After fling lures about for half an hour, with only a couple of tiny jacks following them I got the dead bait rods cast out.. A headless sardine in the margins to the left, a lamprey section, popped up in front, and another, whole, sardine in the hole to my right. For the next seven hours I moved them about, injected them with oil, and told myself that bright sunshine isn't really piking weather.
Around seven the left hand float moved away and I was into a rather lovely little beast around the 8-9lb mark. Just after I returned a bait to the same area the right hand float disappeared, only to pop back up almost immediately. I wound down and with nothing apparently there I gave the bait a twitch to see if I could entice a take. Sadly this didn't work so I left the bait there in the hope something would return to it.
The left hand float then moved away again. Some thing heavy was quickly cranked near the awaiting net. Just as it's huge head appeared at the surface it decided to put up a struggle. After a few minutes I had a certain 20 on the bank. Clearly well fed and full of spawn. The fish was identified as one that had been caught about a month ago at 21lb 8oz and now weighed 23lb 8oz.
I did consider staying a bit longer, but as it was now dark and I hadn't bought a torch, and I don't really like dealing with pike in the dark any way, I decided to back up. I wound in the other two rods and the went for the left hand one only to find a little jack had grabbed the remains of the sardine that I'd dropped in the side after unhooking the big girl. It also highlighted the problem of piking at night. As it was rather deeply hooked and with only a phone to light things this was not going to be fun. Thankfully some help arrived and we managed to unhook it with out and injuries to the pike. All the blood was mine.
Not a bad end to the season, given it hasn't been the best six months I've had pike fishing. Far to many blanks.
