DeadBaiting For Pike: Blanks, Dropped Runs, Great Laughs and a New PB

A warm welcome to this week's blog update.  I am sure by now must river anglers are sick of the constant weather conditions, well that is unless you are Martin Bowler and see this as an opportunity to fish tied to a tree, truth be told the past few days will have seen most of those river side trees at a high risk of ending up horizontal across the very river they shade so well in summer.  My uncle, a river man at heart, has not been out since the floods began and the last i hear he was seen casting out of winnick mental health centre windows hoping to land in the Mersey, joking aside his not travelling to the bank is primarily down to the fact that piking just isn't his thing at all but the length of time i have been doing this piking now, getting on for 7-8 weeks, is testament to just how bad the flooding has been.

This picture below testament to the high waters experienced down south,  time to think about moving when you expect to see the local fish populations through your bay windows.

This flooding has only touched myself from a fishing point of view and even as a selfish angler who thinks solely about how this is effecting his fishing i cant help but think if all those houses and businesses that have been effected by these catastrophic floods that in all honestly looking at the forecast for this coming weekend look like they are no where near their conclusion with another band of heavy rain and high winds hanging just of our coasts waiting to move in.  I wish all those effected by these floods the speediest of recoveries after the waters recede and lets hope the government are having the fore thinking to get plans in place to make this recovery as smooth and as stress free as possible.  It was pleasing to hear on the news this week that the most popular insurance companies are already in the area waiting for the waters to recede to set up stalls so claims can be assessed and processed as quickly as possible to allow people to get money from their claims to get the work carried out on any damage.  We all think of insurance companies as these places that shy from paying out so its great to see them being so proactive and visible when they are needed, anyhow this is a fishing blog not a insurance comparison site so that's enough of that talk, underdog, although if anyone wants me to review a meerkat toy, just get in touch ha ha.

Another post i saw on social media that made me laugh a little was the picture doing the rounds of the Osprey that had caught a fish, nothing new there apart from this fish was unusually a carp.  The humour from myself came not from the fact a carp had been caught as i never like to see any fish being harmed but the fact it made me think back to the days on Warrington Anglers Facebook page where the constant stocking of carp was justified or sold to the members by a cop out clause that stocking carp at 3 to 4 pound would see them immune from being predated like roach and bream would have been.  I sincerely hope this new development does not see licences increase due to the fact they may need to know stock 8-9lb carp instead due to predation, it does make me laugh the short sighted reasoning people who don't fish the waters in the club they run use to justify their endless ambition of creating a number of runs waters to attract more people to buy their licences.  In my eyes they should just spend the money on buying a commercial like Bay malton did with Border or spend the money doing up a venue like the moat in frodsham that if money was invested would make a fantastic location for a venue for both carp and river men if it was invested in and stocked correctly as i am sure the serious anglers who fish Sandiway hoping for an elusive big twenty or possibly a rogue 3olb fish are not going to welcome the mass stocking of fish around the 3-7lb mark i know this approach was not welcomed with open arms by regulars on appleton Reservoir or the Mount.

Me saying how much i am missing trotting a float down a river has been a regular paragraph of late in these blogs but i guess as this blog is a true representation of how i am feeling about my angling life it was always going to be.  This week i have been watching a few of the stick float videos on Youtube, a activity that in reflection just makes it worse and as i am a glutton for punishment i also spent one evening reading over some of my older posts from sessions on the river gone by, again this just made me think about what i was missing even more.

Trotting for dace post: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/river-dee-dace-and-hungover-chub-chase.html

Moving onto developments away from the the main blog but still concerning my blog i have started to upload all the pictures included in each weeks update onto the blogs Facebook page.  There is currently an album including all the pictures from this winters dead baiting for pike and each picture includes links to the actual post it was featured in.  This should be a great way for anyone to see one particular species or type of fishing they are interested in whilst also giving me a solid back up of all my pictures so i can Free up space on my phone i use to capture the pictures for the blog.

