Grab a Granny

Winter finally arrived in early February and I decided to stick to stillwater fishing from the boat for now. Two trips have produced a total of eighteen pike, thirteen of them to me and the rest to Denis who only accompanied me on the second trip. It sounds like quite good fishing but in fact we're quite disappointed with our results as the average size of these fish was well below what we would normally expect. Fourteen of the pike were in double figures but only one went over fifteen pounds.

We've had most of the fish on static deadbaits, although I did pick up three of them on lures, replicants to be precise. The weather conditions have been quite tough with sub zero temperatures, snow and freezing rain but the water is still 4.5-5 degrees centigrade so turnover has not yet taken place. There are still a few more very cold days and nights to go so turnover is still possible but if it doesn't happen before the weather turns then it probably won't happen at all this year.

The weather caused us major problems, as it has most people. Launching the boat was a nightmare on the snow covered slipway and approach road. Even Denis's big four wheeled drive car was really struggling and when we came off the lake it was clear that we weren't going to be able to get the boat out so I've left it in the water chained to a jetty. The freezing rain was awful, everything became coated with a thick layer of ice, the boat, the rods, even the clothes we were wearing and it actually became painful to touch anything or pick something up.

I'll be back in a day or so when the ice has cleared to retrieve the boat and I might wet a line while I'm there but hopefully this run of mediocre fish will end and I'll hook into something more worthwhile. It's late season now and the fish are going to be very big. We've had enough of catching the juvenile pike, it's time to grab a granny!