Monday 31 January 2011

The Pike that came back for seconds

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.



Biggest of the day 10lb 15oz



First time out

Back for another snack!



and finally...

Thursday 27 January 2011

Back Blogging!

It's been a while since I've last blogged... Over two months in fact.

Thanks to the guys at Fishtec for reigniting my enthusiasm, it's nice to know that someone out there actually reads and apparently enjoys my waffle.

I have to confess I've contemplated jacking the blogging in of late. It's not that I haven't been fishing or that I haven't caught any Pike. Truth is I've been out fishing quite often. I've been chasing old Esox with some degree of success. I've literally lost count of the amount of Pike I've had this year. Granted most of them have been rooting Jacks but there have been the odd decent Pike thrown in for good measure.

I have though become a little disillusioned by the fact that I have to think twice about publishing pictures of my captures. In particular having to go to the laborious task of blanking out the backgrounds, as awful as they look please forgive me if the backgrounds are removed from the photos, it's for the Pike's sake not mine! The cloak and dagger approach really isn't my scene, having said that I do appreciate that revealing locations can be detrimental towards the welfare of Pike from 'Have a go - Wannabe Pikers'. I also appreciate that we all have to start somewhere, myself included.

I do see some horrendous sights while I'm out and about fishing, and it's these sights that make me think twice about leading people to Pike hot spots or indeed doing other peoples homework for them. Pressured Pike will ultimately lead to dead Pike.

December 2010 was bitterly cold, and I thought last year was bad. This winter beat it hands down, temperatures struggled to get out of the minus' for around three weeks. All waters in my area were frozen solid. The River Ribble and the River Douglas even fell victim to the big freeze, a sight that I have never seen in my lifetime.

As there are so many blog reports to catch up on I shan't go into detail with specific trips and incidents. I shall though try and keep up with the blogging from now on.

Tight Lines and thanks for dropping in.

Matt

December was looking pretty grim
Canal completely frozen over
River Douglas
Hesketh Bank Boat YardRiver Douglas - Hesketh Bank

River Ribble stopped in it's tracksRiver Ribble at Church Deeps

A foggy day on the canal
An eerie sight

When the mind wanders

A nice Sluice Double

Bar tailed Godwit

Couldn't resist a suspended Smelt!

First Double of the year 12lb 3oz

9lb 2oz

Allan's 8 lb Pike