Pike Fishing: A Session of Memories, A Session where Rumours of Monsters become reality....

Saturday, a day of the week I would normally be setting out on another river adventure with my uncle chasing the elusive shoals of dace, roach and chub that reside in the north west corner of England.  A phone call the night before and my uncle sounded like death warmed up.  Fishing was off the agenda and for my uncle Saturday morning, this week at least, the heady smell of lemon from his lemsip’s would be replacing the usual fermented unmistakable smell of the hempseed that lay beside his fishing box.

The past few weeks my uncles lad Harry had been on the bank with me learning to pike fish so we agreed to another session chasing the mysterious esox Luscious. To this point he had done fantastic in learning to handle pike on the bank and what it involved in catching them.  This learning curve had seen him bag a 3lb and a 7lb pike in his last two trips.

5am and as I made my way downstairs for a strong brew to wake me from my pre fishing trip restless slumber I could hear the rain tapping onto the windowsill from a hole in the gutter, its repetitive rhythm of drips alerting me to damp conditions awaiting my venture outside.  The kettle groaning as if bemoaning my request for a warm beverage i glanced out of the kitchen window at the pitch black darkness in which only the outline of a large fern tree could be seen arching in the breeze.

If possession is 9 tenths of the law then preparation is certainly 9 tenths of the art of fishing and rightly so I had little to do with the mornings prep bar choosing which fish to offer Mrs Esox from my bait freezer.  A session earlier on that week had left me with a few open packets of smelts and herring jacks so I loaded the bottom of the bait cooler with some fresh unopened smelts and sardines and placed the old opened smelts and herrings on top. 

The old fish mobile loaded I began to make my journey to pick up our Harry, my windows misted up I wound down my drivers side to allow me to safely leave the street.  Blob...Blob.Blob as I pulled off could only mean on thing that overnight drop in temperatures has seen the pressure in one of my tyres drop.  Like a  dog that has just stood on a thorn I ambled and plodded my way to the garage pleading with the fishing gods the Air Machine was still alive, to my delight she was and then tyre was given a quenching boost! Such fine lines can see sessions called off, only at the end of this fisherman’s tale will this become important.

The journey to the venue with our Baz in tow the radio politely alerted all normal people in the world to probably stay in doors as storm Brian was due to hit the North West.  Like all fisherman the urge to keep going is much stronger than worrying about such things as storms and further into the dark we plodded, the headlamps on the car almost Hansel and Gretel like illuminating the bread crumbs to the water.

The session was all about continuing our Harrys development, I had shown him the basics of piking, it was now time for him to make decisions himself and learn from decisions he would make.  A float ledger rod had been set up for him and on this session he would be baiting it up and deciding the placement of his bait in the swim.  I was in super lazy mode so out went a ledger rig on a bite alarm with a fox back bite arm, bait wise it was a whole herring from one of the opened packs.  Yellow, shriveled and still possessing the hook marks from a previous session where it had been out for a few hours.  My other rod was on a pencil float fished float ledger style and on this I would be presenting the humble smelt.

The baits out and the dark angry skies over head we awaited the arrival of a pike at the dinner table.  An early few knocks on Harrys float alerted us to a pike in the area and two dropped runs only went to confirm a pike was in the area.  A cast over the area and jagging the smelt around the swim would either entice the pike to confidently take the bait or spook it completely.

Thankfully the latter was not the case and a few minutes later his float confidently sailed away.  A huge lesson in how cruel piking can be was played out as the pike spat the bait after a few moments playing the fish.  We replaced the bait and an air of that float being the epicentre of all our focus did follow as we eagerly anticipated the hungry pike return.  The vigil was soon broken by the piercing sound of a delkim alarm and a pike that had come across my herring dead bait.

A countdown and a hard strike and I was connected with a pike that was not happy at its meal being disturbed.  Aggressive head shakes it was a relief to slide the net under the first pike of the session, a nice upper single with a full set of gnashers.

The pike blogged and released we sat back and put a brew on, an act that was surly to entice a pike to dine.  The steam rising from a whistling kettle was like music to my ears on a damp windy morning. The calmness that comes with a pike on the bank is quite surreal as the excitement and sense of anticipation before its capture almost lifts.  A calmness that was soon broke by baz running to his rod as his float trundled confidently across the surface before disappearing into the gloomy depths. 

