Big lures for big fish, small lures for small fish.

I love my little Friday sessions. They always seem to produce something and put me in a good mood for my last shift of the week. I was up early but not too early, arriving on the bank for 6am with the sun blazing, which gave me a good two hours to fish. Plenty of time if the fish are biting and not too long if nothing is happening. I had a take within the first five minutes but me and the pike didn't seem to connect. I was expecting more but for the next hour nothing happened. I changed lures a couple of times but then eventually got back to using the rainbow.

Around half past seven I was starting to think about the couple of current tea cakes I'd got for breakfast and togerther with a nice brew they seemed a real good option now. I might as well get a belly full before starting work rather than wasting time doing nothing on the bank.On the other hand, my first work break of the day would be at 10am so I decided to hold off the hunger pains and give it one last bash at my swim.

Fish on, I see a flash of under belly and see a small jack in the distance but then as it wriggles to turn itself I see the stripes of a perch. Yes another perch on the 19cm lip lure. I can see the fish is a decent one so I'm worrying it might come off in the fight but I do manage to land it. Well that has brought a smile to my face, what a cracking little fish. I didn't weigh it so any guestimates are welcome. Tough to call from photos I know.

I've only got half an hour left but quickly decide to switch from chasing pike to chasing perch, maybe there's a few more of them in the area. Deciding my best option is to use something smaller in the hope as not to scare off any of them with wild splashes of a large lip lure. I chose a 9.5cm soft 4play in roach pattern thinking I could slowly work it, jigging it and flicking it up and down to try and tempt the perch. I also had to get rid of my stiff titanium trace in favour of a cheapo soft shop bought trace. The small soft lures wouldn't work right with the titanium trace, it would be bad enough trying to cast a tiny lure on my heavy set up with 88lb Power pro. I gave It my best and worked the area where i had caught the perch, worked further up the bank, in the shadows, in and out of the fast water and anywhere that I thought would be hiding them.

Working the tiny lure slowly towards me, it got to within 8 feet of me and through the murk of the water I saw a large mouth coming up. Yep, a pike. I had to laugh at that, it always seems to work that way. The pike swallowed the tiny lure and we were battling, and boy what a battle it was. This fish put up a right good scrap and four times when I thought the mad dash was over off it went again. I've figured out how I like to use my multiplier in a fight now. The drag is set pretty tight but to a point where I know a pike can pull off some line. But I prefer not to rely on that and instead when I sense a surge I quickly release the pressure on my spool with my thumb, by rolling it back a little, and then flicking off the bail and controlling the spool with my thumb. I've got no idea if this is right or wrong but for now it's allowing me to control the fight much better and without fear of the fish ripping out the hooks. I finally managed to land the fish so now it was time to try and find out how deep this pike had taken the small lure but to my pleasant surprise it was nicely hooked away from any delicate parts.

That fish will probably go on to be a good size one day. It was solid, quite a stocky fish with a right tail on it. I didn't bother casting back in at that point, I was happy. Time for a brew and to get my shift over with. Today I would be working with a nice smile on my face, there's no better way to start the day.

2012 pike tally

 Doubles 18

Total 94

Largest 22.5lb
Bonus Perch 3