Back on the river

All last week I checked the weather forecast and more importantly the river levels hoping that the river would finally let us take her on. The planned trip was to be Sunday as I had work and family commitments on Saturday and what a lovely day Saturday turned out to be, frost in the morning and sunny all day, o well you can't have it all your way. Our Mike had to drop out from this trip, he had gone over on his ankle on a family outing to a restaurant in Liverpool and sprained it so it was just Sefo and me. I picked Sefo up at 05.30am and off we went full of excitement and anticipation wondering what the day ahead had to offer. I chose to fish 4 rods, its been a while since I last put 4 baits out and with no one but myself to worry about I thought I'd up my chances. Arriving at my swim the first thing I noticed was that the water level was the lowest i have seen it since the back end of last year, the water was also a lot clearer than its been in the last 3 months, all these factors make it a lot easier for the pike to feed which in turn makes them easier to catch (in theory). I had a few traces that needed to be changed so I put out 2 rods straight away before it started to get Light then set about sorting my terminal tackle on the other two rods and eventually casting them in. With the final rod in I set my brolly up but this time I had to set it up the bank away from the rods as we were expecting a tidal surge around dinner time and rain late afternoon, I put the rest of my gear under the brolly and sat down to re make damaged traces from my previous trip when the bobbin dropped on my right hand rod, the last rod I cast out. This rod was in deep open water around 17' the last time I fished here I had four

fish in the space of just over an hour on this one rod which is unusual because most of the fish I catch in this swim come from the deep slack margins on the left side of the swim. I picked the rod up, this fish was running for the opposite bank, wound into it and struck, it didn't really put up much of a fight and was in the net soon after the initial run. 14lb 02oz of river pike, that'll do me, a very good start to the day and it had only just turned 7am. Sefo took a few photos for me and I let her back.  It wasn't to be too long a wait before I got my next run on the same rod, a scrappy little jack of 7lbs that was pretty full and getting ready to spawn. Sefo took the last fish of the morning a jack just over 8lb on a paternoster-ed live bait. The morning pasted with no other action and the imminent tidal surge was fast approaching, todays surge was to be the biggest of this current batch so as soon as the water level began to rise my plan was to bring in my two rods on the left and bring my other two rods up the bank and try and fish the surge up. With my two right hand rods out of harms way further up the bank it was time to bring in my remaining rods, just as I picked up my pod one of the other rods let rip, I didn't have too much time as the water was rising with pace, I chinned the fish once I got it to the bank another jack around 7lb and retrieved my pod and rods before it was to late. I finally settled back down to pay full attention to this tidal anomaly. Over the past 6 months I have noticed that this generally occurs off the back of a new moon when the moon is at its closest to our planet and as a more significant gravitational effect, they usually last for 3 - 4 days and start 1 -2 days after the new moon. The clarity of the water didn't really change as the water came in and the only thing that was to be any real burden was the amount of debris the river collected as it went into a reverse flood. Unsure but optimistic I sat there wondering what the fish would be up to during this change, would they sit it out or would they take advantage of their pray fish breaking cover to head into the changed flow? As the tide hit its peak the flow of the river slowed down and stopped, Sefo came over and told me he had a low

double in the net so I grabbed the camera and headed over to his swim. As he lifted the fish from the water the first thing I noticed was the fishes girth, she was a very fat little lady with a small head, Sefo weighed the fish and I began to take photos, I couldn't get over how fat she was so much so that it was only when I took the last few posing photos I noticed that she was in fact a pug nose and sefo's first ever river caught one, well done mate 12lb 07oz and a lovely looking fish. Nothing more came after that and we stayed into dark, I will say that once the water begins to subside after a surge it go's back at some real pace and carrying a lot of debris so much so that I stopped fishing for a good hour. A good session with much learned roll on next weekend :)

