Winter's Here

We've had some cold weather just recently, raising hopes that we may actually get a proper winter for once - I certainly hope so. Sudden cold snaps tend to put the fish down of course so the fishing's been a little tough of late.

I had an enforced layoff from piking due to a trip to Scotland to do a slide show for the North Lanarkshire region of the Pike Anglers Club. They're a great bunch and I really enjoyed the evening with lots of cut-and-thrust banter and some really intelligent searching questions. It always makes for a good slideshow when the audience join in like that. They looked after me very well and as I made the long journey home the next morning I made a promise to myself that I would spend more time in Scotland in the future.

I did manage to squeeze two fishing trips in just lately though. One was a two-day session at Chew Valley with Kevin. This produced only low doubles and jacks to both of us but on each of the two days a thirty pounder was caught from the nearest boat to us so we weren't far off the mark - just far enough!

I had a day out with Dave Kelbrick too on a large glacial lake. We trolled livebaits all day and it started promisingly, with a take to Dave which he lost followed by a pike attacking my float (!) It soon went downhill however and it eventually became obvious that the bait fish were shoaled up in just one or two spots with the pike being in close attendance. We ended the day fishing over one of these bait balls trolling back and forth and this did produce a couple of fish, a low double to me and a jack to Dave.

Still, it was nice to get out and that fish makes it ten double figure pike since the start of October. I would normally expect to get around fifty in a season so I'd better get my finger out and start catching.