Last time I fished with Mr W we took the Suffolk boat out and didn’t get a touch but for some reason we decided to try again, mostly because it’s a bloody nice place to spend your time, even if the fish don’t show up. We were in position and fishing by 0730 on a gloomy morning that didn’t get a whole lot brighter through the day. At least being mild with a light breeze we’d be comfortable whatever else happened. Tactics today were the same as always, to fish deadbaits and keep moving till we found some fish. I’d brought a lure rod too but it has barely stopped raining in the east and the water was up and as coloured as I’ve ever seen it here. Not really what I expected or wanted to see.
Despite this, today things went a little more to plan; I had two takes in the first half hour boating two Pike of six pounds or so, one each on smelt and sardine. After that things went quiet and we commenced an anti clockwise circle of moves that took us through a series of spots that sometimes hold a Pike or two. At our third stop a smelt cast towards the edge was picked up and this fish had a little more weight to it. I didn’t weigh it but we agreed between ten and eleven pounds wouldn’t be far off and like most of the Pike in this water it was beautifully coloured. By the early afternoon our moves were taking us back in the direction of the boatyard and Mr W still hadn’t troubled the scorers. I had to be off the water by 1600 and time was running out so it was a relief when Mr W’s float wobbled then buried at last. This fish wanted to have a scrap and we got our hopes up but as is often the case, it shrank near the net but was a little cracker all the same. It’s always best when both anglers catch and this capped an enjoyable day of chat and laughter.
A final move didn’t bring anything further and soon it was time to head back to base. The Pike here often appear to show a preference and today three of the four takes came to smelt. This is slightly skewed as both of us used smelt on one rod but the bait used on 50% of the rods accounted for 75% of the fish. A couple of years ago, fishing this water in similar conditions lamprey fished on one rod accounted for 80% of the action, today it remained untouched. These things interest me but I’m still not sure about these apparent bait preferences; do we anglers contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy? I can’t believe a Pike will ignore one type of deadbait and take another through preference or taste. A couple of years ago I wrote in ‘Pikelines’ that I think that one bait will be detected quicker than others due to the conditions on the day. For this to be correct then preferences should change over the days and weeks and this is certainly the case, the example mentioned above being one of many. Over the years fishing the Broads I consistently caught Pike on Lamprey, in October 2022 I netted a particularly memorable one on this bait. Since that day I’ve not caught a Norfolk Pike on Lamprey, not one. In recent visits I’ve not bothered to use them, lack of confidence leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy? If there is a lesson from this surprising ramble of thought it is this; always use a variety of deadbaits, every day is different.
With little respite from the rain the rivers were properly
flooding, for the first time this winter the fields and meadows were swamped
making the river largely unapproachable.
This came at the worst possible time as I had a couple of days off which
I’d intended to spend wandering the banks.
I was determined to fish but it would have to be a stillwater and with
nothing to lose I found myself paying my first visit to a place that had been
on my radar for a while. The day was wet
and windy as usual so for once I set up the oval brolly and sat behind a couple
of buzzers. Between the showers I’d
emerge every now and then to twitch a deadbait or recast into another likely
looking area. I’d also brought a lure
rod onto which I clipped a sinking lure which I’d cast out and count down to
get an idea of depths. On one occasion
my curly tailed jig was followed by a Pike which slowly swum away never to
reappear. I did get a good look at it
though and although not a big fish it was impressively barrel shaped, a light
bulb moment in my pikey brain.
I blanked on that occasion but got back at the first opportunity, first light on a still, dry day. This time I fished from the opposite bank with a couple of deadbaits and a lure rod which once again was used for checking depths as much as anything. I’ve done very little pit fishing in recent years and I was enjoying being back in this once familiar environment. At around 0830 I had a take on a paternostered smelt which I just twitched back. I wound into a Pike that bent the old Tricast nicely but when it popped up in front of me I thought it looked about seven pounds or so. However once in the net I could see it was another barrel of a fish and I had to weigh it just to see, sure enough it was just into double figures. My train of thought now will be obvious to any Piker… I fished till midday but didn’t add to the score but once again thoroughly enjoyed myself and who knows what the future holds?