Out with the lads

We finally managed to all get out on the river, we even had the company of region 31 PAC member Pete Brownbill.We'd arranged the day before to fish the river in the hope that one or two fish may appear as the

water conditions have been far from ideal for the last month. We all met up by a swim we were all familiar with and then headed of to a new location I had fished the week before to try our luck. By river standards it was only a short walk from the cars to the swims, around 500 yds, Bernie was in the first stream downstream, a good looking swim with over hanging trees and a nice crease 8 ' out with some good depth. Pete was next to settle in up stream from Bernie, he had a little pruning to do which is a good thing in my opinion as it shows the swims exclusivity. It was then Sefo, Mike and myself either side of a bend with over hanging trees and big back eddies, creases and deep water. Today for me was more of a social, a chance to have the crack and sample some sausage butties cooked on Bernie's new coleman. The morning started wet but the rain cleared of not long after arriving, all our baits were out before the sun come out on what turned out to be probably the nicest day so far this year. The morning past with little action, I had had a bait mouthed and Pete missed a run shortly after getting there but the pike were having none of it. As the day pasted by I noticed the clarity of the water had improved and the level had dropped a few inches, this was obviously a good thing and gave me confidence which in turn inspired me to put a 3rd rod out along the up stream margin. Soon after I had a run on my left hand rod, the take was weak and the run didn't even drop the bobbin, it was a small jack of a few pounds that came of just by the waters edge but a fish all the same in difficult conditions. It was now mid afternoon, Bernie put on some more sausage butties for the team, god I love them Yates Greer sausages, they must be the best in the world, I sat down and watched the

rowers paddling up and down (some of them I find annoying but that's another story) enjoyed the wild life on display, Robins, Wrens, Geese and the odd Kingfisher. Mike was first to bank a fish "on my rod" because I was too busy nattering to Sefo, it was only a small jack of 3-4 lbs but it was the first to grace the net, we took a few photos then let him go. The end of the day was drawing closer and closer and the pike started to show signs of activity Mike lost a fish on his own rod this time and I had a dropped run with the bait coming back marked. As the sun melted into the ground I had another dropped run on my 3rd rod this time it took the baiter, I quickly cast a fresh bait to the same area and clipped the rod up, as I turned to walk back to my chair the bobbin dropped on my left hand rod, I picked the rod up and felt for the fish, it was taking line nicely so I gave it moment wound down tight and struck, fish on I said the our |Mike, he came down with the net and in no time at all she was on the mat ready for unhooking. Mike said that looks a double, I said no mate its about 8 - 9 lb at the most so we weighed her and Mike was right, the

fish weighed 10 lb 02 oz not a bad little guesstimate from young Mike. No more fish were caught that day, Bernie and Pete left not long after I caught that fish, Me, Mike and Sefo stuck it out till after dark. Fingers crossed the rain stays away, the river levels drop and the clarity improves and we get out again next weekend and land some big hungry pike.

2013 round up

2013 was certainly an interesting year for all of us with good memories and a few personal bests broke along the way. The key moments of 2013 only real started to developed in February when we discovered some good pike fishing on a local river, I had probably done a dozen sessions on the river prior to then and only one jack of around 8 lb to show for it, I new there was some good fish in there and witnessed Bri catch his first ever river pike of 16 lb 01 oz in February 2012. Location was the key and I found a good spot that put 4 doubles in the net for me in 3 sessions with the biggest going 14 lb 01 oz. It wasn't just the bank fishing either, me and Bernie made time at the beginning of March for a day session in the boat, this was to be our final trip before the close season, between us we landed 6 pike two of which were doubles with the biggest 14 lb 03 oz going to me, another personal best river pike. This very short spell of success put the dampers on my pike fishing so much so that once the close season kicked in I hung up my pike rods and started to fish for carp/and tench, the tench were having none of it but I did pick up a few carp on some small local waters to low doubles. Bernie and Bri continued fishing for pike and managed a few and I should of done the same thing. I started to concentrate on the tench fishing, this was very new to me, I've caught loads of tench in my time but never actually targeted them, I had the water, the gear and read up about it but where I got it all wrong was location and timing to a degree. I was getting up at 1 am  and I'd be fishing for 3 am at the latest, to the best of my knowledge no one else was making this kind of effort, I did this for 4 weekends in a row and found it to be very tiring but it payed off. I had tried almost all of the known spots but the fish were not there and with one area left to try I decided to do a reccy one evening late on in the week and took my

wife along for a walk. When we got there that evening the shallows were teaming with fish, just about ever fish in the lake was in this one area spawning or preparing to spawn, the weekend couldn't come fast enough. I arrived early on the Saturday morning and did my usual 5 hr session and caught my first tench by design just under 5 lb. I went out again the next day and managed 2 more tench, a female just over 5 lb and a male of 6 lb 14 oz which is my biggest to date. I did a few more

