Piking In The Rain

Fished a small estate lake today, the big house it belonged to being long gone. Well not that long, it was the remains were finally demolished in the sixties. My intended tactic of a couple of hours in a swim then move was abandoned when the wind and rain started. The pike were clearly active. While I set up the rods I'd put a couple of baits in the landing net in the lake to defrost. Having got the first rod sorted with a float rig I noticed the net heading into the lake. A small pike was clearly hungry and had grabbed one of the baits through the net. I very nearly landed it as it appeared to have got it's teeth snagged in the netting. I had a go with a wobbled bait on the other rod, but nothing occurred.

 








A sprat was fished to a near bank feature and a sardine to a far bank feature. It was nearly mid day before the first run happened and, after a brief fight, a lively little 70cm fish was landed. I had a second run on the sprat around two hours later, but after a couple of head shakes what felt like a small jack came adrift. This one coming from the pole/float line. The next fish came from the bottom of the ledge near the far bank. Taken on a sardine it came in like a wet sack. At 82cm and 6lb 10oz it was a rather hollow and tatty fish. I gave it a little time into dark to no avail and as it had finished raining I packed up. I hate packing up in the rain.

 








Nowt big, but not a blank made up for sitting in the wind and rain. One thing I did discover was that winterised sardine oil doesn't taste like sardine. Not when you get it an your sandwiches any way.