A Big Mama At Last

Arriving at the car park, on Sunday, for possibly my last go for pike this season, it was clear the sunshine had brought out the carpers. With limited swims available I was glad to get in one in the area I had hoped to fish. I was also informed that some pike had been seen spawning the day before. The carp were also feeding, as one lad had had one and was playing another as I passed. 

After fling lures about for half an hour, with only a couple of tiny jacks following them I got the dead bait rods cast out.. A headless sardine in the margins to the left, a lamprey section, popped up in front, and another, whole, sardine in the hole to my right. For the next seven hours I moved them about, injected them with oil, and told myself that bright sunshine isn't really piking weather.

Around seven the left hand float moved away and I was into a rather lovely little beast around the 8-9lb mark. Just after I returned a bait to the same area the right hand float disappeared, only to pop back up almost immediately. I wound down and with nothing apparently there I gave the bait a twitch to see if I could entice a take. Sadly this didn't work so I left the bait there in the hope something would return to it.

The left hand float then moved away again. Some thing heavy was quickly cranked near the awaiting net. Just as it's huge head appeared at the surface it decided to put up a struggle. After a few minutes I had a certain 20 on the bank. Clearly well fed and full of spawn. The fish was identified as one that had been caught about a month  ago at 21lb 8oz and now weighed 23lb 8oz.

I did consider staying a bit longer, but as it was now dark and I hadn't bought a torch, and I don't really like dealing with pike in the dark any way, I decided to back up. I wound in the other two rods and the went for the left hand one only to find a little jack had grabbed the remains of the sardine that I'd dropped in the side after unhooking the big girl. It also highlighted the problem of piking at night. As it was rather deeply hooked and with only a phone to light things this was not going to be fun. Thankfully  some help arrived and we managed to unhook it with out and injuries to the pike. All the blood was mine.

Not a bad end to the season, given it hasn't been the best six months I've had pike fishing. Far to many blanks.

Coming Up Short

Due to ice on the water I left it to later to arrive. The ice was thawing quite rapidly when I arrived and after doing a bit of bank work I started setting up. As I was doing so, a few hand sized roach scattered in front of me. I throw a similar sized dead bait out suspended about three foot below a float. With little or no wind it drifted very slowly across the area. In the mean time a flung a roach swim-bait about for a while, which resulted in a follow. A change of colour and the bait was fallowed again, but no take. After  half an hour with nothing else to show I lowered the suspended bait down to six foot and chucked half a sardine over onto the shelf to my left. A small smelt was dropped in to the right, which quickly resulted in a small jack.

 











Just after casting another smelt back in a few roach scattered to my right and the float was away moments after which resulted in an even small jack. I moved the suspended bait down, in three foot intervals, until it was on the bottom, then back up again. Despite the occasional roach scattering near the float nothing seemed to like the dead-bait. I kept having a chuck about with the lure and managed to elicit the occasional follow, but just couldn't get them to attack.

 








Again I was informed a twenty had come out mid-week, lending credence to my belief that the big ones don't feed on a weekend.

Opening The Account

Due to a late start I decided to drop in to the car park swim and have a quick fling about with the lure rod before reverting to dead baits. It wasn't long before a little jack, just over twice the length of the lure, grabbed hold to provide me with the first fish of the year. After another 20 minutes, or so, of fling lures about a dropped the dead baits in. One on the bottom, one popped up and one drifted about at various depths. Around lunch time I had a few casts with a small jig, bounced along the bottom, it produced an even smaller jack.












Despite moving the baits to all the likeliest looking spots there was no interest from the pike. A wander round with the lure rod produced just a single follow. Still I'd had a couple of fish so another blank was avoided.

Same Old, Same Old

Happy New Year to you all.

First post of the New Year and we're back in familiar territory.

After spending half the morning wandering around the lake with a lure rod and nothing to show for it, I settled in my chosen swim with the dead bait rods out awaiting the first pike of the New Year. After half an hour the drop off indicator dropped off, no line was been taken so I tightened down to something which soon turned out to be a twig with a couple of hitch hikers on it.

A while later, a proper run on the same rod which again amounted to nothing. Followed by the float falling over on the left hand rod and an unmarked sprat been retrieved. It's hard to know what's going on at times when this sort of thing happens, I'm inclined to blame eels, bu I'd expect some damage to the bait.

