I Don't Like You

After completing  a couple of last minute Christmas chores I headed down to the river. It was a section I've not pike fished for a long time and I'd not heard any reports from there of pike, but there had been some nice roach catches so there's bait fish about. My intention was to do a bit of lure fishing as I wandered about looking for pikey looking swims as I wasn't sure how many swims there were on this length. 

As I got the lure fishing gear out of the car I realised the bib-and-brace and big coat were missing. Good job it wasn't cold. I spent an hour and a half wandering about and chucking lures. While I found several nice swims I didn't get a thing with lures. Didn't even have a follow. My theory about why lure fishing from the bank on the Ouse doesn't work to well in winter is the sudden drop off near the bank. It can go from four foot deep to twelve foot in less than a yard. From experience the majority of pike runs I get in winter are at the bottom of this drop off.  By the time the lure reaches this area it is six to eight feet above the pike and they aren't going to launch themselves that far up for a meal.

Returning to my first choice of swim with the deadbait kit a little tot, defying her parents calls, came running towards me. She stop in front of me and announced, with a silly grin on her face, "I don't like you" before running off laughing then stomping about in a puddle. Clearly full of the Christmas spirit, unlike her exasperated parents, who finally caught up with her as she kicked the muddy water about.

What followed  was basically the same in each of the three swims I fished. Two float ledger rigs were used. One with roach, the other with lamprey. One was fished just over the drop off and the other about a quarter to third of the way across the river. I got a couple of runs in each swim. One was dropped and the other the fish let go of the bait as it got near the surface. The three fish I saw were not big, maybe two to three pound, but any of them would have done to save a blank.

Merry Christmas everybody.