A Tad Nippy

For the first time since spring I had to scrape ice off the car window. I even packed the big coat, though I ended up not needing it. Arriving at the car park I found two other cars there and a couple of carp anglers. By the time I'd got set up in a swim near the island the sun had poked through and it was looking like a nice autumn day.

The usual float rigs were to be used. A small trout was dropped a rod length or so out where the pike tend to patrol. A large smelt was dropped in a deeper hole near the end of the island that had produced pike in the past. The was quite a green tinge to the water still and it got more intense to my right which was down wind. The first run came after an hour to the smelt. A little scrapper of a jack at 74cm. I also got my bait back which is a plus, so out it went again.

Another hour passed before the float on the inside moved away. As I stuck the other float moved off. I grabbed that rod and struck and felt a bit of resistance then nothing. Dropping that rod I retrieved the little jack of 68cm on the other.  I didn't have any more large smelt so put out a small mackerel instead. Another little trout was dropped on the inside.

Another hour passed before I got another run. Again it was the inside float that moved away, but this time I failed to contact with anything. There appeared to be no teeth marks on the bait either. As I had lunch the was a sudden influx of anglers. The number triple in half an hour. I've not seen that many on here for a long long time. It did mean, though, that the swim I was going to move to after lunch was now taken, so I stopped put. Mid afternoon the float near the island moved towards me. I wound down to the fish and struck into what felt like another small fish. As I got it near the bank it woke up and set of with a fast run straight into the other rig. This made quite a mess but I managed to chin it with out too much fuss. A fish of 80cm, around 7-8lb I reckoned.

As I went to return it gave a final thrash and drew blood. This made untangling the rigs a bit problematic, but I managed. I didn't realise how much blood had oozed out but the braid was well soaked in it. Whether this would attract the pike I didn't know. It may have repelled them as I didn't have another run. Still three fish out of a possible five isn't so bad.