A week of piking.

With the closed season fast approaching and signs that at any moment the fish could turn away from food and instead concentrate on multiplying, it's now dawning on me that the one bit of freedom I so easily switch to will be gone from me for what will seem like an eternity. I will have to look elsewhere and change venues, possibly tactics and maybe even species! WTF, a river piker blog with no pike or rivers? Since around July last year I've pretty much stuck to this one spot. Easy to get to, I can park my car in safety and can be in and out in no time. It's so comforting and effortless the blanks don't even seem that bad. But all that will be gone soon and so with little time to spare I've decided to give it one last full on bash.

Monday


Plans were to get out and fish straight from work. Finishing at 2pm I had a good bit of time to chuck stuff about and with the conditions looking pretty steady I was looking forward to it. Then at roughly half past one the heavens opened and not only that it got significantly worse. The river bank where I fish has a bit of a slope and the recent floods have left a two inch layer of silt. Add to that the rain and it turns in to a slippery mud bath. I decided against it and instead chose to get one of my chores out of the way. Sunday the washer packed in. Having been on the way out for some time it finally went out in a cloud of smoke, after a nice loud bang. So I used the bad weather to my advantage and got it chalked off my list leaving me free for the next day. Her in doors was well pleased.


Tuesday

Savaged lure

Second cast and I'm in. The weather was kind and so were the fishing gods. A decent scrap and yet another fish, roughly 6lb, falls to the 19cm SG lip lure in rainbow trout. The lure is now a battle scarred hero even though I've only had it a few weeks. The pike was nice and fat and in good condition and went straight back in. A few more searching casts and around twenty minutes later I get a knock but strike in to nothing. I try my best to cause another hit but no luck. A little while later and I miss another. Initially it felt like a snag but then I realised there had been a fish on and judging by the bit of a swirl on the surface this wasn't a jack but probably a fish of at least the size of a low double.

12.5lb on the mat

Nothing else happened so I switch lure to one of my 19cm soft 4 plays in zander pattern, which I don't think I have caught before on. I have caught using the perch pattern but not this one. A couple of casts in the direction of the lost low double and then I feel something solid and know for sure this one is a fish, maybe the one I missed? The soft 4plays are great, you can simply reel in and make them swim like a fish as a swim bait or you can use slow steady jerks and make them dance, limp, rise, sink, flip upside down and even glide around and the movement does to me at least look just like an injured fish. Obviously it must to the pike too and after a decent battle she was mine. A beaut of a fish at 12.5lb, fat and healthy and some decent markings too. Unfortunately my camera batteries died on me so I couldn't take a top down photo to show off the orangey tone to her markings. Rather unique and made her stand out from the usual pike I catch here. I also noted as I slipped her back that she wasn't a jack pike with a beer belly like many caught recently but actually a broad headed, wide bodied fish. Nice bit of sport!

Tangoed

I was thinking possibly I'd blog the whole week and then post live for the weekend as a week diary, but then I remembered how I can sometimes rattle on a bit and figured that anyone stopping by on Sunday would be put off by the vast amounts of text. I'm confident that if both the weather and river levels stay roughly where they are I'll get a few more days fishing in at least. I've no idea when they'll turn to spawning though but would guess it soon. Like most predators they'll be gearing up to get their off- spring a decent start for when the shoals of silver fish also start to spawn. The predators will be just that bit bigger than their prey and have a massive stock of readily available food to feed off and grow. It's natures way and will at least enable a few of the predators to make it to adulthood, all being well anyway.

Get yourselves out on the rivers while you have chance!

....to be continued.

........well hopefully, weather permitting.

2012 pike tally

 Doubles 6

Total 16

Largest 17lb