Penultimate Session of the Year

'Twas a far nicer day today than it was yesterday, the sun even managed the occasional appearance. I was back to the old estate lake for another spot of piking. I headed for a swim in the top corner where the dammed stream that created the lake originally feed it. The old stream bed can still be found for a short distance after the old inlet, about six inches lower than the surroundings, but it tends to be and all or nothing area. The other productive area is in front of you just beyond a two to three inch drop. This also happens to be the line often fished with waggler/pole for the silvers. The margins look inviting, but as I found you tend to spend a lot of time dredging twigs and branches out.

 








A headless herring was dropped in the old stream bed, where sadly it remained untouched for the six hours I was there. Even after I'd injected it with a bit of winterised oil. The head I'd chopped up and tossed out along the stream bed. The second rod was baited with a sprat as there's a lot of small roach around that size in the lake. This was fished in front just beyond the drop and a few small balls of groundbait tossed around the area.

 








It was three and a half hours before the first, and only, sign of action. Just as I was making a cuppa the float shot off at a great rate of knots and I lifted into a lunatic little pike that careered  all over the place. The lively little beast was equally uncooperative on the bank. At 76cm and 6lb 8oz it had fought well above it's weight.

There had been three anglers on the lake. One had three little jacks to lure, One, fishing for silvers had had a few bits and another pike angler blanked. One thing we all noticed was the number of small fish rising all over the lake at different times. I was assumed there may well have been a few hatches of midges.