More of the same

November means Blithfield for Joe and I. This is a regular feature of our fishing every winter and probably the only time we can both be sure that we'll be fishing together.

Blith is ready to produce a very big pike again, of that I'm sure. Last season saw four thirties come out (or was it five?) and while the biggest was only a little over 32lbs it means that the crop of twenty pounders is starting to thin out and the big fish are finally coming through.

We've had three cool wet summers in a row now and that bodes well for the pike, though the summer of 2009 was warmer than I would have liked and the autumn was very very dry. As a result the reservoir was down by around eight feet. It doesn't fish well when it's low. The known marks are high and dry and it means we all have to get out and about finding fish in unfamiliar territory.

We started off at one of our usual autumn spots - one that's produced some big fish for us in the past but it was slow going. Here we rely on the fish holding up against some overhanging gabions in shallow water but of course the gabions were well away from the water's edge and so the attraction was not there for the pike. Recent rains had coloured the water considerably too so visibility was poor.

Joe started off with his old faithful burt while I tried various lures to no avail but ringing the changes with regard to the turbid water I decided to put on a spinnerbait. First cast with this produced a hard fighting 18lb 2oz fish which made an almighty mess in the net, spinning like a top once on board. This meant I had to cut the hooks just to free them from the ball of netting and get at the fish and so the spinnerbait was useless since one of the hooks I had cut was integral to the lure.

Guess what, no more spinnerbaits in the box! We fished on for just one more pike that day (to Joe) and then spent day two deep trolling soft plastics. It's a form of fishing I abhor, dragging a lump of rubber around on the bottom, since it seems there is so much luck and so little interest involved. We picked up two more small fish on day two and that was it.

Hopefully the next session will be a little more interesting - bring on the rain!