Isaac 2 Dad 0

The day had been a disappointment, dull, damp and drizzly, not what we wanted for a Saturday.  However the afternoon saw the cloud breaking and eventually the sun poked through the clouds.  In the early afternoon Isaac and I headed out to a local stillwater with a lure rod each trying to repeat his success of last time.  We tackled up in the car park, I took the lid off the lure box and Isaac reached for the Wagtail straight away, he’s a fast learner…  I started off with a ½ oz spinnerbait which I figured would be just the job for fishing around the emerging lilies. 

The lake was busier this week so we tried to give the camping carpers a wide berth and had to skip a few swims on our travels.  I was pleased to see Isaac’s casting has become a lot more consistent in terms of direction but he doesn’t always get the timing right, the lure sometimes went high in the air before slapping down on the water.  This doesn’t bother the Pike though, in our third swim I heard the shout “Dad!!!!”  Something had engulfed the Wagtail!  The clutch ticked a little but the Pike wasn’t a monster and I soon had it scooped up in the net, Isaac beamed and we ‘high fived’.  The hooks came out easily but there was a problem, someone else’s trace was disappearing down the Pike’s throat.  With Isaac’s help I managed to remove this without too much trouble and after a quick photo we returned the fish which thankfully swam away strongly.

Accidents happen in fishing, tackle does get left in fish from time to time, if we’re honest all of us have done it at some time.  That said I find it very difficult to see how a deadbait trace could wind up in the throat of this particular Pike.  It had given Isaac a great deal of pleasure and excitement but it was only a small one of a couple of pounds.

With Isaac taking a fish on a curly tailed lure and nothing to my spinnerbait I rummaged in the box and selected a springdawg before we moved on.  All the swims we fished had weed, overhangs or features of some sort, they looked really Pikey but the fish hadn’t read the script.  We passed another carper who looked nervously as we whizzed lures around in nearby swims but was friendly enough and wished us well. 

Towards the end of the bank was a really nice looking area with an island, a bay and loads of lilies.  It was here that my rod slammed over as something nailed the springdawg.  I shouted to the wandering Isaac to get the net ready as I brought a nice sized fish close to the bank where it swirled, turned and spat the lure back at me.  I managed not to swear…  A couple of swims later the springdawg was chomped again but the fish only stayed on for a second or two this time.  In the last swim on this bank my lure went solid again but this time it was a heavy snag.  I managed to get it moving and a large branch began to rise out of the water, then this went solid and…. The strain became too much, my old and much used 6’6” Abu rod snapped. 

Isaac was content with his Pike so we brought our trip to a close.  I do have a bit of a daft sentimental attachment to some of my fishing gear, old rods in particular but not this one for some reason, I was more annoyed about losing two fish!  Isaac spent the journey home reminding me that he’d caught the only fish, again!  I love seeing him catch but I wouldn’t mind putting a Pike in the net myself sometime soon!