A Strapping Pike

With the rivers still a bit high Friday saw me down at the Aire and Calder Canal, for the first time in many years. It was still  as I remember it, long stretches of apparently featureless iron clad banks punctuated with with the occasional locks and bridges.

My first port of call was a lock complex as this at least provided some features and variation. I started of with small jerk baits which failed to elicit any form of response, nor did a selection of noisy crank baits.Deciding the fish were may sulking on the bottom I then bounced an E-Sox Jell-Ignite slowly along the bottom and was soon rewarded by a near 7lb pike. Buoyed up by this  I continued on. Fishing around the couple of bridges, where the channel narrowed and close to the side along the rather featureless stretches.

I only saw one other angler, who was jigging for perch, and struggling. He told me that it had been hard work since Christmas with the fish not shoaling up as usual. He had heard of a few pike taken on another stretch though. So I decided to give it a try.

A last cast below the lock, before moving off saw me latch into what initially felt like a fish as it swung about in the current created by the out-flow. After a bit of a struggle it turned out to be a mussel covered strap from a lorry.

At the new stretch, which apart from a bridge appeared featureless I wandered along chucking a larger jerk or two, but failed again to elicit any action.

With only a couple of days left til the end of the season I'm hoping the rivers are get low enough to allow my to at least get down the banks to fish them rather than stood at the top of the flood bank.