First Dropped Run Of The PIke Season

With the rivers still a tad high, though running off, I decided to head to a local gravel pit for a spot of pike fishing. As the pike normally feed there around lunch time and again in the evening I headed out into the fog mid-morning. The number of cars with no lights on was somewhat frightening with visibility lees than 100 yards and occasionally down to 50 yards. I arrived at the pit, with out any mishaps, to find the place empty. Despite the amount of rain recently the level was very low, a good 18" to 2' down on what would be expected to be it's normal winter level. This meant a couple of the better swims wouldn't be worth fishing as they don't produce when it's this low. I opted for a corner swim where there are two drop offs that the pike generally patrol.

Tidying fishing tackle bags is always a mistake, something always goes missing in the process. This time it was rod rest heads. A couple of appropriate sticks were pressed in to service. After a bit of plumbing about a float fished trout was  cast to the right hand drop of. I then dropped a float fished roach over the nearer left hand drop off. I thought at first I hadn't cast it far enough as the float didn't settle properly, but then it moved towards me.  A rather scruffy and skinny 67cm jack was soon to hand having put up precious little in the way of a fight. It looked like it had been rather badly handled recently. Just after I released it another angler came down. He went on to take a couple of dozen roach to a pound with out any been attacked by pike, which is most unusual.

 

Early in the afternoon the sun had burnt through the fog and made to place look quite pleasant. The float fished roach moved off, but I contacted with noting. Just as I returned it the trout moved off at quite a rate, This time I contacted with something quite solid that put up quite a fight for it's size. A nice tidy fish of 8lb 10oz. Just after this another angler dropped in who appeared to catch a few in the short time he was here.

 

That was it for the day. The expected evening feeding session failed to materialise. Taking with somebody the next day it seems that the pike have taken to feeding early morning and lunch time now. Not a bad start to the pike season. The rivers are back within their banks now and should be fishable next week.

 

Music while typing provided by: Downtown Soulville with Mr. Fine Wine