Stick N Pin N Pike

 It was quite a cool morning as I arrived at the river. Very pleasant indeed, but I know it was going to get hotter. I intended to do a spot of stick n pin fishing so wandered along the flood  bank looking for a suitable swim. It wasn't long before I found one that looked good. A bit of a steep descent into it though. Once on the bank I quickly set up a small chubber float with a couple of SSG shot. I'd not fished here for a long time so didn't know much about the state of the swims. I trotted the rig through a few times until I'd found the depth, just under five foot. I'd not found any snags or weed either. The chubber was then replaced with a 3 No6 wire stemmed stick float. A few trots through with out any bait just to check the depth etc. again and I was under way. Two maggots on the hook and a few tossed into the swim and the float disappeared. and the first fish appeared. A tiny roach.

The next fish was a small gudgeon taken a bit further down the swim. Feeding a few maggots each cast I either got a small roach half down or a gudgeon the the end of the swim. After a few of these a dace was little dace was taken on the drop. This is how it continued for a bout half an hour before a pike grabbed a roach i was bringing in. Ripping it from the hook.

Next cast the float shot upstream. Another larger pike had grabbed the maggots on the drop. While I was playing it three jacks came downstream close to the bank. This was not looking good. Eventually a 30" 6lb 15oz was in the net. After a bit of a lull the same pattern as previous returned. All small fish though. Again a fish was grabbed by a pike as I was reeling it in but this time I was bitten off. Again things went quiet for a while before some larger roach showed up. Which were more than welcome. Then another pike showed up grabbing a roach as I brought it in. A tiny little jack that decide to put on a display of tail walking before both came adrift.

 

The morning was now getting warmer and judging by the fish scattering near the weed on the far bank the pike were just as active as ever. It was back to the little dace and gudgeon came back but he bites were harder to hit. I tied feeding  twice per trot but this didn't seem to help matters. As I was winding in after a trot down with out a bite another fair sized pike grabbed the spinning maggots. After a brief battle I was bitten off again. That was it. Time to go. So I did. Besides I'd nearly run out of bait. One thing I noticed on my way back was the number of grasshoppers in the field. None of them would stop still long enough for a photo though. Nice to see as they are another inverabrate that seems to be in short supply in many places.