Some More Gravel Pit Piking

 Wednesday I had a trip down to the gravel pit. It had now turned to winter weather wise. A cold day but with a bit of sunshine. With the ground frozen I felt it was safe to drive into the field up to the swim. I did keep checking the ground to ensure it hadn't defrosted and turned to slippy slidy mud making it hard work to get the car back out.

I started with a small roach under the trees to my left and a joey mackerel out to the area where the weed beds had died back. The sun, while providing a bit of warmth, made it awkward to see the far float at times. Mid morning I moved the small roach to the right after seeing some bait fish scatter. The float failed to settle properly so I wound down but it was only a leaf that had snagged the hook. As I lifted it from the water a small jack swirled just below the surface. Removing the leaf I dropped the bait back in. Less than minute later the float headed towards me. I failed to contact with anything. The roach had a couple of teeth marks near the tail. Out it went again. The little jack grabbed it just after it hit the water. Winding down I could see it had hold of the tail again. It quickly turned ripping the bait from the hook and disappeared. Out went a fresh bait to the same spot along with some liquidised bread. Some more went under the tree and some on the bank for the robin.

After Lunch I moved the roach back under the tree as there had been no more action to the right. The mackerel was injected with a bit of oil and launched back to the dead weed bed in the middle. Three o'clock, cup of tea in hand, the float over the weed bed fell over and stayed there. Winding down I found there was nowt there. I retrieved a chewed mackerel which I launched back from where it came.

Five minutes later the float moved away to the right and this time i contacted with something fierce. After the initial run, which felt like a good fish, it just kitted left and right and felt a lot lighter as I wound it in. A rather plump little beast of 70cm.

 

I chucked out another joey to the same spot for the last hour or so But nothing more was forthcoming by the time it got dark.

There seems to be a lot of activity from the little jacks in the last couple of months I'm hoping the cold weather may slow them down a bit and that the big 'uns will start to fatten themselves up.