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….
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 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.
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…
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