A link to the blogs Facebook page is here: DANNYS ANGLING BLOG FACEBOOK PAGE

Before we move onto this weeks adventures on the bank i would like to share with you all a book that Garry was kind enough to lend me this week.  The book is called Fox Guide To Modern Pike Fishing and i have to admit this book has really taken over my breaks in work.  This book is fantastic for anyone new to pike fishing it goes into great detail breaking down the different type of venues,Rigs, Baits, unhooking and handling pike and terminal tackle to name just a few of the topics included in this fantastic book.  As the name suggests it pushes all the fox products but after seeing some of the tackle Garry uses that comes from Fox i personally have no problem with that as the tackle i saw him using looked first class especially the interchangeable egg sinkers.  I can safely say one thing though come next winters piking i will certainly be putting together my own treble wire traces after discovering what exactly you have to do to construct these rigs.  I was going to photocopy this book before passing it back to Garry next time we meet but i am that impressed with it i am actually going to purchase this book myself as it is invaluable in my opinion.

And with that its onto this weeks fishing:

Saturday Morning - Time To Find A New Spot??

With a short window of opportunity arising on Saturday morning to fit in a few hours i decided to visit the location i fished into dark after leaving Garry on Wednesday.  This is the only area i have been adopting the method of baiting up before my visits on and i arrived on Saturday morning full of optimism.  I fished from first light till around 10.30am in this spot with not so much as a touch on the floats and to be honest looking around i saw no signs of pike striking or even silver fish topping.  The conditions where far from ideal with a strong wind gusting along the towpath but as this was a location that i have had 4 runs and 2 decent fish to double figures i was confident that float was going to go at any moment, unfortunately it didn't so at 10.30am i decided to move to a completely new area hoping to locate the fish if they have moved or even find a pocket of fish.  It is very apparent with this dead baiting for pike that you can be only a few hundred yards away from the fish and not get a bite so i adopted the approach of if you don't try new areas you will never know and tried a completely different area with unfortunately no success, i headed off home wet and battered but still determined.   The time stood patiently looking at the rods gives you more than enough time to think your tactics over, too much time if I'm honest and its got me thinking .  Pike at this time of year will follow the bait fish which do shoal up in certain spots and maybe the pike have moved on from here and its time to cut my loses with this location now and concentrate on the other spots i have been fishing.

The waiting Game:

Sunday first light till 2pm  - Putting The Hours In And Missed Opportunities Really Linger

After the tough conditions on Saturday i groggily rose from my bed and began to pack the gear into the car, a job that with this piking only takes seconds,  i set off full of hope more than anything after 3 blanks on the run i was unsure about my tactics and if my spots where even places i should be fishing. my confidence low and expectations a little lower i was at a crossroads with the piking and unsure what my next move should be.

When i say crossroads please don't confuse this with me thinking like i should give up and call it a day i only mean to use that phrase to refer to the locations i was fishing and whether i thought they were the right spots.  I had made a conscious decision a week ago not to fish the spot that i know will produce a few small jacks and try and concentrate on the locations that would not produce as many runs but then they come along you are almost guaranteed a better quality fish, its these locations i was unsure in my mind about.

Thinking on a problem for too long can sometimes see you make the wrong decision and on Sunday morning i pulled up at the spot i fished around 6 weeks ago when i first started this dead baiting adventure, a place i have fished 3 times and put many hours in without a bite and it was only as i walked the bank getting battered with a straight in your face gale the penny hit and hit hard.  A voice in the back of my head suddenly appeared like jimmy cricket in Pinocchio and said "what are you doing even contemplating fishing here? A location you have not had a bite in and you are going to get battered by the elements for your trouble."

As some photos on this blog will testify i am a man that follows his gut ha-ha and i promptly turned round and headed back to the car and decided to go for a drive.  I knew instantly what i was looking for, a brand new location, it had to be look pikey and it had to be relatively calm i wanted a comfortable days fishing in a  completely new location and it was not too long till i found it, it cost me a bit of money in petrol but instantly i knew it looked like a place that could hold a pike.

The baits for the day where a mackerel tail on one rod and a sardine on the other both presented on the bottom.  I settled into the first swim and as normal now on these sessions after around 2o minutes i normally update the blogs facebook page with a picture of where i am or what i am doing and i was half way through typing when out of the corner of my eye i saw my left hand float dipping and slowly moving towards myself.  The fish moved towards me causing the float to go under quite quickly so i gave it a few seconds before striking.  I struck hard and connected with solid resistance of a fish that felt really nice and the fish started to move slightly to the right before i felt the fish shake its head and it was off......Gutted!!.

