December
rolled on with me far less grumpy than is usual for this time of year, ignoring
Xmas works! Three weeks into the month
and we have the shortest days of the year to contend with too. Despite this I managed to sneak out for a
couple of hours fishing. On the Saturday
I wandered around a local pit flinging a few lures around. I wanted to fish swimbaits close to the
bottom but weed growth made this difficult and after much chopping and changing
I ended up with a jerkbait. A Cobbs
Crazy shad to be precise which glided nicely above the weed and looked
brilliant in the clear water but the Pike didn’t agree. Nothing I tried got any response and I
eventually became side tracked chatting to a brother Piker as well as
dispirited by the cold wind. I jacked it
in after an hour but hoped to be back.
At the
turn of the year I suppose it’s natural to look back and reflect on the one has
just quickly passed. The family is a
year older and the children seem to be growing up in front of me. Teenagers don’t want to spend so much time
with Dad but mine have a lot of love to give.
Who’d want to be a teenager again?
Away from the bank I’ve had a quieter time than recent years. The grim reality is money has been tight and
certain luxuries had to be put on hold for a while. Life always has its ups and downs but tough
times don’t last, tough people do.
Things are changing for the better now, there’s a light…
I didn’t
manage to get to a cricket match this year, we had planned to watch Essex at
the Colchester festival but the T20 was sold out and the Sunday was a wash
out. Elsewhere England had a mixed year
in the tests. After being embarrassed in
Australia we were beaten by a decent Sri Lankan team before finding enough form
to defeat India. England were made to
look good against India but just how good they are remains to be seen, I’m not
convinced the selectors know what our best team is. Next spring England travel to the Caribbean
where they would expect to win. Last
time we toured there we somehow contrived to lose 1-0 but this low point led to
a few years of England cricketing highs.
At home next summer we have New Zealand who look good enough to give us
a proper test ahead of yet another Ashes series. Twelve months from now we’ll know just how
good England are and if the Ashes end up going south I expect Peter Moores will
be out of a job. Before the tests start
again we have some mildly interesting ODI stuff including a world cup. It’s hard to imagine England lifting that
trophy but…
We
didn’t catch much live music this year either, circumstances were as much to
blame as finances. What we did get to
see was brilliant starting with Eels on top form at the Royal Albert Hall. This was an un-missable combination and we
were not disappointed. A few weeks later
came the Latitude festival which is always the best weekend of the year. The music line up was brilliant and we got to
see fantastic performances from Goat, James, Black Keys and best of all
Royksopp & Robyn. We never want
Latitude to end, coming back to the real world is always a pisser. We had planned to see the Levellers in
November but at £50 a ticket it just wasn’t going to happen.
The
following day I returned in the mid-afternoon, planning to fish into dark. The children are of an age where they can be
left for a couple of hours without killing each other so I can sneak off
somewhere local. I returned to the same
pit with a couple of deadbaits as well as the lure rod. I set up on the entrance to a bay fishing a
float legered Bluey to some overhanging trees opposite me and a Paternostered
Smelt was whacked out and twitched back towards me. I also pinged my lures around and in between
the floats as this may often wake up a Pike that will take a deadbait. Two hours passed quickly and it was soon
growing dark so I started rummaging around in my bag for a head torch. The search was fruitless and I could picture
it on the ledge beside the back door where I’d left it. I had no sensible option but to pack up;
fishing in the dark would be no problem but unhooking a Pike would be another
matter.
Two
sessions lasting about three hours in total haven’t produced any sign of a Pike
but this is definitely not time wasted.
I will probably have time to pay another visit before the end of the
month so I now have a few clues to go on and a method in mind that’s a little
different to the norm….
Christmas
was quieter than usual with a nice stroll along the seafront before the
children descended in the afternoon. Boxing
day was spent in the company of my favourite people, the house was jammed with
family of all ages coming and going. We
all enjoyed Town getting a good three points away from home, the Adnams ‘Ghost
ship’ and loads of delicious food thanks to Shelley. Isaac enjoyed ‘Mario Kart
8’. Madi enjoyed her Ipod. That evening
saw hours of torrential rain lashing the east, pounding on the windows and
turning the road to a river. Would it be
enough to make the river burst and flood many of the pits? Sure enough a drive along the river valley
the next day revealed much of it to be under water. I had one free day to squeeze a little
fishing in but my options would be limited and the forecast didn’t bring any
better news; cold and frosty with a light northerly breeze. Just about the worst conditions for Pike
fishing on gravel pits round these ways.
Unless of course you have a nice bucket of good sized livebaits but
that’s another argument…
I was
awake around 0630 but just couldn’t be arsed to get myself out of bed. Scraping the windscreen in the half light was
not what mind and body required at that point, I just didn’t have the
motivation so I took things steady, had tea and toast before finally closing
the gate behind me around 0900. I drove
to the far end of the lake where I planned to fish with the cold wind on my
back. Looking down from the top of the
bank it was immediately clear that the water wasn’t, there was a definite muddy
tinge to it but not so bad it would put me off fishing. Whether I was concentrating on this as I
descended the icey concrete steps I don’t know but a suddenly my foot slid from
under me and I struggled to stay on two feet.
