River Surprises

Still no car but in truth, it's been a windy week and I probably wouldn't have got the boat out anyway. The weather has been very unsettled with rain in most parts accompanied by strong winds and I took the opportunity to do some more river fishing this week.

I'm currently targeting three rivers for pike and conveniently, they are all covered by the Environment Agency's "Rivercall" service but it was mostly bad news when I rang the numbers. Two of my rivers were high and rising but the other was only up a little and was falling so that's the one I chose. I decided to do some exploring, fishing areas I didn't know too well and to an extent it paid off - well at least I didn't blank!

First session in a new spot and amazingly I had a deadbait picked up within five minutes of casting in. It was a scrappy little eight pounder which had picked up the sardine and I'll certainly recognise it again as it was a pug (see pic.) I was delighted at catching so quickly in a new swim but disappointed shortly afterwards when two anglers moved in opposite me. I had been casting across to the far bank but their presence made this impossible and I soon moved on.

I fished two more swims that day and while I didn't catch any more pike, I liked the look of them and I'll be back at some point. Next day I decided to move to yet another new area and it proved very interesting. This swim was in a wood and it meant a long walk was needed in order to get to the place I wanted. I expected to have the place to myself due to the long walk but surprisingly another angler was soon to move in just below me. He busied himself catching chub and he seemed to have a good day but he hampered me a little since he was in a spot I wanted to try.

Nevermind, I had plenty of river to go at and I put out two baits in slack water near to me. Nothing happened for a long time until a guy came down the bank inquiring who had the fishing rights. As we stood chatting, my float slid under and I struck into a jack of around five pounds. This was an incredibly fat fish and looked in good health.

The capture of the jack seemed to be a one-off and after an hour or two, during which I was able to admire the wildlife and the snowdrops that lay around me on this early spring day, I moved upstream a little. This was a good move as I quickly caught three doubles - all around the 11-12lb mark. I strongly suspect that there was a repeat capture in amongst those pike but there were definitely at least two different fish.

Late in the day the chub angler packed up and left. It was close to dark so I just had time to move into his swim with a wobbled deadbait. First cast I had a follow from a big pike - maybe a twenty pounder. It followed the bait right back to the bank but would not take and eventually it spooked.

I'll be back for that one!