sessions to no avail but learned a lot and look forward to the 2014 tench fishing. We spent the rest of 2013 summer fishing for eels and carp (well I did at least) one eel session that stands out was a rare mid week session Bernie and I did on a local pit, Bernie had a good session and managed a few fish, it was to be the night that Bernie broke his personal best with a 2 lb 9 oz water snake, a good session but was only one of a few eel sessions I did in 2013. We didn't fish together all that much through the summer months, I wasn't too bothered about eel fishing, Bernie doesn't do carp fishing and Bri had fell out with his door step fishery Carmill dam, Bri as fished on Carmill dam for decades and I don't know anyone that knows the lake as well as him so I asked him to put me on the carp, the way I would fish for them and the baits I would use was my doing but the location of the fish was totally down to Bri, he put me on a swim alright, chest waders all the way, the rods were set in 3' of water and I was fishing tight to an over hanging willow. After 4 nights of pre baiting with tiger nuts and hemp I fished the swim, what a night, I never slept a wink, I had about 15 runs, landed 3 carp all doubles and lost 12 carp, relentless and tiring also pissed off i'd lost so many fish but defiantly doing it again this year. Summer soon passed and September was looming, Bri and I had

planned to start our pike fishing campaign a month early so on the 6th of Sept we hit the river. What a lovely place the river is in September all the greenery and wild life, I managed 3 jacks and Bri blanked but lost a fish. 2 days later we were back out, this time I brought our Mike and the boat too, Bri bank fished and me and Mike set of on Mikes first ever boat trip for pike. He had a great time, he caught 4 pike in total, 1 on a bait and 3 on a 6" replicant rainbow, I landed my 1st double of the new season 10 lb 01 oz and Bri
Managed to land his 1st pike of the new season. We did a few sea fishing boat trips in 2013, the idea was to catch plenty of mackerel for this coming pike season but it didnt turn out to well, the mackerel numbers were down of the coast of north Wales but the Bull Huss fishing was spot on and I think everyone managed at least a few into double figures. I was lucky enough to hook into a tope of 22 lb, wow don't they just go when you strike into them, a true predator. It was to be pike fishing all the way from September 2013 till early April 2014 and between us we've had a pretty good year, Bernie caught the biggest of the year and a new personal best 22 lb 03 oz river pike, Mike had a 21 lb 02 oz Scottish pike which up to now is the biggest pike caught on a club outing, he also had a 17 lb 04 oz river and English personal best and has caught 7 doubles since September. I broke my river record 5 times this year with fish of 11 lb 04 oz, 14 lb 01 oz, 14 lb 03 oz, 17 lb 04 oz and 17 lb 05 oz which also stands as my biggest pike to date. Although Bri didn't beat any personal bests this year he caught quite a few fish including at least 8 river doubles, between us we caught about 30 doubles including 3 upper doubles and 2 twenties, not bad for our first year on the river. Roll on 2014, so many fish to target in such a short period of time, tight lines.

Bernie with the biggest of the year 22lb 03oz

 Mike with the biggest on a club outing so far and PB 21lb 02oz

Mike with his biggest river and English pike 17lb 04oz

Bri's biggest of the year 13lb 01oz

My biggest of the year and new PB 17lb 05oz

Tidal surge

With all the rain we've been getting lately my initial plan was to fish a still water today, the only problem is  i'm a sucker for the river pike at the moment. I had planned to fish the day after new years days a few days prior as it was giving good weather. I find myself constantly monitoring the local river and tributaries that run into it, the river was about 1.5 feet over its ideal level and running constant, in other words the river was running fast and the water had more colour than I prefer and the fish don't really like these conditions but this was going to be my last chance for a while. Our river is quite different from most, at its lower reaches it as width is as wide as both sides of the M6, throughout its catchment several smaller rivers and one big river run into it, it is also a feeder river to a very large canal. On most rivers when we have a deluge of rain the water level rises rapidly and then subsides slowly, this looks like a smooth wave on the environment agencies river levels graphs, it doesn't work like this on our river, the levels are constantly up and down but not by large amounts although saying that if the water was up by say 1' but take into account that the river is as wide as a motorway you can imagine how much extra water is pushing through. The river at its lowest reaches is also tidal but the stretches we fish are protected most of the time by a weir, occasionally, usually just a few times a year the tidal surge breaches the weir and today was one of them days.Anyway back to the session for

now.I packed light ready for another roving session as I wanted to try out some more swims I hadn't fished before. As usual I arrived just before first light, I grabbed my rucksack and sling and headed of to my starting swim. With the first baits in and light starting to break I poured a coffee and soaked up this glorious morning, lots of fish topping and small birds singing and darting about. I prefer to sit it out for an hour after first light in my starting swim, most of the fish I catch on the river seem to come with in the first hour of light then you randomly pick them off throughout the day. Half an hour into the session I had a take on the rod down stream, the fish picked up the bait headed up stream then dropped it, this kind of thing happens every now and again using paternoster rigs, the fish feels the resistance of the fixed lead and lets go of the bait. I sat it out till 9 am then moved on up stream trying each and every possible swim for the next few hours. I set up in a swim that had a nice thick over hanging bush that forced a slack in the down stream margin, the swim had good depth as well, it was 8' deep less than a rod length out.

