Tail End Of Jocelyn

 With the rivers still at ridiculous levels on Friday I headed to the gravel pit despite the fact we still seemed to have the tail end of storm Jocelyn around. This last storm was named after Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP. A physicist who was educated nearby. I'm not sure if I'd want a storm named after me. The previous few days wind had brought a fair few branches down, but luckily the corner I wanted to fish was reasonably clear of debris. The water level was well up, though, the highest I've seen it for three or four years.

Tactics were the usual. A small roach was float fished to the left in the little bay and float fished headless joey mackerel to my right under the overhanging tree. The wind, despite being a south westerly was rather chilly. As I poured hot water into my cup the float above the roach bobbed and moved slowly out of the bay. A strike produced a vicious tug then nothing. The little roach bait was still on the hook and showed no signs of damage. Strange. The joey was then sent out to the middle of the pit. Despite moving the baits about. Injecting the with oil. Doing a bit of dead bait wobbling. Nothing else happened until I started to make my afternoon cuppa. Again it was the small roach something had taken a fancy to. I struck into something powerful that headed straight towards the sunken branches. Leaning heavily into it there was a big swirl then I was hit in the face by the float.

I checked the hook which definitely still sharp, so I pinned on another small roach and popped it back in the bay. The mackerel got another shot of oil and a pop up ball was added. An hour later interest was shown in the roach again. Again contact was made with something powerful that head straight for the sunken branches, but this time the fish stayed pinned to the hook and after a bit of a hectic battle around the tree roots a rather chubby pike was on the unhooking mat. A nice big beastie of 93cm and 11lb 11oz.

 

I fished on until dark but nowt else happened.  What surprised me was that I was the only angler there all day. I'd have thought with the rivers so high I would have seen more. Maybe the threat of the strong winds put them off. The wind though cold wasn't really a problem as it was filtered out by the trees that nearly surround the pit.