Another cold snap has left most of the waters in the area once again covered in ice, quite a dilemma when fishing is on the agenda. I checked a few waters in the area and finally found a stretch of canal that wasn't frozen.
Today's tactics were to be 2 suspended dead baits and 1 bait to be laid on the bottom.
A couple of hours had passed and so far the floats had remained undisturbed. I was getting itchy feet so decided to move swims. I walked for what turned out to be around half a mile, a pretty tricky manoeuvre as I hadn't collapsed my rods down, fully laden like a pit pony springs to mind!
The move turned out to be a good one and perhaps worth the hassle of moving, as within 5 minutes of my arriving one of my floats slowly disappeared from view. No fish though, a dropped run was the outcome. Five minutes later and it was away again another dropped run, quite likely a small Jack having a nibble.
I was just warming up by taking my first sip of a much welcomed cup of tea, when seemingly my bottom bait Mackerel was being hoovered up by something. The something turned out to be a Pike of an ounce under 11lb. Weighed, photographed and released I was sat back in my chair congratulating myself on making the effort to move swims when I was in again. Another Pike landed but smaller than the last perhaps 9lb or so.
The Pike were certainly on the feed today, incredibly in a period of around only 3 hours, I'd had 9 runs and I'd landed a total of 6 fish consisting of one double a couple of 8 and 9's the rest were opportunist rooting Jacks falling for the suspended Roach.
Whilst uploading my pictures to blogger it became apparent that I'd caught the same fish twice. What's interesting is that each catch was only 45 minutes apart. Amazing isn't it that within less than an hour a Pike can go through the rigmarole of being dragged out of the water handled and photographed and go back on the feed to go through it all again. It's reassuring to know that they can recover so quickly.
Today's tactics were to be 2 suspended dead baits and 1 bait to be laid on the bottom.
A couple of hours had passed and so far the floats had remained undisturbed. I was getting itchy feet so decided to move swims. I walked for what turned out to be around half a mile, a pretty tricky manoeuvre as I hadn't collapsed my rods down, fully laden like a pit pony springs to mind!
The move turned out to be a good one and perhaps worth the hassle of moving, as within 5 minutes of my arriving one of my floats slowly disappeared from view. No fish though, a dropped run was the outcome. Five minutes later and it was away again another dropped run, quite likely a small Jack having a nibble.
I was just warming up by taking my first sip of a much welcomed cup of tea, when seemingly my bottom bait Mackerel was being hoovered up by something. The something turned out to be a Pike of an ounce under 11lb. Weighed, photographed and released I was sat back in my chair congratulating myself on making the effort to move swims when I was in again. Another Pike landed but smaller than the last perhaps 9lb or so.
The Pike were certainly on the feed today, incredibly in a period of around only 3 hours, I'd had 9 runs and I'd landed a total of 6 fish consisting of one double a couple of 8 and 9's the rest were opportunist rooting Jacks falling for the suspended Roach.
Whilst uploading my pictures to blogger it became apparent that I'd caught the same fish twice. What's interesting is that each catch was only 45 minutes apart. Amazing isn't it that within less than an hour a Pike can go through the rigmarole of being dragged out of the water handled and photographed and go back on the feed to go through it all again. It's reassuring to know that they can recover so quickly.
Biggest of the day 10lb 15oz
First time out
Back for another snack!
and finally...
