After The Floods

The river having dropped 1.3m since the floods as was now back in it's banks and quite probably fishable, but I don't the banks were. The banks would be covered in a nice greasy layer of mud which I really didn't fancy frightening myself to death on. Stillwater it was then. Due to errands and the like I would be fishing office hours. Not often the best time for pike, but it was a nice day and I hadn't been out for a couple of weeks. The gravel pit, my first choice, looked a bit crowded so I headed to the estate lake and was surprised to find myself the only one there.  I thought, like the gravel pit, there would be a few refugees from the rivers there. One did arrive just after I got set up.

 

I started in a swim that often does well at this time of year. A float fished trout under the bush to my right and a headless sardine float fished in front in a bit of a depression. The only problem with this swim was you are in dappled shade and with a bit of a chill wind blowing straight at you it wasn't the warmest spot around the lake. I had my big coat so no problem really. After about ten minutes the trout float bobbed under and back up. I left it a little while before winding down to nothing, not even a bait. Another trout was dropped in the same spot to see if the bait thief was still hungry. Some time later I got a proper run on the trout and this time contacted with something quite small. As I got it to the surface I could see both hooks. I dinky little jack about twice the size of the bait had hold of the head. I managed to lift it clear of the water before it let go.

The slightly mangled trout was dropped in the same place again. Another angler popped down for a looksy. A while later the float appeared to move slightly. Staring at it I wasn't sure if it was moving or the ripple was causing it to look that way. The float then shot way. The rod hooped over as I grabbed it and after a bit of a  feisty charge about I had a nice looking pike of 75cm in the net. Unhooking it showed it was quite as nice looking as I though. Part of it's mandible was missing. Obviously and old wound as it was well healed leaving a red mark where it had come away. A quick way in the net showed it to be just over 7lb. As that had been my last trout I put a roach on and dropped it in the same spot.

The other angler left while I was having lunch, followed by another have a looksy. As the sun was now a bit of a nuisance making the floats hard to see I had a bit of a wander and spotted a few roach scattering in another swim that's produced a few in the past. I replaced the sardine with a length of lamprey and cast that out to the edge of an overhanging tree. The sardine was chopped up and scattered about. The roach took four casts before I could get it under the overhanging alder branches where the roach had scattered earlier. There's a bit of a trough runs along under the branches that seems to be where the pike hide. It was just after four when the lamprey float moved away quite slowly. A good heave and I was into some thing heavy. A rather dour fight ensued before a decent fish was in the net. A couple more anglers arrived, both pikers, just after I landed the fish. Lifting it from the water showed it to be a bit large than I'd thought. 95cm and 12lb 14oz. Not bad.

Unfortunately I had to pack up a good hour before dusk due to another errand. This place can produce a few in the lead up to darkness. This was shown by one of the new arrivals catching on lure as I was packing up. Still it was nice to be back among the pike. Hopefully the river banks might be safe enough to traverse by next week as there's not long to go before the end of the river season.