Learning from the mistakes on the previous take he set the hooks and played the fish, a fish that angrily kept deep.  I knew inside he was into a PB and a potential double figure pike and talking him through the fight we slipped the net under a double figure pike.  The question now was just how big his new PB would be. 

13lb on the scales and a beaming smile looking at them he was proper made up, if a little cold.  We places the pike I the net to rest and so we could get prepared for a few pictures for him to remember the day by.  Our celebrations where short lived as my delkim alarm broke up out chatter, a screaming run so violent the rod tip was bouncing away. 

With a fish in the keep net I decided there and then I would have to hand in the pike.  A hard strike and my 2.75lb test curve rod hooped over solid as a decent fish stayed deep.  Plenty of head shaking I knew I had a fragile hook hold at best, a thought that sent shivers down my spine the longer the rod stayed bent over and the fish kept deep.  Long hard runs as the fish realised the predicament it was in.  I loosened the drag and tried to coax the fish closer in and it worked as the fish glided in under my feet.  In the semi clear water I caught a glimpse of her, a big fish she was long with a huge head!

I knew there and then I was in a bit of a predicament, I had a fish in the net that under normal circumstance I would have just released to land this one but that fish I knew held a special value, Harrys first double and a fish I knew we had no pictures of for him to remember the day by.  A long hard battle was played out with the fish going on long hard powerful runs that just ate line from the spool I eventually got her up to the top and quickly I took my chance, sliding my hand under her chin I had a solid grip and lifted out a huge fish.  Lightly hooked she was soon unhooked and placed in the net to rest before a quick weigh, 19lb on the nose!! A fish of a lifetime from the venue I was on and braving storm Brian had paid off with over 30lb of pike in the net resting.

On the mat they looked amazing, both in fantastic condition and been feeding well.  The 19 had a huge head and was certainly a fish that in February will be over 20lb mark.  A quick photo and video for the blog and she was returned back.  I had heard many rumours of these fish, many claiming to have caught them but no pictures to back them up.  I knew there and then I had returned one of the true ghostly monsters, a true fish of a lifetime.

The session was not over there with a first for me late on with me getting a run on the wobble rod, a good 2 hours later and our harry’s 13 had recovered and was back on the feed!! Madness and a first for me as I have never caught the same pike twice in the same session, crazy.

The session coming to and end it was a pleasure to share this session with our Harry, a session we will talk about for years to come no doubt.  It showed everything that is so magical about fishing for pike, that float goes or that alarm starts ringing you just never know what monster could be on the other end,  a session of memories a session where stories and rumours of monster fish became reality.....

till next time

tight lines

Danny

Roach Fishing on Pole and Pike Vlogs go live...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Been a bit of a week for the old Dannys Angling Blog in terms of expanding into new areas and also a new blog sponsor but there will be more on that in the coming weeks.  The fishing this week is another session for roach on the pole but this time i have a game plan.

Pike Videos Go Live on Youtube......

So yes i finally bit the bullet last week and headed off into the night with my phone and a phone older in tow.  Driving along the road i pressed record and began speaking.  It came surprisingly easy the first recording and it seemed to flow nicely, a few fish on the session helped greatly to put together a nice video.  As i mention in the video it is going to take time to get to grips with the new format and learning to capture little clips on the bank that will fill the gaps between fish and give the video another dimension.

First Pike Session Video:

After publishing the first video the second soon followed and you can find that on the channel there as well.  There will certainly be more videos coming on the channel so subscribing is also an option if you so wish.  The videos have done better than i could have imagined with over a few hundred views between them and some nice comments on the videos.  It really has taken me back to when i first started this written blog and remember getting 100 views in the first months blogging and being over the moon and i am hoping in time and with patience this addition to the blog will develop the same way.

Pike Blog 2016/2017

I have decided to again write a pike blog of the season in diary format.  It makes the season read as a story from start to fishing and the weeks where i do a vlog will make putting the pike blog together really simple.  It keeps the piking on its own little bit of the blog and gives it the respect the time and effort i put into it deserves.  I put as much effort into my piking as i do my other fishing so for it to be just a add on bit on the end of the normal weekly blog feels a little like i am doing the trips an injustice.  Keep your eyes on the top bar of the blogs page for the 2016/2017 pike blog going live in the next week or so.

