Marking Time

Just a short report to let you know I'm still alive and still fishing. I finished off the season with a couple of days piking on the river but results were unspectacular with just a solitary 16lb+ fish to show for my efforts. The river was a little short of water and quite clear so I wasn't too surprised that the fishing (for pike) was poor.

I did at least get to see a very good fish though. At one stage I was walking a new stretch, trying to work out its pike potential when I was approached by a very excited chap who needed someone to take a picture for him. He was Chris Quinn from Rotherham and he'd caught a very fine chub weighing 6lbs 9oz. It's a long time since I've seen a chub of such size and it was a very impressive fish indeed, certainly no doubting the weight of it.

I used to fish for chub quite a lot but they've taken a backseat for a few years now. The sight of this fish got me thinking I might get back into it but deep down I know I'll be taking the pike rods with me next time I go there.

That's it for the rivers then, no more of that until next season. The pike are spawning in some of the lowland stillwaters now and I guess for people in the south of England their pike season has ended. The big deep lakes will still be quite cold though and I doubt that the pike there will spawn for a while yet.

I'll be getting the boat out next week for a final splurge to see if I can round the season off with a tenth twenty pounder.