The Brochet Season Starteth

We've had a couple of frost now, including one particularly hard one, so there's no more excuses - out with the pike rods and down to the estate lake. Thursday I sat for several hours willing the floats to move, but nothing. I tried the ye olde sandwich and cuppa trick and going for a pee, but the day remained fishless.

 








Friday I went down to a local gravel pit which, surprisingly, was rather low. It had risen about 4" since summer, though it's still a couple of feet lower than I would have expected. A sprat was dropped to left by some tree roots. and a sardine out towards to centre. Halfway through the morning I got my first run. Whatever it was nicked my sardine. About half an hour later the same thing occurred again. The same thing happened a third time, but this time I retrieved a badly mauled sardine. Quite how a pike can get a bait in that state an not get hooked I don't know. What was left of it was chopped up and tossed around the tree roots.

 








Halfway through the afternoon I got my fourth run and this time made contact. A rather golden looking little jack around 2lbs or so, which managed to jump out of the landing net after I'd unhooked it. My fifth run resulted in a slightly marked sardine which went out again. The sixth run had me latched into something a bit bigger. After a a bit of a struggle it was safely in the net. Estimated by another angler and myself at 7-8lb it turned out to be exactly 10lbs.  A quick photo and release, it sat in the leaves in the margins for a couple of minutes before swimming away. As it was now about to get dark I packed up on a high and a bit miffed with the missed runs.

 








Having commented on Crazy Hooks Youtube channel about the problem of missed runs and how the 'experts' rarely mention it, couldn't believe this was how I was starting my pike campaign. Still it all turned out well in the end with my first double of the season. Lets hope there's more to come.