The pike season so far has been really fun with a few pike on the bank despite the barmy warm day time temperatures we have been experiencing of late.  Some mornings have been as low as 44 degrees rising to close to 70 degrees when i was leaving at 3pm, it might have been bad for the piking on dead baits but wobbling has put fish on the bank.  More on that in the pike blog though.

on to this weeks fishing...

Roach Fishing on The Pole

As we walked back to the car on the previous session we got talking to a guy who had fished the area extensively and he did mention a few interesting bits of information that added weight to our findings during the session.   Our session had thrown up over 30lb of mainly roach with the odd perch and gudgeon thrown in for good measure.  This guy mentioned about bronze bream shoals and having to put the bait in to get them to come in and feed.

With this information still ringing in my ears i set about a plan of attack for the venue.  I was going to try and ignore the fact the fish could be in the really deep water down the middle and hope that the fish would be willing to come up the shelf in the warmer conditions to find my bait.  Speaking of bait it was 2 pints of maggot and a pint of hemp seed all to be mixed into my ground bait mix which was 2kg of ground bait with about 40% of that being mole hill soil mix.

Again moil hill hunting gained a few funny looks..

Sat on my box i took my time in setting up and getting my ground bait mix right.  Plumbing the depth i found around 8ft on my top two plus one section of pole and it slowly went out before it really dropped away.  I knew i had to keep my feed on the inside of my line and knew i would probably end up chasing some bites down the gradual slope as the session went on.

So lined up where a few big balls of ground bait laced with hemp and maggot.  to me it was quite a lot of bait to be feeding before i had even started fishing but i was a man with a plan today and i knew from the previous session that the river held enough fish to clear this little big of bait up.

Although only fishing my top two kit and my number four section out i knew accuracy was key so i fed with the large cupping kit on the line and fed in line with a tree on the far bank.  In went to balls of ground bait and in two of the cups i also added a good helping of maggot.

The swim fed it was time for the first cast and i remember the first 10 minutes being really frustrating with me hooking fish but them coming off.  I then remembered i had used the rig from the previous week and checking my hook it was about as sharp as the thick end of a piece of wood, no good.  A quick chance of hook and i was soon turning bites into fish.

Roach after roach was coming on the line i had fed and i was now left with a huge question, how do i feed the swim?  Remember this river fishing on the pole and ground bait is all new to me and although ground bait plays a huge part on my canal fishing but i have not done much fishing on rivers with ground bait and certainly never mixed up 2kg of ground bait for a session!

I decided i would set myself a routing of feeding and every 30 mins regardless of bites or the swim i was going to feed the swim with 1 or 2 balls of ground bait.  I started to pick up the odd small skimmer adding fuel to the mans comments the previous week about the river holding bream, not that i didn't believe him of course.

As the swim developed and progressed some nice Rudd began to show shallow and with them some better roach.  There was signs of fish feeding in the swim with bubbles coming off my ground bait area but to this point none had found my bait.

I was catching steadily and the lulls in action where short before i began picking up fish and i knew i was amassing a nice net of fish that i hoped would beat last weeks total of 16lb.  A hour or two of the session to go i was thinking i had done so and when i had a chat to my uncle i was thinking around the mid teens in weight in the net.

During the last hour i upped the feed rate to every 15 minutes a big ball of ground bait went in and in it a decided to mix some micro pellets and this made a huge difference.  I began to catch some skimmers to around the pound mark and these extra fish in the sack i felt confident i had beaten last weeks total.

That dreaded time of the week came round, 3pm this time of year on a Saturday, time to pack in and begin the trek home.  Always a time of the week where you know the adventure for that week is over.  Lifting my net out i could tell i had a decent net when i strained to lift it out the water, into my rubber mesh landing net on the scales they went, just under 28lb of fish. I was over the moon.

My uncle had also caught steady all day on the pole and his net added 16lb to the total.  A combined weight of over 40lb of silvers form a completely new waterway.  I had recently been in a conversation with someone on facebook who claimed to know how to fish, so didnt need my help, despite them asking where i was fishing,  i am still awaiting his net to be posted with the co-ordinates of the swim ;-)

till next time

i wish you all tight lines

Danny