Celebrate October

Pike anglers must be amongst just a handful of people in the country who actually welcome the month of October. For most it heralds the end of summer and the onset of winter, long nights and early frost, the gloomy prelude to months of wind, rain or worse. The piker doesn't think like that, for him, October is EXCITING!

Well I've had more exciting Octobers than the current one but maybe it's starting to take shape a little. To be fair my season always starts slow, mainly because I always try to get out on the rivers early season and fishing the rivers depends so heavily on rainfall. Too much rain and they become raging torrents, too little and the preyfish become concentrated into little pockets, the pike finding their meals too easily.

This year, October's been fairly dry and the rivers I've fished with Denis have been low and clear. Results should have been fairly good but they weren't really. One stretch we fish every year, and which normally produces plenty of pike, proved to be very hard indeed, prompting suspicions about where the fish have gone. This stretch is very easily accessible having a road bridge running across it - have the set lines and barbecues arrived on the Severn now?

We got the boat out on a local river this week, the River "X" (in joke) and had a fun day. The competitive element was there and driving us both as ever, even in the bait catching. We set up to trot maggots under stick floats in a little spot where I know there are plenty of roach and sure enough, the fish were there. We decided a dozen baits would be just enough for the day and started feeding and trotting. First fish came to Denis, a plump eight ounce roach and then he had another. Was I going to lose round one? I needn'y have worried as I soon started to get a bite a cast and we finished that session with me winning eight fish to four.

Bait catching completed we went in search of the pike. This is a tough river but I'm building a mental portfolio of spots that produce and sure enough Denis was soon into the first pike on a lure, only for it to shed the hooks on the way in. He soon made up for it with two more fish on baits before I picked up a small one on a lure.
So the big man started with a bang but could he maintain it? Sadly not, Denis had no more fish on baits or lures through the day while I steadily increased my tally to five including this rather nice 15lb 2oz specimen, a good fish for this river.

Poor Denis, I won the bait catching then I won the pike catching. What's more he lost two lures in trees along with their titanium traces (ouch, expensive that!)

Four doubles for the season for me so far along with lots of jacks. Let's see if we can report a twenty next time!