With the baits in I set about making good a few damaged traces with a fag in my mouth and a coffee on stand by when i got a single beep, I quickly picked up the rod and felt for the fish before winding into it and the striking, I could tell instantly that it was a small fish but that didn't matter one bit to me, I had caught a fish against the odds, I took a few pics then let it go. Once the fish was back I clipped on a fresh trace and bait and cast back to roughly the same spot then set about re making the damaged traces (OCD) after 10 minutes or so making traces I noticed the water level had risen a fair bit, at first it didn't make sense because we hadn't had any rain for a good 8 hours in our region, it was then I though could this be a tidal surge. I had only heard of these anomalies but never seen one first hand, in fact exactly 4 weeks ago we fished 2 days after a surge in a swim we fish regularly and could see that the water had risen  that high that it engulfed the swim leaving silt and debris behind. I checked the moon phase first we was only 2 days past a new moon, this meant big tides, I then checked the tide times and more importantly heights at Liverpool docks, High tide was at 11.26 am and it was a big one, 9.9 mtrs. Under normal circumstances that tide would of run to the top of the weir 2 miles or so down from where I was fishing but not beached it but with the river already in flood it prevents the system from emptying properly hence the term tidal surge. Once I discovered the reason for the rise in water level I thought it best to add rear bank sticks, I only expected the water to rise by a foot or so, boy did I get that one wrong. I never for one second thought the water was going to rise so much, if I did I would off wrapped up straight away, I watched the levels rise and rise taking photos every few minutes and logging the times for future reference. When the water got level with the bottom of my reel it slowly turned and started to flow in its right direction and I initially thought to my self, few, that was close. I too got this wrong, even though the tide had turned so to speak the water level kept on rising, as I said earlier the flood water from the river had nowhere to go so even though the water was flowing back to sea it couldn't get there fast enough. The levels only started to drop about 18 minutes after the water turned and that was one hell of a relief  for me, I was sure my alarm would get engulfed in water and die. It was a long boring wait for the water to recede enough to retrieve my gear, 2 hours in fact but when I did I wrapped up quickly and moved on to a swim I had caught my PB in. I didn't have much time left  to fish, it would be dark in one and a half hours so I put two baits out and drank the last of my coffee. Although the water had gone

back to its same level prior to the surge the water was more coloured, I could only see about 4" into it were I could see about 1' earlier in the day, this knocked the confidence but I was determined to see the day out. I stood there watching the rod tips, I love watching the live baits working in the flow when one of them started to move out of character, I slowly lifted the rod to feel for a fish and felt a heavy tug, tug, bang, I hit the fish and it went bananas, thrashing about everywhere, when it came to the surface I could see that it was a low double and couldn't get the net beneath it quick enough. Unhooked weighed and photoed, and back to her home (11 lb 14 oz) that capped of the day nicely, I stuck it out for another 40 minutes wrapped up and went home with a smile on my face.

Roving river

Today was to be the first roving session on the local river, the plan was to fish a stretch we hadn't fished before. Because we didn't know the area at all we decided to park up just before first light, unload the gear and then walk about half a mile to our starting point. The length of the stretch we fished was about three quarters of a mile with around 1.5 miles of walking in total so we needed to pack light. We each had 2 rods each, a few bank sticks, landing nets, a small bag with spare tackle and food for the day. Me and Mike fished 2 rods between us and took the first swim on the river with Bri about 150yds down stream. It was a beautiful morning, cool and still, small fish broke the surface of the water all around us and there was plenty small fry in the margins. We stuck it out for 40 mins or so with nothing to show so moved to the next few swims closer to Bri. When I say swims I mean places to fish, the motto of the day was if you can get a net to the water it was a swim and some of the best looking spots where the hardest to get to. We had the first run in the next swim up from Bri, the bobbin dropped and the fish started to take line, I waited a short while, wound into the fish and then struck, the fish was small, it came to the surface very quickly and then shed the hooks. Bonus, there were fish about regardless of the size so I hooked up another bait and cast it to the same spot. As time ticked by I tried a few other places around Bri, discovering good depths of water and future places to session fish, Bri had the next run, a scrappy little jack of around 6lb, this fish had clearly

