Waiting For Babet

 With the imminent arrival of storm Babet I'd been watching the weather forecasts. Thursday had been looking the best day for fishing. Not too wet not too windy. The amount of wet varied day to day but the various forecasts I look at all seemed to be in agreement right up to early Thursday morning when there seemed to be some disagreement about how long it would rain for. Anything between an hour and four hours. As it turned out it was about three hours of drizzle starting around ten and a twenty minute heavy shower in the afternoon. Nor did it get very windy at all.

 I thought of fishing a river but I suspected that the rivers would be already rising and end up at an awkward height where you couldn't be at the bottom of the steep banks so would end up quite high up. Also if things did turn nasty I didn't want to be far from the car. I therefore ended up at the gravel pit. I opted for one of the corner swims with plenty of features. Lilies and tree roots to the right. A couple of beds of Arrow Head in front. I tossed out a couple of balls of liquidised bread near the lily pad and the tree roots to attract some bait fish, hopefully.

A small roach was dropped by the lily pad and a medium smelt went out towards the first patch of Arrow head. Just after the drizzle started and as I was pouring hot water into my cup the far float shot into the weed bed and stopped. Having careful placed the kettle and cup were they wouldn't come to any harm, or harm me, I wound down and struck. It felt like I'd either pulled the bait out of the pike's mouth or it had been dropped and I'd just ripped some weed out. Muttering under my breath I started to wind in what felt like a big lump of weed. Some five yards out a weed free pike surfaced and all hell broke loose for a minute or so before it gave up again and came in peacefully. A fish of 84cm. Not a bad start.

During a lull in the drizzle several bait fish scattered near the tree roots. A good sign until a coot popped up. I don't know if they're capable of catching fish but I'm sure it would look like a predator to the baitfish. Even so I moved the small roach to near the roots. As I started to prepare my pot noodle thing the far float moved away from the weed patch rather slowly. Again the kettle and food was stowed carefully before I struck. A smaller fish of 75cm that put up more of a fight on the bank.

That was it for the day despite moving the baits around what should be pike holding feature. I was surprised the lilies didn't produce as there's normally a small jack hiding in there. Judging by the lack of bait fish scattering I don't think the pike were on the prowl. I've never done particularly well in heavy rain for pike but drizzle has never been a problem.

 

Time to batten down the hatches and await Friday's tempest. I have my barbel gear readied for a bit of floodwater fun but I suspect with the amount of rain predicted they may well rise every quickly.