I continued to fish this spot for 2 hours hoping the fish would return with no luck and then spent the next 3 hours leap frogging along the stretch but that first run was all she gave up.  I am not going to lie this fish loss left me really gutted as i replayed the scenario time and time again in my head and as is always the way you work out a number of reasons where you have gone wrong in the vain hope you can learn from it.  In hindsight i think me error come in striking too soon and not reeling down to the fish before striking.  Runs on these venues can be hard to come by and you can do a number of blanks before finding a few fish and i knew i had just blown a great opportunity.  The session another blank i left happy i had had a run but upset i hadn't converted the opportunity.

Tuesday - Two's Company And The Odd Pike, Three Is Just Great Fun And Pike Chaos

Tuesday and it was a session i had looked forward to all week, a social pike session with Garry.  All pikers will tell you that they are as solitary as the pike they chase and it can be quite a lone chase at time hunting pike it is certainly a part of this piking i have found very difficult to come to terms with, i suppose anyone would, but myself i feel has felt it more having gone fishing for the past 3 years with my uncle week in and week out.  Unloading the gear from the car Garry kindly passed me over the Fox guide to modern fishing book, at this time i had no idea what a real gem this book was, whilst checking the gear another car pulled up and it was Ste.  Ste is a guy who along with Garry i remember from my days on the Warrington anglers Facebook page, both genuine anglers who i hold in the highest esteem who always posted their captures on Facebook for all to see and are one of the few anglers who did this from what i can remember.  To understand this you have to understand that the warrington facebook page had over 300 live members at the time yet there was only around 10-15 maximum ever posted any information the rest just sat in the background taking, taking and taking a bit more, gleaming off other anglers captures for their own personal interests to try and fast track their angling exploits, either that or being hyper critical of any photos posted and whenever i check back in these nothing much has changed to that effect, maybe some of them do more fishing on the Internet than on the bank, anyhow i digress, again.

Three of us on the bank and it was almost like a pyramid of experience as Ste who has many years of piking experience had helped Garry out with his piking and below that Garry had helped me out so although i had done quite a bit of river piking i felt a little out of my depth to say the least and i suppose my nerves showed with the amount of talking i did ha-ha.  All six rods out Ste loaned a bait from Garry while his defrosted, quite cheap as he loaned it for free and we all settled into chewing the fat on all things piking.

From the off it was apparent the pike where active with plenty of swirls and pike crashing into fry on top giving away the pike where certainly feeding mood and our optimism levels rose.  Garry was the first of us to get a run as his float drifted slowly along the top before slowly disappearing way, a strong strike and the fish was on and putting up one hell of a scrap.  The fish in the bank it was swiftly unhooked and photos where taken by all and the fish was returned to its watery home.  The fish was beautifully marked and it surprised me just how vibrant the colours on this fish where and at 8lb 9oz a solid fish and start to the session.

Not long after returning this fish, well i think we were still checking the pics of Garry's fish we spotted that my float fished sardine was getting some interest as the float bobbed slightly and began moving off, i gave it a bit of time before striking hard and the fish was on and felt a nice fish that we got a few good glimpses off during the fight and then around midway into the battle the fish was off.  I lowered the bait straight back down and to my amazement the fish again picked up the bait and moved off but dropped the bait, a few twitches saw this fish of around 6-8lb lunge at the fish but after leaving the rod a good half hour nothing materialised.

Ste was next to get a run as a fish took the bait so confidently if literally swam off with the bait under a overhanging tree branch and we could see the fish come up in the water as it began to turn the fish ready to eat.  Ste struck and you saw a mixture of green and metallic blue as the fish lit up on the far bank in a stand of pure defiance but the game was well and truly up for this fish as it was played into the waiting landing net to be unhooked.

