The Big Switch

After the last report what do you think we went and did next? Well unsurprisingly Denis and I went back to the same place to try and do the same thing. It didn't work of course, someone had thrown the big switch, conditions were totally different and the pike were not there in numbers. We arrived at dawn and started lashing the water to a foam with our lures but just had one fish apiece, a sixteen pounder to Denis and a 17.13 to me and by mid-morning we moved on. We spent most of the rest of the day exploring a new venue, something I've done a great deal of this winter and while it was a very long walk, which took its toll on my poorly knee, we did like the look of what we saw.

Next morning we arrived before first light and were surprised to be apprehended by a bailiff before we'd even taken our gear out of the car - now that's keen! He checked our tickets which were all in order and he told us that there had been a serious problem with foreign anglers poaching the fishery in recent weeks so he was being extra vigilant. If only all bailiffs were as good as that.

We stumbled down the bank to the waters edge through grass that was white with hoar frost and we both managed only with great difficulty to get our bank sticks into the frozen ground. This was the hardest frost I'd seen all winter and it came as quite a surprise after the recent mild conditions. The water was low and very clear and I didn't hold out much hope when the sun came bursting over the horizon into a cloudless sky. By eleven o'clock we were both still fishless and there were absolutely no signs of fish life so we called it a day. Best to wait until the conditions were just right again.

It's been quite a while since I got the boat out and since I was keen to give the engine a run I decided that I would go afloat this week and see if I could snag a pike or two. The lake's been fishing very badly so I wasn't expecting too much but when I arrived and saw that there were no cars at all parked up I knew it was going to be a tough couple of days. This time last year there would have been four or five anglers out fishing but it seems word has got around - they just aren't having it.

I fished the first day for no reward, dropping into banker swim after banker swim without so much as a twitch on my floats and at the end of it I retired a little despondent. Kevin was due to join me the next day and I was looking forward to that, we don't get to fish together often enough, but I was afraid we would both blank. I didn't sleep well, the rain hammering on the roof of the car saw to that but Kevin arrived bright and early and we were soon anchored up in yet another spot that, over the years, has brought good results.

Dawn broke and before long I spotted a familiar sight making its way across the smooth surface of the lake. It was an otter, the first I've seen here but as regular readers will know, not the first I've seen by a long way. It seems I just can't get away from them these days, that's four different venues I've seen otters this season alone.

We moved on, then we moved on again and again. We spent some time just cruising slowly, trying to find pike or bait fish on the sounder but we found very little and eventually Kevin persuaded me to try a new spot, one I hadn't fished before. It was an inspired choice as within five minutes of casting in had a low double on a mackerel head. We hung around for some time expecting at any moment to pick up another fish but it wasn't to be and eventually we up anchored and moved on once more.

I decided we'd end the day in a familiar swim, one I'd fished quite a few times but one which I never see anyone else fishing. I didn't really expect anything to happen, they just weren't feeding so I got quite a shock when my float dipped and sailed under. The shock only got bigger when I wound down to this fish and the rod stopped dead on the strike - this was a good 'un!

I heaved the fish towards the boat and both Kevin and I strained to see the creature through the crystal clear water. We both gulped when it came into view, thrashing and head shaking as it tried to remove the hooks, yes it was a good 'un alright. I pulled hard and the fish broke surface whereupon Kevin scooped it up at the first attempt. It was hooked on just the one treble, neatly in the scissors and I flicked that out before hoisting the beast up on the scales.

28lbs 4oz. I was so glad I'd made the big switch and got the boat out!

Once in a While...

I know I moan a bit in this blog. The weather's always wrong or the levels aren't right or something else is giving me a good excuse for not catching. Just once in a while though, it actually all goes right and this past week that's what happened. That said, I got a little help from my friends.

The weather has remained mild but the strong winds and the rain have subsided now. That gave us a choice of where to fish but Denis and I weren't exactly spoiled for choice, we knew where to go. We got there quite early and, having a lot of water to explore we split up. The intention was to fish seperately for the morning and then meet up again at dinnertime and decide what to do next. I chose an area I'd fished before and was surprised to find another angler there when I arrived. He told me he'd had a mid double figure pike and we wished each other good luck as we each went about our fishing.

I dropped a legered sardine into a likely looking spot and didn't have long to wait. The bobbin was off within a few minutes and I pulled a 16lb 14oz pike to the bank. The fish was a bit of a mess I'm afraid, there were scars along its flanks and the bottom lobe of its tail was missing - definite otter damage. I put her back and moved on to another spot. Several spots and several moves later I had had no further action and as it was close to 12 o'clock I rang Denis and packed up to go and meet up with him.

Denis hadn't had anything and we decided to move on to a third place, a short drive away, to see what we could catch there. We had a bit to eat before setting off with our tackle on our backs and yomping across the fields. I left the first choice of swims to Denis and settled into a spot some three hundred yards away, again fishing static deadbaits. Before long the bailiff came by and we had a chat about the fishery and how it was fishing. He said he thought conditions were just perfect and I agreed, after all, that was why we had come here.

The bailiff set off along the bank checking members' licences but after half an hour or so he was back; "There's a chap along there having a bit of pike trouble." he told me, "Every time he hooks a roach a pike snatches it off his line." I didn't need an invite, the deadbaiting had produced nothing so I quickly packed up and set off with the intention of offering to catch this pike for him and get it out of his swim - I'm kind like that. When I got there though, I discovered that I wasn't the only generous soul on the bank, Denis was already there standing next to the roach fisherman - and he had a bent rod in his hand!