Somehow I didn’t go over but was sure my momentum would see me end up
head first in the pit. I don’t know how
I avoided this fate, I only know I’m very glad to have done so.
Plunging into several feet of ice cold water laden with tackle would
have been bad enough but there were also two good friends watching proceedings
from the opposite bank. My noisy stumble
down the bank would probably have scared every Pike around so I decided to
drive round the other side and fish close to Rich and Dave instead. I figured conditions were pretty bad and I’d
probably struggle so I might as well chill out in company and hopefully
scrounge some hot tea and food along the way.
Rich and
Dave had spent a frosty night bivvied up fishing for Carp of all things so I
set up behind them in a deep tree lined bay.
I cast a legered Smelt along a tree line to my left and paternostered a
Mackerel in open water. This I intended
to twitch back towards me every now and then.
On a third rod I float legered a bluey close in beside the trailing
branches of a bush. With three rods fishing
and everything organised it was nice to catch up with the lads. We all talk fishing most weeks but it’s rare
for any of us to share each other’s company on the water.
After
about half an hour with a mug of tea each and the piss taking in full flow my
close range float caught my attention, had something picked up the bluey? I took a few steps towards the rod just as
the micron sounded and the baitrunner began to purr. I paid off a bit of line, took off the
anti-reverse, wound down and… fish on! I’d
picked up a pair of Grey’s Pike rods months ago and this was only their second
outing so this was the first Pike I’d hooked on one. Whatever was on the end was heavy enough to
bend it right through as it plodded around on a short line but when it made for
the bush I turned it with no problem. I soon had it in front of me and pulled
it over the net for Rich to scoop up.
The
hooks fell out in the net so I held her up for a quick photo before checking
the weight on the scales. It was a
nicely marked mid double but showed signs of previous captures, a few marks,
red around the scissors and also had a pelvic fin missing (that I only noticed
when I looked at the photo). There are
lots of winter Pike anglers in this area and these Pike have few places to hide,
a little wear and tear is bound to happen though how the fin had become
unattached is anyone’s guess. I was
happy to have a fish under my belt in these poor conditions and this this also gave
me more ammo to rib the blanking carpers.
The lads
packed up around in the late morning and over the next few hours I gradually
moved my rods in and out of their vacated swims covering new water. By early afternoon the lake was busy with
other anglers as well as people just taking a stroll. Although I had enjoyed a couple of hours in
friends’ company and one of the strollers was a welcome visitor, I am
definitely not a sociable angler. In
fact if I don’t know people then I am probably a grumpy old bastard. When strangers approach me on the bank my
default setting is “you’re an idiot”
but in my defence I can quickly change my mind if my visitor doesn’t talk
bollocks. Maybe my reputation precedes
me as no other anglers encroached and I had my little section of bank to myself
so I was able to fish without being disturbed by showers of boilies and
crashing spods. I dropped the static
baits onto likely looking spots and kept the paternoster rod on the move. I did have a few lures in the bag but just
couldn’t be arsed to use them. All day
the lake had been flat calm and it was definitely a day for a thermals, hat and
gloves. The lake seemed dead, when conditions are this still it almost seems oppressive, you just can't picture a fish feeding. I felt my
best chance of another fish would come as the light faded but I’d had enough
long before then and was back in a warm house by sunset.
It was
good to get out and avoid Xmas cabin fever but the fishing hadn’t held my
attention, maybe if conditions had been better I would have tried harder? I’ll be mostly fishing close to home for the
next few weeks. I know the standard my
local Pike fishing is modest these days but I’d enjoy myself a lot more fishing
quieter waters. I’ll let the conditions
decide where at the time.
So the
Pike described earlier turned out to be my last fish of the year. Thinking about it, I caught it from a lake I
don’t often fish but where I also caught my first Pike of the year, another
mid-double. In between then the Pike
fishing has gone pretty well, wherever I’ve spent my time. In fact I'd go as far as to say that I have never enjoyed my Pike fishing more than I did in 2014 and long may it continue. However the Tench and Carp fishing was a
disappointment as I couldn’t catch either with any consistency in fact my best
fish of the warmer months was a Bream.
I’ve fished ‘the Marsh’ for the last five years and although I enjoy
spending time there the fishing has been a real head banger. I’ve caught large Tench, Carp and Bream here
as well as a few nice Pike but at no time have I ever felt I knew what I was
doing. It’s a funny old place and the
difficulty adds to the allure but it’s time for a change so next spring and
summer will be spent doing other things; different places for different species. Until then, more Pike…