Garry was the next to connect with a fish and i began to regret my missed fish a little as i knew this feeding spell was not guaranteed to last and i knew i had missed a big opportunity to put a fish on the bank.  At this stage i began to think about that missed fish on the Sunday session and if my set up was wrong.  Garry s fish was again a lovely marked fish and its amazing looking at the pictures of this fish now as i do not recall it having so many lumps and bumps on it at the time, it was at this point me and Ste began to worry as we caught glimpses of Garry erecting signs saying the bait that was doing the business was now going up to around 100 quid a fish.

A quick check of our watches and we were amazed to see it was only 9.30am, four runs and three pike in a hour and half fishing we were doing quite well and it was great for my understanding of dead baiting at this point as Garry and Ste both took time to show me different methods and floats they have at their disposal and it really opened my eyes to just how refined pike fishing can be.  We were stood at Ste's rod around 20 yards from my rods and it after scanning back to my rods constantly while chatting i noticed my left hand float not bobbing but tearing off along the top, i sprinted that bank like Usain Bolt and full of adrenalin i picked the rod up and i knew straight away there was no need to give this fish line so i quickly wound into the fish and struck for all my worth and was met with solid resistance unlike anything i had felt so far this winter the rod unlike other battles hooped over as the fish stayed down deep demanding me to give it line and as this was not a fish i wanted to come off i grudgingly obliged as the fish made run after run.  I should have not been so generous given the amount of snags in residence but at the time i was trying to concentrate on not shaking ha-ha.  The battle like with all nice fish you catch felt like it lasted a lifetime but in reality it was probably no longer than a minute before the fish was in the landing net and all i can recall then was a feeling of relief and either Garry or Ste saying "you got a nice double".  The were not wrong a 13lb 8oz fish i was over the moon.  I must say at this point a big thank you to Ste and Garry for the shots they took on their cameras and sent me later on, thank you.

This is a moment when you know you are out with true genuine anglers as what happened next meant a great deal to me, both Ste and Garry came over congratulated me on the fish and shook my hand.  Its a thing myself, Azza and my dad do regular when either a nice fish is caught or a fish you know means a hell of a lot to the angler involved and it was a really nice gesture of them to do that, thank you guys.  I must say the capture of this fish took a while to settle in and it was not till later on in the day i snook away from the group to sit and look at the pictures on my phone it began to settle in that i had just caught my a new still water personal best pike and in a solid double a fish i never dreamed i would catch this year, from blanks to lost fish to a new personal best show the highs and lows of a weeks pike fishing.

The next half hour we all caught personal best branches that came literally one after another with i think Ste taking the unsavoury award of "log of the session".  The branches unhooked and rested in the margin before being slung up the bank we awaited more action and at this point with us all having landed a fish felt the session could not have gone any better.  The fish began striking under the water again and from no where Ste  pulled out a rod and was suddenly flicking twitched dead baits just below the surface, think it was second cast he had a take and connected with the 5th fish of the session and a fish that rewarded Ste for his quick thinking and actions, still only 11am we were surprised the spell had lasted so long.

Again the fish released the fishing stories rolled freely in the conversation from rivers, to ponds and gudgeon to carp all manor of stores where shared and it was during one of these chats that Garry's bite alarm sparked into life that saw Garry sprinting the bank as i had earlier in the morning i had sympathy for the lad running in wellies as had earlier and we man Ste joined Garry to net a fish of 9lb 7oz that shocked us all did not go over 10lb as it was easily the longest fish of the day again its colours where reminiscent of those from a river the colours where fantastic. A cracking fish and move us onto 6 fish for the session.

The action then really slowed up completely for a good hour or so and it was not till around 12.30 the next run came to Garry's rod, me and Ste considered converscating Garry's bait while he was playing the fish as it was getting out of hand and suggestions if underhand tactics where suggested from all corners.  Joking aside this fish turned out to be the fish of the day it had some of the best marking i have ever seen in a pike its tail was so vibrant and colourful and i remember how jet black its marking where in the flesh and just what a vast array of colours it had from yellows to green and blues it was a fantastic example of the species the nicest pike i have seen colour wise that has not come from a river.