been caught by an inexperienced angler before, its bottom jaw was broken and it had last quiet a few teeth on one side of its mouth, this is just another case of poor handling something the PAC are trying there hardest to promote with teaching sessions for those who care.
This area was now spent and with a lot of prospecting to do it was time to move on so we wrapped up and headed down stream. It was to be a good walk to the next fishable swims as most of the bank was unfishable due to the thick undergrowth. Mike and I dropped into the first available swims with Bri dropping in about 300yds down from us. As I was putting the banksticks in I noticed a swirl in the water under a overhanging tree where I was to put my left hand rod so this rod was first in followed by the right hand rod that we put by a very big overhanging willow tree. Mike and I sat back once the baits were in and had a coffee and a chin wag when the bite alarm on the left rod sounded, I hit the run and landed a small jack of around 5lb that was completely flawless, I put him back and re cast. We didn't stay here to long before moving further down stream passing Bri on the way, Bri was fishing a great looking swim opposite a swim I had caught a 17lber a month or so ago that looks so fishy from the opposite bank. We dropped in 150yds down from Bri in one of the widest available swims on the

 bank, we ha to fight to get to it through thick brambles and a barbed wire fence but once passed the fence it cleared up. Again we put the banksticks in first then baited up the rods. the left hand rod was to go in first again, has I was about to cast there was the usual Sunday rowers heading up stream followed by a petrol powered dingy that is the safety boat, The guy piloting the safety boat noticed that I was about to cast out and kindly stopped, I flicked the bait to an overhanging tree and thanked the guy for his patience. As I was putting the rod down I felt a slight tug but dismissed it as the live bait, as I was trying to clip the bait up the line went slack and Mike shouted its gone already, I tighten up to it and set the hooks, Mike soon got down to take over and after a brief scrap she was ours. Weighed, photo'd and returned to the water in a matter of minutes,  10lb 01oz  another double for Mike. Once the fish was safely returned I managed to get the rods back out and kick back for a brew and a bite to eat. We gave it 20 mins and decided to move on, with a fish already falling to the left hand rod I thought it best to bring in the rod on the right first and what a lucky decision that turned out to be, just as I unclipped the bobbin the other rod screamed off. I set the hooks and gave the rod to Mike, he played the fish hard and soon got her to the bank, While I was unhooking the fish Mike was getting the sling, scales and

camera ready, he's getting very efficient at this now, too efficient lol, Mike weighed her 10lb 01oz again so I took the scales for a second opinion and he was right. We took some photos and returned her to the water. Having caught another double from this swim it would have been foolish not to give it another 30 mins so while I casted the rod back out Mike checked the photos to make sure it wasn't the same fish, it wasn't to be.
After feeding our selves and the local robins with tracker bars we wrapped up and headed down stream calling in at a few more swims on the way to our final destination where we fished the rest of the day out in swims we usually session fish. No more fish were caught today but it was most enjoyable discovering new areas on what was to be the last pleasant day of 2013 and all of coarse in good company.

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.

 



