Rather than have an early start I decided to saunter down to the Sluice today, as last week for all my efforts at turning out early I didn't catch a fish of any kind until gone 11am. With this in mind then - I was rods in by around 10 ish. Once again I had to wait for the bites to come, seemingly it's taking a while for the fish to find my offerings. Once again i fished my favoured method of Tip fishing. With tip fishing it is almost possible to tell what is attached to the hook before you land it, you get used to the way the fish reacts when fighting, a Perch for example with shake it's head from side to side, trying violently to shed the hook, and this action will transmit to the top of the rod, an Eel is easily identifiable by the tip constantly shaking, obviously when you strike into a Tench you feel a good lump on the end, anyway my point is that when I struck into this particular take - it felt different , something I hadn't felt before, and I was right. To my surprise, the fish that had taken a liking to my single red maggot, on an 18's hook was in fact a Pike. I was a little shocked to say the least, I was on 4lb bottom so I gave it plenty of line, and I didn't bully it as I didn't want it to bite me off. After a minute or so I managed to lure it into my net, a Jack Pike of around 2 and a half pounds was swiftly unhooked and returned to the water, not before stopping to have it's photograph taken with it's shocked captor.
The fish were plentiful today, and I had a proper net full of Perch, not that I kept them in a net of course. I'm speaking metaphorically. I also chucked a Pike rod out, I kept a watchful eye on the float, and after around 2 hours it was away. I was into a decent fish too, what a fight it gave me, tail walking all over the place, at one point it was nearly in the swim of the chap that was fishing next to me. She tipped the scales at....... Hang on! A little point I'd like to make here, the guy that was fishing next to me said that "she was around 9lb's" "Nonsense!" I replied she weighs 11lb, and with that and a point to prove I decided to weigh her, the needle showed that she weighed exactly 11lb. I've caught a fair few Pike out of this water, and can pretty much put a weight on any Pike out of there within an ounce or three. I was a bit lazy on today's session and I didn't bother to set up a designated Tench rod. I did however catch a decent sized Tench of 3lb 12oz on a worm.
The maggot muncher
11lb Tail Walker
3lb 12oz Bonus Tench
3lb 12oz Bonus Tench
