Finally Oused A Pike

Wednesday I decided to return to The Ouse, as it had dropped 1m since my last visit on Monday. This time, though, I decided to fish the opposite bank. I'd forgotten to get a new gas cannister on Tuesday, while out and about, so delayed my start in order to acquire said item.  Unfortunately this meant I was passing the public schools as the sprogs were been dropped off. Their mothers, still drunk form last night's Prosecco, didn't seem to know where the entrance o the school was or what the pretty yellow lines mean. After that the rest of the journey was plain sailing, except for the final section along pot holed single tack roads and muddy tracks. A couple of water filled pot holes resulted in nasty scrapping noises under the car.

A quick wander about with the lure rod, while it didn't result in any fish, showed there to be plenty of slack water behind the trees. My plan was to fish a few for an hour each. A plan that failed to produce anything other than a lot of sliding about on alluvial mud. While the sun never managed to poke through it wasn't cold. Certainly didn't need the big coat. There was, in the misty morning, a spot of very very light drizzle, or as my Grandad described such weather - feels like the fog's leaking. Moving swims was not an easy undertaking. Getting back up out of some swims needed two or three trips as there was simply no way of getting up fully laden with tackle. One step up, slide two back seemed to be the order of the day.

 

It wasn't until the penultimate swim of the day that I got my first run. Not so much a run as the float bobbing about. I assumed it was a little jack, faffing.  Lifting in to the fish it was clearly something a bit bigger.  The fight lasted longer than it should as I'd not extended the landing net and getting any closer to the river would probably have seen me sliding in. A tidy fish of 8lb 3oz and 83cm, saved me from a fourth blank and a third on The Ouse. As the sardine was still reasonably intact I tossed it back in again, having injected a spot more oil. When I went to release the rest pike it swam round and in to the bank, were it sat with it's back out of the water. I've seen this behaviour before and have no idea why they do it. I assume they maybe a bit disorientated or something. I gave it a prod and it slowly sunk away, so assume it's OK. If it had been wholly submerged I'd have left it.

After another thirty minutes I moved to the final swim of the day, which failed to produce. With the lack of dusk, and the fact I'd left the headtorch in the car, I started to pack up in daylight after moving everything to the top of the bank. Mist was starting to form in the fields. By the time and packed up and walked as far as the electric fence it was dark. I propped the damp metal landing net against the fence while I wrestled with the gate. It was only when I grabbed to rubber handle of the landing net I realised what I'd done. I lifted the net over carefully as I had no desire to find out if the fence was live. The trip back along the pot holed road was taken very slowly to avoid any more scrapes to the underside of the car. When I arrived at the main road I was astonished at the lack of traffic. This had me wondering if there'd been an accident on it and people were avoiding. A noisy at Google maps showed no problem apart from the usual at this time of day. Quite why there was so little traffic I don't know, but it was a straight forward run home.

With the rivers up and down, The Ouse had risen 6" while I was there, it's all pot luck at the moment. Think I'll give The Ouse a rest and try somewhere else on Friday.