Jorvik Angler: I Picked The Wrong Day

Barbel or pike. Thursday or Friday. These were the choices on Wednesday. The weather forecast for both days was much of a muchness. I had other things to do involving other people as well. Friday was agreed on for the other things, so Thursday was fishing day. Thursday morning the weather forecast had changed a bit, with a rain rather than drizzle. It didn't look too bad when I got up though. I decided against flood water barbel fishing as I really didn't fancy the steep slippy banks above a fast flowing river. A trip to the gravel pit where I could hide under a brolly looked more inviting. The rain had stopped when I got there but it continued under the trees where I would be sat.

I moved one swim away from my last visit. A small trout was tossed out under the trees to my left and a large smelt out to the weed bed in front. The rain then turned up as expected. Looking at the weather forecast and rain radar on the phone it was going to be like this for the rest of the day. Bands of rain sweeping through with clear intervals. Not that it mattered under the trees as it would carry on raining under them. Apart from fog, Friday was now looking a lot better day. After an hour the rain eased and I tried the old cup of tea trick. This seemed to fail until I took my last mouthful. The float near the weed bed slowly trundle away, left to right. Winding down and sticking I came into contact with nothing. I retrieved the rig to find the tail section of the smelt attached to the hooks. The head section neatly chopped off. I put another large smelt on and cast back to the weed bed. I was about to chop the tail up for a bit of groundbait when the float under the tree moved away. Again I failed to contact with anything. As the trout had gone I put the tail on and cast back under the tree. Unfortunately I got just a little bit too close to the overhanging branch and in pulling free the tail fell off, so I did end up using it as groundbait. A small smelt was attached and cast under the tree with out any mishaps.

More rain came down and the floats remained nearly motionless except when the rain hit them. Lunch passed peacefully. As I started to make my afternoon cuppa a few bait fish scattered the other side of the weed bed. As I finished the cuppa more bait fish scattered near the float little while later the float moved right to left very slowly. A strike yielded nothing but a chewed smelt which I cast back to the weeds. It wasn't in the water long before the float stated to bob about. I wasn't sure if I'd contacted anything when I struck but it became apparent that the fish was heading towards me. Once I connected with it again it came in like a wet rag. I carefully chinned it but as I got to the mat it woke up for a moment and drew blood. It did, however, throw the hooks which saved a bit of messing about. 74cm of apathy.

I'd run out of large smelt But found a large 9" roach. Out this went to the weed bed. More heavy rain turned up. During a short lull the float by the weed bed shot away at speed before coming to a halt. Winding down I could feel nothing. I gave it a bit of a twitch and left it. Off it went again. I quickly struck but contacted with nothing again. Back came a chewed roach which went back out to the weed bed. The float under the tree then moved about a little bit. I wound down and thought I'd snagged a branch, but as it came to the surface a little killer cucumber had hold of the head of the smelt nowhere near the hook. As I grabbed the leader it let go. The chewed smelt went back under the tree. As the rain eased off I had a look at the rain radar and there was a reasonable gap in the rain which looked like a good time to pack all the soggy gear away as it looked like the next band of rain would last into dark. I'd got everything in the car except the mat unhooking tools and the rod out by the weed bed. As I went to retrieve it I tripped/slipped on a combination of tree root, wet leaves and mud. As I landed on my arse I simultaneously kicked the rod off the rest. I sat there for a moment watching the float disappear into the weed bed and the rod heading into the lake. Thankfully the reel snagged the rod rest and I was able to grab the rod. There appeared to be a fish on the end but it was well into the weed bed. All I could do was heave and hope. eventually the fish cleared the weeds and kited round to my right taking line against the drag. I began to wonder if I'd finally caught a twenty from the gravel pit. When I finally caught a glimpse it was clearly somewhat smaller than that. Eventually a very tidy pike of 90cm and just under 10lb was on the mat.

I pondered staying but the rain had started again and I really couldn't be bothered any more. The last fish had put up a damn good account of it's self so I ended on a high. I suspect there were a lot of small fish feeding. They tend to pick baits up and wander about with them for quite a while. I like to strike quite quickly so they wouldn't have time to turn the bait and swallow it. Gone are the days of reciting the Lord's Prayer before striking.