Back T' Pit

 Another trip to the gravel pit as I suspect the brick pond would be still frozen, and the rivers are rising and or falling. Again I was the only one there, apart from the robin. I was surprised to see a large area of ice still floating about. The wind was blowing it into the corner I wanted to fish so I opted to fish the corner I blanked in last time. There was, however, a larger area of water to go at. The other problem was that the branches thrown at the ice and leaf debris kept drifting backwards and forwards throughout the day dragging the line and rigs about.

Baits were the same as last time. The sardine was placed near the tree roots in two and a half foot of water and left there as the pike are known to patrol along there. The trout would be cast about the area and be moved every 45 minutes or so in the hope of landing it in front of a pike. Apart form being pestered by two robins, one having a more orange chest than the other, nothing much happened except a visit from the bailiff. Another angler had set up on the far bank maggot drowning. I didn't see him catch anything. Three lads also turned up deadbaiting but didn't catch either. The sun also turned up which meant I had to be careful where I cast the floats, as pike floats go invisible in winter sunshine no matter how big they are.

Around one the float on the trout started to bobble about in the manner associated with small pike. I had the fish on for about thirty seconds before it came adrift along with my last trout deadbait. It didn't feel very big at all. The next bait out of the freezer bag was half a small herring. This hadn't been in the water very long before the float trundled away. This time I was in contact with something heavier That put up a rather lacklustre fight. A rather long and skinny fish of 86cm and 7lb soon graced the net. 2cm shorter and 4lb lighter than Tuesday's fish it had a big lump out of it's tail fin that looked like an otter bite. That was it for the day. Again I fished until I couldn't see the floats.