I helped Denis land the pike, an upper double, and he told me he's taken it on a lure on his first cast. The roach fisherman wasn't impressed however; "That isn't it," he said, "The pike I've been seeing is bigger." While Denis was unhooking his fish I decided to try to help the old guy out myself and began wobbling a herring through the swim. Nothing happened and before too long Denis had his pike returned and was ready again with his lure. He cast it in and once again he was into a pike.
It seemed it was lures they wanted and that left me with a problem - I hadn't brought any!

I put my hang-dog face on, cadged Denis's only other suitable lure off him and wandered off along the bank before settling in about a hundred yards away and lobbing out the lure. The switch from deadbaiting to lure fishing produced a spectacular result and I took a low double on the very first cast. Second cast the lure was taken on the drop and I landed another sixteen pound fish. Meanwhile Denis was into something much bigger and, dropping back my fish unweighed I went along to help. This pike went 24lbs 8oz, a super fish but the day wasn't over yet.

Over the next two hours before dark we continued to catch pike after pike, all of them over ten pounds and all of them on lures and by close of play when it was too dark to see we had amassed a catch of fourteen fish, five to Denis and nine to me. Two of Denis's fish broke the 20lb barrier and they both weighed 24lbs 8oz (different fish) while I too had a brace with fish of 20lbs 14oz and 23lbs 12oz. We finished the day delighted with our fishing and had a celebratory pint or two in the pub before retiring early for the night, keen for an early start next day.

Next morning we were on the bank before dawn and thrashing the water to a foam with our lures. Denis got off to a flyer with an eighteen pounder and followed it up quite quickly with a fine fish of 21lbs 12oz. I countered with yet another sixteen pounder but horror of horrors, it bit my lure in half! With no more suitable lures between us I set off to the tackle shop to buy some but when I got there I was disappointed. Despite the presence of a fantastic pike fishery right on their doorstep this shop catered only for the match angler. The choice of lures was restricted to a very big lipped rubber Storm lure, more suited to trolling than casting and a handfull of tiny spoons and jigs. I opted for the big one and took it back to the bankside.

First cast with this lure it was grabbed but the fish came unstuck after a few seconds. I cursed myself for not checking the hooks when I realised they were quite small and quite blunt and I replaced one of them with a hook from the damaged lure and touched up the other with a diamond hook sharpener. I was soon into another fish and pulled in yet another sixteen pounder on the new lure but a few casts later I hooked and lost another pike. It seems the profile of this lure wasn't a good one and it was a poor hooker. What's more it was very heavy and had a lumpy action so I was tiring quickly as I was using it.

Denis came down the bank, he'd cast his lure into a snag and lost it so that was it for him. He discounted the idea of buying a lure like the one I had since he could see I was struggling with it and his recent tennis elbow was starting to flair up again. I had a follow on the lure, a big fish, certainly well over twenty pounds but it didn't take and then a short while later I hooked and lost yet another fish.

We decided to call it a day at this and set off to fish the area I fished on the morning of the first day, a place where we knew we could catch on deadbaits. We only had one more pike there though and it turned out to be the same pike I had caught there the day before, the one with half a tail. It seems it wanted to get its own back on me for as I was taking out the hooks it thrashed madly and drove a barbed size four deep into my middle finger of my right hand. The hook was in deep and there was no way it was coming out so that was it for the day. I drove Denis home then took myself off to hospital to get it removed.

Was I bothered? Well after the fishing we had just had, with nineteen double figure pike, five of them over twenty pounds NO WAY!

Backyard Fishing

Crikey what weather we've had. Back in September they warned that we were going to have yet another severe winter with sub-zero temperatures and snow. What we have had so far is, if anything, worse than that with storm after storm crossing the British Isles flooding the rivers and making it impossible to take the boat out. It seems every river in the country has been on a rollercoaster ride rising fast on minute and then dropping the next and catching the river right in such circumstances is nigh on impossible. My one trip to a river was fruitless, the water was high, coloured and rising and I blanked.

The only alternative has been to fish relatively local waters and take what I could get, which is usually not a lot in northwest stillwaters although I've had fish at least. The water I've been targetting is quite a large one, a reservoir but despite its size (54 acres) I've seen the water level rise by more than six feet over the last two weeks and it is currently quite full with millions of gallons tipping over the overflow. Naturally enough the water has coloured up during the process and this has influenced my fishing style somewhat.

I've managed three trips to this lake, although one of them was curtailed when the weather turned nasty once again and I've had pike every time. The coloured water has led me to fish smelly deadbaits so sardines have been on the hooks each time and of course these have had to be on the bottom where the pike have a better chance of finding them. I've also fished at least one rod very close in each time. Here the water is shallow and the light has a better chance of penetrating the murk down to the bottom. Every fish I've had has come close in, usually just one or two rod lengths out.

Three doubles and a jack have come my way, the biggest weighing 15lbs 15oz. The fish have been well fed but they've not been in the best of condition and in particular two of them have had red sore disease. This is a bacterial infection which is reasonably common in pike which leads to a loss of scales, sometimes in big patches and bleeding. They do recover from it in time.

I've included two pictures of the largest, one of the good side and one of the diseased side.