DeJa Vu

After last weekend's bumper catch I thought it was best to change location, we never fish the same swim consecutively any way. Back in work on Monday and the weather was poor, it rained all morning and we had a gutter job to do, far from ideal weather. Me and Bernie had a look at the job to see what bits we might need then set of on a reccy. We first called in on a stretch canal near Dunham, as we walked up the path to the canal we was greeted by a Kingfisher directly opposite us on the other bank, he stayed there confidently for a short while before heading of, I think we spoiled his swim. The canal looked promising and we will return there in the near future to try our luck. The next stop was a small river that I've looked at a few times, I've told Bernie about it many times and we had the chance to call in and pay it another visit, This river as most certainly got potential with good fish known to have come out not to far up or down stream from where we were, the only think that has swayed me from trying it out was that each time I've been I have only ever seen a small shoal of fry and not one single fish break surface. I will spare a morning in the near future, just one rod, a net and a few necessities  and see what's hiding beneath the surface! We later had a look at the Manchester ship canal, its a massive body of water and I am sure it has plenty pike in it but where do you start, we don't even know if you can fish it but we have a few places in mind and one day, well we'll see. Its not all about fishing for me, I spend a lot of time looking for new venues, and swims on current venues, I occasionally prowl the internet looking at forums in particular match related forums, many match anglers hate pike and I can understand why, they spend a fortune on fresh bait, spend hours and hours building up a swim then bam, Mrs Lucius comes along and spoils it all, if you ever want to find out if there's pike in a venue just ask the match men. Another fantastic tool is Google earth, if I am going to fish somewhere I've never fished before the first thing I do is check it out on Google, there is a great little tool bar a the top of the page that lets you measure things like how far it is to the island in the middle of the lake or even how far you will have to walk to a favoured swim, the quality is that good you can even see shallow areas but one of the best features as got to be street view, this only works on certain roads and not public foot paths, its a 360 degree view that you can zoom in on, so if the venue you want to check out is by a road have a better look at it on street view. I got a little side tracked the, we called in on a few more rivers we fish on the way home, looking at new areas. Having found a few swims on one of the rivers I then began to plan my attack for the forth coming weekend. The swim I wanted to fish was very tight with tall reeds 100yds to the left and right of me on the outside of a bend, it was an old swim with a tired old concrete platform, defiantly an old match swim. I grabbed hold of a striaghtish tree branch about 5' long and dipped it in in front of the platform, wow, there was only 2" of wood sticking out the water, this was the swim for me, I thought this swim might just have a good depth of water in front of it. The day before we planned to fish this area for the first time I called Bri up and asked him if he wanted a trip out to see these new areas, you don't need to persuade Bri, he was out like a shot. I took the bait boat and echo sounder to see what the bottom was like, just as I'd expected it was deep, I had 6' tight to the reeds either side of me and a steady drop of to 17' just 20yds in front of me, I was happy with that so we moved on to the swims Mike and Bri were going to fish, they to had good water in front of them so we headed back home to dream about the day ahead.

 

We arrived at Bri's house at 05.30, the plan was to get there an hour before first light and we did, we all got settled in long before the sun came out, as dawn broke confidence was very high, the river had dropped 4" or so and had cleared slightly from the previous day the only thing that bothered me was the amount of debris flowing down, constantly gathering on my line. I put the kettle on and made myself a brew and sat there relishing the moment, beep, beep from up the bank, then a shout "Keith", I grabbed the sling, scales and camera, as I got up the bank Bri and Mike were stood over a good fish on the mat, Bri said "it's a seventeen" I asked how he new, he said "its the same fish you had last week". Sure enough it was, this fish is a stunning fish and the only real defect it has is a boil on its lower jaw. Mike had caught the fish, I zeroed the scale and handed them to him, he struggled to keep them still so I helped out, 17lb 04oz, the very same she weighed for me a week before "Deja vu" 

 

Our Mikes having a real good first season so far, this was to be his biggest English pike and biggest river pike, he's had loads of jacks, 2 doubles and a twenty all in the space of a few months, well done m8 keep them coming. I got back to my swim absolutely buzzing, Mike soon come over to look at the photos then I had a run on my down stream rod, the fish looked to be around 9lbs, it was top lip hooked in the upper jaw with just one of the three hooks, I didn't fancy getting the flying hook caught up in the net and the fish wrapping its self up in it so I thought I'd chin it, as I took hold of the trace the fish flared its mouth open and shed the hooks, saved me the job but I would have liked a photo for the records. Happy days, I too had had some action, Bri's turn next but we waited until 2pm before he had a run and put another double in the net to add to this seasons tally. The only other action after Bri's 10 was a lost fish to Bri, he played the fish to the surface but she shook her head and sent his trace back to him, an upper double, once again the pike gods let you down Bri, better luck next time m8.

 

Bri landing his fish

 

Give me back my hooks

10lb 2oz, another double for Bri

 



 

The next day I was due to work on a roof but with a good frost forecast over night I thought I'd leave some tackle in the van and if all was frozen on Monday morning I'll have a few hours out on the bank while the roof defrosts (Safety first). Well I was surprised to see that all the cars were frozen when I got up (an hour early) for work so of I went. I'm not going to go into to much detail other than it was bloody cold on Monday morning -3 on the way there but I managed one fish, I caught it on a live rudd close to the bank at around 9am, she weighed 12lb 2oz and was well worth missing work for. See the video below

 



 

 

http://youtu.be/QN_ntTbwH7A