The session sadly ground to halt as we all tried more than one or two last casts hoping for a final fish but none where forthcoming.  We left the bank over the moon not only with the fish caught but it was great to share a morning with two really genuine anglers and i am sure this wont be the last session we have out together piking, maybe not this season but in years to come as if this warm mild weather continues it could see the pike spawn sooner rather than later, bring on the frosts!.

till next week its tight lines from me

Danny



 

Dead Baiting For Pike: Make Mine A Double.....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update.  It seems to have been an age now since we were last on a river trotting a float on a river with any conviction, we of course had the trips to the river dane but in reality the river was far from ideal and we did well to muster the results we did.  This flooding can see the rivers out of action for a few weeks and sometimes longer if it is the River Dee.  This is one of the reasons i am diversifying into different branches of our sport so i can try and match my location and quarry to the conditions i am faced with for example going out dead baiting for pike instead of fishing a river that is high and like chocolate, i think the past few weeks results piking compared to our trips to the rivers have gone to prove that in terms of fish on the bank this is the way to go and one positive that comes naturally from this is you become more accomplished as an all rounder.

There are many famous people that i follow in the angling world but one that i have to say i admire the most is Martin Bowler, he is an angler that if you follow him on facebook you can see he reads the conditions and then targets the species from there, pike in winter, tench in spring and carp in autumn you can see just what a quality all rounder he is, of course his motives are different than mine with him being a specimen hunter and myself just out to catch what comes along big or small, his way of fishing and being a good all rounder is a way i would like to look back on my fishing life in years to come.  There are of course many everyday anglers that i follow in the blog writing world that showcase these same attributes such as Stewart Bloor, again a specimen hunter but also a great all rounder who is a quality angler in many of the branches of this magnificent sport.

It really made me sick this  week to read on Franks Column about the fact that bailiffs checking on the local Sankey Canal in Widnes were met with the sight of numerous dead pike left on the bank.  This act of chucking pike up the bank was unfortunately common place many years ago where match men saw these pike as a nuisance fish, gladly things have moved on from there and drives to improve knowledge of clubs in this area has seen this practise all but abolished from out sport.  I do hope deep down that this is the reason these pike have been found as if it is just sick individuals catching and then throwing pike on the bank to die then society has hit a deeper low than i thought.  What exactly possess people to commit such a act? i do wonder sometimes what world our daughter will be growing up in, i really do.

 The past few weeks targeting pike using dead bait methods has seen me on a steep learning curve both with the tactics employed for this fishing and also the mental side of things, by this i mean how different it is from the float fishing and pole fishing i do most of the year for silvers in the fact it is a lot more relaxed.  There is no less thought that goes into my pike fishing compared to my float fishing but there is no doubt the actually fishing is a lot less active and mentally draining than the fishing for dace as that constant concentrating on presentation and feeding maggots in the right place time after time can leave you mentally fatigued at times.  I have to admit the pike fishing can play with you head in the sense you have too much time to think about what you are doing.  Patience is one thing the carp quest and this pike fishing of late has taught me as it is an aspect i struggled with at first as waiting hours for a bite was very hard to get my head round at first as i was expecting the float to sail off within seconds each time, the reality was far different but the challenge refreshing.

When on the bank pike fishing i like to be as alert and active as possible always on the look out for silver fish topping or pike striking to give me clues as to if i am in the right place but there are times when you know you are in the right place, your confident in your bait and method and presentation and you know if the fish are around you are in with a chance, i guess this came in the last week or so where i had the confidence from catching a few fish that what i was doing was right that i could relax and take in my surroundings.

The natural world around is is something i feel i have lost in my fishing in the last year or so, i remember when i first started writing this blog my updates used to involve as much wildlife as fishing and the past few weeks have gave me the opportunity to take my camera with me and capture on or two of the visitors to my peg.  I guess if all anglers could have one wish it would be that the fish found us as easily as the Robins do!

Finally on the subject of the piking it was great how well received last weeks blog was, which was great to see for myself as in my opinion there is a  very fine line between friendly advice and seeming like you are preaching.  Being a person who See's themselves as an average everyday angler i find it very hard to give advise on fishing and as such usually stray away from including advise and my way of doing things in my blog so it was quite relieving to receive positive feedback on that aspects of last weeks blog update and as such i was thinking of adding a extra page to the blog to include hints and tips for newcomers to angling with some ideas like how to cook hemp and basic rigs for pike fishing as things to include.