Every 30 minutes or so I'd been releasing another foot of line on the popped up bait so it was now about six foot of the bottom when I got another run. This time I latched on to something which kitted rapidly to my right. After an unnecessarily long struggle a large carp surfaced, clearly foul hooked in or near the pectoral fin. As it wallowed on the surface it rolled upside down and the hook came adrift. Thankfully, after a bit of hesitation, it seemed to swim off strongly.

That was it for the day. Looking back through my scant records January first doesn't appear to have been a particularly good day for angling. Not for me anyway. Oh well, only the rest of the year to go.

Ice Fishing

Arrived at the lake to find ducks and coots wandering about on it, when they should have been swimming. A couple of circuits confirmed that there was thick ice in all bar one swim. In the past I've done quite well, here, in these sort of conditions. There was enough room for three baits to go out under floats. One in front, right up to the edge of the ice. One in the margins and one under a tree to my left.

After the baits were thawed out oils were added and as there wasn't much room the baits remained were they landed. They front float was the first to fall over. It trundled straight into the edge of the ice and jammed, by the time I'd wound down there was nothing there except a slightly mangled bait. A bit more oil and it went back out in the same spot. The left hand rod was the next to go and this time I latched on to what felt like a good fish. Twice I managed to turn it away from the roots and debris under the tree. Unfortunately the third time it managed to snag a branch. After a bit of heaving I managed to retrieve the branch but not the pike. Annoyingly I'd made up some single hook traces for fishing these sort of spots, but didn't put one on.

I'm never quite sure which is more annoying, a blank or losing a decent fish. I suppose if a fish is hooked and lost you do at least know you were using the right tactics.

Not Quite The Outcome I Had In Mind

I made my first trip to the syndicate water for this winter. I should have known soon after arrival that things weren't going to be quite as I'd hoped when I discovered I'd forgot my cup, so no hot drinks. Thankfully a solution was found in the shape of an old, clean, pot noodle container that happened to be in the car. I'd also knocked the liner out of one of the guides, but as this was on the short extension section the rod was still usable at 3m.

Having selected my swim, I dropped a float fished sprat close to the remaining bank-side vegetation. As the sprat was still frozen it sank very slowly and  a dinky little pike shot out and grabbed it's tail, quickly letting go as it dived back into the weeds. Pity really as it would have bay a nice bait given it's tiny size. The two legered baits were chucked out into known spots. One popped up smelt and a bluey to be fished on the bottom. These were to be moved every 30-40 minutes, which I did, all morning. Once they baits had defrosted I injected them with oils.

After lunch the drop off on the bluey rod dropped off, but I wound down to nothing. I retrieved it slowly back just in case,. On arrival at the bank it had clearly been chewed on, so I stuck another on and swung it back to the same place. The remains were chopped up and dropped around the float. Half an hour later the float started bobbing, I wound down and struck, I felt a couple of jags and then nothing. Hmm. Out went another one. After a short while the floated headed off out into the lake for a couple of yards then stopped. I contacted with nothing. There were a few scales missing from the bait so I dropped it back in. That, though, was that for the day even though I stayed through the showers and in to dark.

Not the start I was hoping for, especially as the carp angler in the next swim had had a twenty pound pike out earlier in the month, on a boilie.

Little Lure, Big Fish

Managed a couple of short midweek sessions. The first on a local pond, due to the rivers being out of sorts. I tried using a variety of small crank baits with nothing to show until I got to the last swim.  This was in a bay that I've never taken a pike from. Here a very lively pike of 7lb 3oz latched on to a Salmo Minnow. On the perch gear it put up an excellent fight, going airborne several times.

 










The next session was on the Aire & Calder Navigation. A couple of perch appeared quite quickly to a Salmo Rattlin Hornet followed by a small jack. It was another 40 minutes before I got another take which resulted in a 7lb 14oz pike which like the one earlier in the week, took to the air on several occasions. A third one followed soon after, again on the Rattlin Hornet. This one, at 9lb 14oz, stayed deep and took some effort to get to the net on perch gear.

 









 










By now the sun had disappeared behind the trees and it was getting bloody cold. Time to head home.