Since the new year I've continued fishing here and there on East Anglian stillwaters. Another drive to 'Strangeways' resulted in a blank when everything looked spot on. I also had a great day as a guest of Mr N when we caught plenty of fish though nothing of any size. I always love Pike fishing, wherever I fish but I was beginning to feel the itch of withdrawal and an urge to get the boat out.
At the beginning of the week my mind was made up, I was going to the special place. As the days passed the forecast got worse and worse and I began to look for other options. I had some precious time and
was desperate to fish but where should I go?
I couldn’t get enthusiasm to travel to Strangeways and ‘Nail a tenner’
had been up and coloured when I’d gone for a look the week before. I’ve found that normally clear pits fish
badly when they colour up quickly, would it have settled down enough by now?
There was a water close by that I had planned to fish this
year but the word on this one had well and truly got out so I had opted to
avoid the crowds. However it is a place
I knew well having fished it a lot in the past and I remembered a little fished
area where the Pike used to move into at this time of year. This may be a pre spawn gathering or it might
just be fish moving away from the easy access, pressured swims. How much would things have changed in the last
quarter of a century? The area would
involve a long walk, and there was the risk I’d find a weekend Carp angler already
bivvied up. If that was the case there
was a second swim I fancied but this was would involve even more effort to
reach. I found myself finding reasons not to bother.
On Friday evening I had hoped to find a better forecast but the strong winds remained. I had very little enthusiasm but went
through the motions of getting my gear ready to fish from the bank, somewhere.
The forecast threatened morning rain as well as the strong winds so I’d
have to carry more gear than I’d like. Could
I really be arsed to fish the old place? I
decided I should get my gear sorted and ready to load and just see how I felt
when the alarm went off. Going to bed
knackered I felt the chances that motivation would strike at 0600 were 50/50 at
best.
The alarm woke me and I lay listening to the sounds coming
from outside. I could hear the rush of
wind but I couldn’t hear rain on the window.
I swung myself out of bed and staggered clumsily around the house for
half an hour before I managed to load the car and get away. A short while later I rolled through the
gate, happy to see an empty car park. I
loaded up and set off on a long walk through shit sticky mud. I remember these muddy paths regularly
clogging the wheels of my bike when I was a mad keen young piker. By the time I reached the point where the
path divided I was sweating and breathing heavily and it was this that settled
the swim choice, I decided to fish the nearer, easier of the two swims.
The morning had a little drizzle on the wind and was very
cloudy, all very dim. I set up patiently
as I needed a little light to see my targets.
My swim was a point jutting out into the lake, I always like bottleneck
swims and this one has a gap leading to another bay and a nice tree lined
island in front of me. I legered a
Lamprey in the gap and float legered half a Bluey alongside the island. Both were tricky casts but they seemed to OK,
as far as I could see through the gloom.
As usual my third rod was a paternoster rig baited with smelt. I whacked this out into open water with the
intention of twitching back but it occurred to me I hadn’t actually caught
anything on this method for quite a while.
I also went through the routine of casting a spinnerbait around,
counting down and checking depths. My
memory didn’t need too much of a jog as I’d spent a lot of time in this swim,
albeit a quarter of a century ago, things hadn’t changed much at all beneath the water at least. The banks are now unrecognisable as the place I used to fish. Reminiscing I realised this swim had produced
no less than three PB Pike for me when I was a teenage Piker. It was also here, around that time that my
Dad took a January swim to retrieve the brolley I’d received that Christmas
which had uprooted and blown onto the island!
1985
After a while I settled down under the oval brolly. I rarely use this thing but every time I do
I’m impressed by how stable it is on these windy days. After about an hour I got out of the shelter
and twitched the paternoster rig back a bit then started pinging the
spinnerbait about again. After a couple
of casts a micron started tinkling, I looked round to see the float on the
paternoster rig was travelling slowly but surely towards me. I wound into a decent weight which I pumped
slowly back towards me. The fish felt
fairly heavy but did nothing much other than splash a bit in the shallows and
pull the rod down a bit, then it was in the net. I left it there while I got all the
paraphernalia ready then hoisted her out and onto the mat. Hooks out easy, a couple of quick self takes
then onto the scales, (a little heavier than I expected and within a couple of
ounces of one of those eighties PB’s,) then back into the pit.
I quickly recast a fresh Smelt on
the paternoster and also decided to do the same with the other two rods as it
was now fully light. Both splashed down
bang on target, happy days. I sat back
with a smile and a brew, delighted to catch a decent Pike on my first visit to
this water for a very long time. By this
time the 2nd ODI match had started so I had a nice morning chilling
out and listening to the coverage on TMS.
It seemed a decent match with England just taking enough wickets to keep
South Africa in check. The Lamprey cast
into the gap had landed nicely so I just left it there as I the strengthening
wind would make a recast difficult. Fishing
from a peninsula gave me lots of water to cover and this I did with the other
two rods and, from time to time with the lure rod.
The morning passed happily but it was still gloomy with a
howling wind, it was going to be one of those sunless days. This mild winter
has been bizarre but still I was surprised to see white blossom buds on the
branches of a tree. I was content and
comfortable but I wasn’t catching so began to consider a move back towards the
car. These thoughts were shattered by
the wail of the ‘Billy’, the Lamprey in the gap was moving. I wound down quickly and had a repeat of the
first fish, I pumped it straight back and into the net. Grabbing the arms I peered down onto another
good sized Pike, I began to suspect it was the same one I’d caught
earlier. The scales told me it was a
couple of ounces lighter. I decided to
photograph it on the mat but like a muppet I clicked the wrong flank and now
I’ll never know for sure if it was a repeat capture.
It seemed sensible to stay put but getting a bait back into
the gap took about five attempts before I was happy. An hour later this same rod was away again,
hoping for a hat trick I wound down and felt a Pikey head shake before all went
slack. I hate losing any fish but at
least this one had felt small. By now it
was early afternoon and England were batting steadily, not piling the runs on
but keeping wickets intact with Hales looking set for a big score. I stuck to the plan of keeping a bait in the
gap while I searched the water with the other two rods. A friend came for a visit and drew my attention
to a nice treeline alongside the peninsula I sat on. I’d left the paternoster here for twenty
minutes or so earlier but decided to chuck half a Bluey just ‘round the
corner’. This bait was in place for
about forty five minutes before it was picked up but this time I wound down and
struck thin air! Oh well, get it back
out there there’s still a chance.
Back under the oval, in South Africa the cricket was heading for a tense,
tight finish but then Buttler hit three sixes and Ali two fours to finish the match
with England looking more comfortable than any of us fans actually felt. I started casting the spinnerbait around again,
instead of covering the bottom I buzzed it back quickly in mid water hoping to
attract the attention of any Pike. Maybe
it worked because the float leger moved off again and this time I managed to
set the hooks into a jack with attitude which helpfully unhooked itself in the
net.
When I left home in the morning I hadn’t planned to stay out
much after lunch time but the cricket had taken me well into the afternoon so I
decided to fish on till dusk. I cannot
remember the last time I fished a whole day for Pike sat in one place. There was no sunset as I hadn’t seen the
thing all day. Bird life had been sparse
today too just a few swans and geese along with a couple of ducks. A brief visit from a Blackbird had been the
only bankside birdy visitor. Maybe I
should have stayed into darkness but I started to tidy up ahead of darkness and
ended up carrying on and going home before I needed a head torch. It had been nice to catch fish from an old
haunt and this water seems to have a reasonable head of Pike again these
days. I may come back again some time, maybe not for a while. I'm still itching to get the boat out on the Broads again.