Before moving onto this weeks blog update i did mention in last weeks blog about the help i received from people who follow my blog via Social media and i have to say both Facebook and Twitter accounts are growing nicely, not in numbers as many judge their social media pages, but in general discussions and sharing of information and experiences which is great to see.  For those interested you can find the blogs social media links on the side bar of the blog or on the links below.

Blogs Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146
Blogs Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/satonmyperch

On both  pages i try and update at least once a day and if i can from the bank of a weekend, feel free to drop by and say hello and post any of your captures as they happen, its something that has developed as a product of this blog and has been a joy to see it grow and speak to so many anglers who willingly give their time, help and advice.

And with that its on to this weeks fishing:

Dead Baiting for pike: The learning continues - Sunday Session: 

A change in my partners work has seen her shift patterns change from a fish friendly Monday to Friday to a Tuesday to Saturday shift which for me means a big goodbye to my Saturday's fishing trips.  This will still see me having one day a week on the bank but will see me lose that luxury of having the option of a cheeky morning the following day if the previous days action has been poor, what it also means is i am going to have to be spot on with my picking of locations for the fishing to try and make the most of the available time.

For some weeks now i have been trying to pin point locations for the pike fishing and based on experiences during the summer where i experienced pike activity, help from friends on facebook and exploring places i thought pike would be i now have four locations that will be my targets for the next few weeks at least.  These four venues take in a variety of type of venue and pike stocks,one has a high population of small jack pike as a result of big pike being removed many years ago whilst the others may not produce the number of fish but it if i do catch it is almost guaranteed to be bigger than anything i will catch in the other venue, all have their plus points and come together to make the bigger picture and give me plenty to work on.

Sunday was my first trip out but before that i needed to stock up on some bait, my aim this year to reduce my weekly spending on angling so it was great news when a trip to my local supermarket saw me purchase 20 fat sprats for the tidy sum of £1.36, you cant even buy a packet of hooks for that these days.  When i get my baits home i separate them into smaller bags ready for trips to the bank so i am not taking all of them at once.  Sprats are a fantastic bait and especially good on waters with numbers of jacks where anything bigger could result in dropped runs, that is not to say these are the only bait i use and a great part of this winter piking has been seeing which baits are good with certain venues.

The rivers flooded sunday saw me hitting the bank with a game plan, 3 hours working a swim that contained quite a large feature, 40 minutes in each sport around it being enough before trying the next.  The baits out all that was left was to see if any pike where on the look out for a free breakfast.  This venue i know contains some really big pike and could see me actually breaking my overall pike personal best of 14lb if i got lucky and that being the case i am always excited and full of anticipation when fishing these places.

There is something about a pike float that is, well perfect, it sits so elegantly out of the water held in place by a small lead on the bottom it holds station, motionless with only the gentle lapping of the waves form a side breeze causing it to move with any vigour.  How you set you floats up is personal to each angler and every angler has their own preference, mine is to have the float anywhere from cocked in this picture to semi cocked.  I never like to leave the float lying flat on the surface as my biggest fear with this dead baiting is a deep hooked pike so i want to know instantly when a fish touches the bait so i can judge what the pike is doing and you will see me talk more about this later on on this piece where i talk about how important it is to be getting in the mindset of a pike, again i stress how you have yours is entirely up to your own preference.

Sunday mornings are a great time to be out on the bank, all the idiots are either in bed or just cooking their morning fry up and at this time of year the freezing cold mornings means you normally have the bank to yourself, makes me sound right anti social ha-ha but in reality with the work i do and the hustle and bustle peace and quite is what i seek out if i am out early on a Sunday.  It really is amazing what you see when your quiet on the bank what with the bird life and the occasional late night stop out fox scampering home it can be a magical time and a time of the week so many people just dont see.

The rods out it was a waiting began and unfortunately nothing much really happened as the float remained defiantly motionless and the three hours passed in no time at all.  I had decided early on that i was only giving this venue 3 hours and then moving onto the more prolific area with the jack.  The baits out it was no time at all before i got my first run of the day as the float sailed away and diserpeared, a strong stike was met with thin air, how it goes sometimes with this game i have found.  I was not long before the float was away again with another run and this time i know the pike had the bait good a proper as the float sunk confidently into the depths.  Fish on, only a jack, but boy did it scrap for a little guy you really have got to love the tenacity of these fish, so defiant, if perch are the bullies of the school yard then the pike if the hardest lad in the school.

