The Fishing Diaries: A move produces the goods

I'm really cramming in the sessions on the drain this week, Christmas is coming though and I'm going to get a lot busier with work, so as they say 'I may as well make hay while the sun shines'

I started the session Jigging for Perch, I caught a few throughout the day, the biggest around 12oz. I'm loving this method for picking up bait rather than waiting for the fish to feed (Or not) on my maggot offerings.

The Pike fishing was once again pretty slow today, despite my early start it wasn't until after dinner until I caught my first Pike, my old faithful bait had produced the goods again, another blank saved. This Pike wasn't going to win any beauty competitions, it's mandible was hanging off it's mouth, probably the result in shedding a trace from a previous snap off, it also had deformed fins, see photo below.

There is often a debate that gets mentioned on the drain, and it's the debate of if you're not catching should you move? There is a technique that is known as leap frogging, this is where you work your way down the drain, moving your rods and casting every 20 minutes or so. The theory is that eventually you'll drop on to a Pike. The other side to this debate is that Pike are nomadic, and if you stick it out long enough a passing fish will probably find your bait. I usually stick to the latter, but today as my floats lay motionless I decided to pack up and work my way down to the start of the drain, technically not leap frogging as such, but it's not often that I would go to the effort of moving swim once I'm there I make camp and sit it out.

The move paid off as with an hour my near margin rod was in, a good fight ensued, there was a hair raising moment as during the fight the Pike snagged me under a bush. I managed to land it in the end, good job too as at 12lb 6oz it wasn't to be sniffed at. Like an idiot I forgot to take my camera today so I was grateful that a friend of mine Eddie just so happened to be passing to capture the moment on my phone.

So in summary..... Perhaps when the going's tough and I'm not catching, pack up and move