb on floating crust or hotdogs.
In my teens I got more in to match fishing, spending lots of time on the now overgrown and disheveled Heyford Fishery. I won the under 16’s carp masters thanks to a lucky draw putting me on my favourite peg.
I could only afford a 10m pole, so peg 76 on the second bridge was the only spot in the match I could possibly catch on at that range, guess where I picked.
Carp fishing wasn’t far behind. I learnt my trade at Elsons at Stanwick Lakes where me and friend would ‘ghetto fish’ most weekends for months.
Blow up beds and a single brolly for us both was often laughed at but we were happy, catching some cracking fish and learning all about the residents and tactics it took to catch them.
During the cold winters me and a friend would always spend a day or two out piking, not catching much but the bug was there for many years.
I guess I didn’t have the knowledge or locations nearby to really target the predators. That said, we did catch Pike to about 10lb and some nice Zander to 3lb or so.
In later life I travelled to France fishing with friends, then on to Canada, Spain, dozens of trips to Thailand on complexes like Gilhams, Jurassic, EFT and many more. But the cream of the crop was a 58-hour, 7-flight expedition to the Amazon jungle on the boarder of Bolivia and Brazil.
Honestly, this was the best trip of my life and I wish I could be there still (don’t tell the mrs).
I guess you could say I know what I’m doing when it comes to fishing in general, I know my knots, fish finding tactics and how to handle some tackle. But there has been next to no lure fishing in my life, you could count the hours I’ve spent throwing a lure on 2 hands, it’s going to be a steep learning curve.
How I got here and why you should care
I’m lucky enough to own a fishing tackle shop in Northampton, Billing Tackle. Owning this shop since late ’23 is actually the reason I’m here.
The shop was predominantly targeted at course and carp anglers when I took over, but over the last few weeks and months we have opened a dedicated lure room, the biggest of its kind for miles around.
For me it was eye-opening. I saw all the vibrant coloured lures, the intricate details and lovely small rods and reels and just wanted to get involved.
So I did, I’ve basically sold all of my carp fishing gear and full on converted to lure fishing.
This means I’m all in, I have no choice but to run with this, to learn how to put more predators on the bank. I can’t do any other type of fishing.
More importantly, because I’m lucky enough to own a fishing shop, I can try any lure, rod, or any reel that I want. That means I will only give you the actual advice you need, what is actually working for me and putting fish on the bank.
I won’t be swayed by what I can get from sponsors, afford or have access to.
Not only that, I am not precious about the locations I fish, I want to promote the sport and get more people lure fishing so you’ll get real specifics, actual spots and how I caught from them (or blanked).
What to expect
During this transition I’ve done a lot of research, well I’ve done a lot of Googling and to be honest I was shocked to find a real lack of information about targeting species like perch and zander.
There are plenty of videos on Youtube, the likes of the Ginger Fisherman and friends are well followed and do great work to promote the lure fishing scene.
The problem is the info they give out is difficult to action if you have a craving to actually get out on the bank. The specific locations are not talked about and the tips and tricks that the pro’s use to pull out big fish are few and far between.
I watched a few dozen videos and to be honest, I didn’t pick up much in the way of actual advice other than a few lure and colour suggestions.
That said, I have loads to learn.
I don’t even know where to fish yet, let alone if those locations have fish in them, what licenses I need and then I’ve got the world of lures, rigs and tackle to investigate.
It won’t be pain free, there will be loads of ups and downs but thank you for following my journey and I look forward to seeing you on the bank.
