First Pike Session Of 2024

 I was in undecided where to fish for the first session of the year. Return to the estate lake to seek revenge for yesterday's blank, a trip to the gravel pit. As the gravel pit was on the way to the estate lake I stopped there first for a look-see. The recent rains had finally filled the pit up. It was some eighteen inches up on it's summer level. The only problem I could see was that the wind and rain had knocked a lot of twigs off the alder trees so there was a quite bit of debris over the surface. This rendered some swims nearly unfishable. Alder twigs with the cones still on them are quite incredible. They only have to touch fishing line and you end up with a right tangle. One swim, a corner one, was clear though.

There are plenty of feature in this corner. A little bay, tree roots, drop off, a large sunken branch, etc. I started with a slightly manky 7-8" trout that had hidden itself at the bottom of the fridge and was possibly three years old. This went out next to the sunken branch. As I turned round to get the second rod ready the float moved off. I lifted into nothing. I didn't even get my bait back. A headless sardine was tossed out to the same spot. A match the hatch 4" roach was suspended about 6" above the bottom and allowed to drift about the bay. Slowly the debris from the centre of the lake made it's way into the corner, but wasn't much of a problem.

As I thought about moving to the far side another anger turned up and opted for the best swim  on that side. Just after lunch a large log drifted into the swim but slowly continued on into the shallows. A couple of lure anglers then turned up. I moved the baits about to the different feature. Changed the sardine for a smelt as it was starting to fall apart. Added oils to the baits but nothing seemed to be hungry.

In the end none of has anything. We suspect that the pike had overdone it over Christmas and New Year and weren't really interested. The new year starting like the old one finished was not what I was hoping for. Oh well. This year is one day longer than usual so maybe that extra day will benefit the angling.