Time on the river and a surprise catch

Today myself, JP and Allan set about fishing a local river, a change of scenery was very much appreciated. We arrived at day break and I set about setting my stall out - one Pike rod, one Tip rod and a ledger rod to hopefully pick up any passing Chub. I was the first to land a fish and what a surprise to see a Flounder putting a bend in my tip rod. They sure put up a good fight on light tackle. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and the next and last fish of the day came to JP and a good fish it was, a Chub that tipped the scales at 4lb 3oz. I'll head back to this river maybe as soon as next week but I think I'll head to a different section.

The first Pike of the year

It's been a while since my last report. I have been fishing on the drains a few times but I blanked each time. In my opinion blanking sessions aren't really worth reporting, but in the interest of fairness I believe that they should still be mentioned. I shouldn't be too hard on myself though as The conditions were far from perfect. The UK suffered it's worst winter on record for the last 50 years. The coldest I recorded was a chilling minus 6. As a result all still waters and even the drains froze over. We were even under a blanket of snow for a week or two - a fisherman's nightmare!

I decided to give the drains a miss today. I arranged to meet JP at a local still water. It was the afternoon before I got my first run and I was to be rewarded with my first Pike of the year. I didn't weigh the fish but I'd estimated it to be around 10 to 11lb's. I recast another bait to the same spot and an hour or so later I was into another fish this time only a Jack but welcome all the same.

So finally I have my first fish of the year on the bank - and two catches from the water that I joined in November. For the record both fish were caught on a paternoster about a foot off the bottom.

One of my local waters that was frozen over

Another victim to the big freezeThe coldest temperature that I recorded

Nice double from the lake

Suspended deads save the day again.

A lazy start today, I ended up on the drains around 10am and I was pretty surprised to see that it had coloured up since the weekend. We hadn't had that much rain so I take it there must have been some water pumped in from somewhere.

On the whole the fishing was pretty quiet. I did catch 2 Jack Pike though. I recognised the first fish as the Pike that Paddy had caught on October 10th, and that I'd previously caught on October 21st. The Pike is easily recognised, as when Paddy was about to land the fish a commotion followed and it sustained some severe damage from a seemingly much bigger and rather opportunist Pike.

I'm pleased to say that the nasty gash that it had - has healed up nicely. Both Pike were caught on suspended dead's. This method does seem to catch a few fish as opposed to laying baits on the bottom perhaps going unnoticed in murky water.

Damage 21-10-09

Damage 16-12-09

An end to a rotten month

Well it's been a while since I last blogged my fishing exploits. The weather throughout the month of November was absolutely terrible, records will show that November 2009 was the wettest since records began. The drains became completely unfishable, and coloured fast moving water does not make for good Pike fishing conditions.

I did spend some time fishing though, I fished my new water several times, but I didn't manage to winkle anything off.

This week the weather eased off and finally the rain that has plagued our skies came to an end.

I fished the drains a couple of times this week, I drew a blank on my first outing - but I finally put an end to my barren spell on Friday by landing three fish to 12lb 2oz.

Saturday :
I arranged to meet Ben for a session on the drains. But A rather uneventful day wasn't what we'd planned. We didn't get so much as a dropped run between us. We were not alone in our failings though as everyone else that was Piking also struggled to land fish today. It's a funny old game this piking lark isn't it!

The best thing about one of my blanks

Back on the Pike 12lb 2oz

Around 9lb's
The fog descended in minutes

Is it better to have love and lost than never loved at all?

I had the privilege of fishing a new water today, I will be lucky enough to be doing a bit of a campaign there this winter. The water which I will simply refer to in future bloggings as 'The Lake' is a lovely place. It does though have a reputation of being notoriously hard, but with a bit of effort I'm told the rewards can be great.

There is no litter, the venue is very well kept and isolated and best of all I'm told that it holds a good head of Pike, and there are one or two monsters hanging about.

Well this makes good reading doesn't it! So I set about having my first session on there today.

So you can imagine my delight after only being there for three hours to see my float bobbing and my reel stripping line. I was in! And I was connected to a right old lump to boot.

After a brief fight and some bullying to stop it making for the nearside bush I readied the net, when out of nowhere it tail walked about three foot in the air and disaster! It shook the hooks.

I stood on the side of the bank, legs shaking - I was a despondent man, thinking about what might have been. It was a good fish, easy an upper double, I'd rather not dwell on it's size too much.

Despite sitting anxiously until the sunset. I didn't get another take. I now know that the rumours are true, there are some good fish in there, and anyway who did I think I was turning up for my first session and almost catching one of the lakes lunkers.

In a strange way I'm glad I didn't catch it, I'm glad she got away. I'd rather a challenge and the sight of the magnificent beast will make me all the more keener for my return!

So to the question. Is it better to have love and lost then never loved at all? You bet it is....

A Jack from Sollom

The weather today was typical of the weather that we have endured for the best part of November so far.... Crap! More rain and more high winds expected. The weather is absolutely killing the fishing, the drains are still pumping and are perhaps more suited for sailing than fishing of late.

I looked out the window this morning and was greeted by a rather dismal sight. I sulked my way downstairs grabbed a bowl of Shreddies and proceeded to put SKY channel 242 on. It was 'Lake Escapes' and would you believe it!? It was the episode where Matt Hayes was fishing with Gordie on Windermere. They were happily landing some mid double fish when - in an instant I paused what they were doing, switched the TV off, grabbed my gear and went fishing. To me watching fishing programmes is a little like watching porn, it's not too long before I'm excited and wanting to have a bash myself. I trust you get the analogy!

I decided to have a bash on the canal at Sollom. It would seem I wasn't the only person with this idea as Paddy was also there trying to winkle a Pike off the same section I had headed to.

It was a pretty quiet session though. I fished one rod on a suspended dead bait and I fished another bait hard on the bottom. Both baits didn't get any interest until I was just packing up. A Pike of around 5 or 6lb had taken the bait off the bottom. Thanks to Al who'd popped down for a chat for the photo.

Piker Sniper

A sore loser me? Never!

A day on the reservoir with Al was arranged, we arrived at dawn and quickly got about setting up. If the weather forecast was anything to go by we were in for a right battering today. And a battering we got, heavy gusts and rain to match made for a day fit for only the keenest (maddest) anglers. Johnny Panto and one of his fishing buddies had also decided to fish the reservoir today, but rather than make the place cramped they headed for the opposite bank.

It's at this point that I'd like to continue the fishing report with some tales of my landing some excellent Pike........My bait runners stripping line so fast that there was steam coming off them. My line singing a chilling tune as I played the fish in the hurricane like winds. I'd like to say that my rod was bent over double - crippled by the weight of a huge Leviathan as we jostled with each other, each wishing to be the victor in our battle.

In reality though I blanked! Allan though fared a little better, landing a lovely condition Pike of bang on 10lb's.. (I hate you Al) :)

And that was the only action that we had all day. Panto and his mate on the other hand did a lot better. Landing Pike to 16lb. (I hate you Panto) :)