Even at such a small age these jack pike are well equipped for their purpose.

Unfortunately not long after releasing this fish i received some bad news that saw me pack in and head home immediately, i wont go into detail on here as its not the place.

I have said it a number of times on this blog over the years but fishing offers so much more than catching fish, it gives its participants a outlet to relax and be at one with their thoughts and at times like this the bank offers me that solitude to be alone with my thoughts and think things over, almost getting things in order in my head and on Tuesday i just had to get out on the bank and away from it all for a hour or so.  Pike fishing was the gear i grabbed and headed off for a local canal.

Arriving on the bank with the rods already set up i mounted up a mackerel tail on the first rod and began to plum the depths to get the float set just right, all set it was time to grab the second rod and as i turned to grab it i was sure i saw the float in the water dip, the second rod was slowly learnt on a nearby bush as the float again dipped, interest already i waited with baited breath for the run to develop but unfortunately it didn't and the float lay still.  I returned the rod to the floor and set about unravelling my second rod from the bush, not an easy job with a thorn bush.

Given the early interest i was really confident of the float sliding away but after 40 long minutes it still remained still so i brought the bait in and sure enough it was pin pricked with tiny holes from a pikes mouth.  The bait returned to the spot i then set about recasting the second rod, solid and snagged like a good one it was, DAM i thought all i needed, anyway llong story short i ended up pulling for a break which resulted in me getting the bait back but the hooks being left ruined and bent, setting up fresh was the only thing to do, a set up thats not right is no good at all with piking you need your hooks to be sharp and as strong as can be to penetrate the pikes bony mouths.

This is where i was saying about pike fishing not being just chucking it in and forgetting it you need to be switched on at all times and vigilant as it would have been so easy for me to turn my back and set up another rod forgetting about the one still in.  Your mind is on setting up but your eyes are on that float which to my amazement bobbed again signalling more interest.  I placed the gear down and grabbed the other rod and this is exactly what happened.

The float bobbed once and again and then moved around 3ft to the left slowly, enough for you to miss and then stopped.  Now this is where you need to be thinking about things as there is two scenarios that may have happened here 1) the pike has moved and felt resistance and dropped the bait 2) the fish has got the bait in its mouth has stopped to turn it and eat the bait.  When this happens you have to be thinking option 2 all the time and you have to chance your luck and strike as leaving this fish any longer could see the hooks deep inside the pike and you are in real trouble, remembering its best to lose a pike than risk a deep hooked one.

Striking hard i was met with solid resistance and a pike that most certainly was not happy in being disturbed eating his mackerel breakfast, a hard battle began with the pike taking line on a number of occasions as it made for the far bank shaking its head hard in defiance as it did so.  Some pike are quite timid in their fight but others are all aggression and power and this was certainly the latter, i knew it was a decent fish from the runs and power but it was not till she came up to the surface a slowly drifted into the edge i saw what a nice fish she was in the clearing water the net slid under her i let her rest in the margin while i recovered.

The unhooking mat, scales and unhooking tools were already laid out in preparation of a capture again when dealing with pike it pays to be organised.  On the bank i could see one of the hooks was in her scissors, maybe i was wrong and have been lucky, but opening her mouth i could see the second trebles where right in the top of her mouth level with the gills, my gut instinct was right and any longer it could have been a different matter.  The fish unhooked on the scales she went and i was really happy to see them sneak over the 10lb mark at 10lb 3oz, my first double on a dead bait.

As always with my fishing its all about getting close enough to nature you can touch it, admire it in all its beauty and then see them go back strong.

After releasing this pike i quickly packed away as i had arranged to meet up with a mate from work on another venue and with only a hour to spend i was confident of picking up at least one jack pike.  The end result was two runs and one pike on the bank, as expected only a jack and might well have been the same one from Sunday.

That is it for this weeks update, i hope next weekend gives us a chance to get back on a river

but till then its tight lines from me

Danny