A change for the best



 As you have probably gathered we try our hardest to fish as a group but this has proved to be quite difficult on the river, there just isn't an area that has four swims next to each other, not only that four productive swims. This time out the plan was to split up and fish a premium swim each so to speak the way we come about selecting the swims was decided a few days before the trip by each selecting our three preferred swims and texting each other. If there was to be a clash of first choice swims then we had to draw straws on the morning of the trip, this wasn't going to be necessary as we had all some how managed to select different swims. The morning of the trip we had all arranged to meet at Bri's house around 5am, this didn't happen, Bri had to drop out this time so Bernie and I made our way straight to the river. Bernie opted to fish a swim he'd never fished before, I'd tried this swim a month or so ago in flooded conditions and managed an 8lb jack, its a popular swim with the carpers and situated on the outside of a big bend in the river.

Me and Mike also decided to fish an area we hadn't fished before, this time on a straight section of river with plenty of features to fish to. We arrived and set up in the dark, I like to have my baits in before first light, many of the fish we catch come at first light and even the odd one before light.I got a phone call just before 7am, it was still very dark, it was Bernie, he had just put back a very welcomed 14 lb 7oz pike, he explained how he had caught it and that it  had a very deep wound on its flank.
The fishing wasn't particularly good in the swims Mike and I were fishing, the only action was a dropped run on one of Mikes rods.

I put the lack of action down to the amount of water in the3 river, it was up but falling and the swim we were fishing was on a narrow and shallow section of the system. Bernie soon called again, he had caught another nice double this one was slightly smaller but still a respectable 13 lb 01oz, a very good looking fish in pristine condition. We give it another hour in our swim and decided to move, the fish were on the feed but not in this location so Mike and I wrapped up and headed to a double swim that's been good to me.
We arrived at our next swim around 10am, we soon had the baits in, Mike had never fished here before so I put him on the left hand side which has proven more fruitful, I've had a fair few fish on this side of the swim and today was more about Mike catching than me. I had the first run, a nice jack of 9 lb 4oz, this gave me confidence as most of the fish tend to come from the left so it was only a matter of time before Mike was going to get a run. We settled in and had a few brews and it wasn't long before Mike got his first run, there was plenty room in this swim so now was the time for Mike to net his first pike and what a good job he did of it, we unhooked the fish and weighed it, 9 lb 9oz, put her back in the water for a few minutes and then took her back out for a few trophy shots before Mike released her.

Mike is in a junior league run by the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain and all the fish he catches are weighed and photographed and the information is then passed on to PAC and regional organiser Sean Ellis to update the league table on the PAC forum. Its more for the fun of it and its all about getting youngsters into our sport because at the end of the day its the youth of today that will be expected to pass on all the hard work, safe handling and good practice that has evolved from past and present pikes to the next generation of pike anglers.

We had plenty more runs that day but only connected to two other fish a 7 lb 11oz and another double of 10 lb 10oz both of which Mike caught. It was one of them days I suppose we caught 4 fish between us but lost just as many fish. Bernie had no other fish but lost a double close in, a good day was had by all and I'm looking forward to getting out again.

 Mike with a beautifully marked 7 lb 11oz pike

 

Mikes only double of the day 10 lb 10oz, he caught it as he was packing his gear away.