A short session and a fish !

I had an hour or so spare today so i decided on a quick lure session on a local still water. I arrived at the water at around midday, I decided to spend no more than 10 minutes in each swim. In the first swim I noticed a decent sized pike in the margin ( probably a double, which is good for this venue) which spooked when the dog decided to go for a paddle !

10 minutes passed in this swim with out incident, the next swim was about 20 meters further along the bank which allowed me to cast to the edge of a large lilly patch. First cast I was into a jack, no more than a few pounds. The fight didn't really last more than 20 seconds, however this is my first pike in many months so it was more than welcome.



1st pike in a while

I decided to end the session there and get back home to sort my gear out for Thursday as I am hoping to get a full day session on a new venue.

A new approach

Recently I have been struggling to catch any pike (at all) from my local stretches, so I have decided to put some more effort in and try fishing further afield. I have acquired a ticket for a stillwater which holds a good head of pike, upto low twentys with a decent head of doubles. Although this water is around a 130 mile round trip I'm hoping it will be worth it.

Also I have put a fair amount of time and effort researching different sections of my local river, I have spent a lot of time with ordnance survey maps and google earth seeking new sections to fish. Today I went on a recce and walked a fair few miles of riverbank I have never seen before, although the river was still in flood these newly found areas look promising. It is looking likely that I will need to join at least one new club to gain access to these new sections of river and I'm hoping that it will be  worth the outlay.

  

On the new sections of river I am hoping to fish the plan is to drop down to 1 bait rod as the river is a lot narrower there and also take a medium lure rod so I can have a few throws inbetween moving the bait rod around. I have a fairly quiet week planned so am hoping to get out and fish at least 2 sessions with a couple more recces of new stretches on the river, hopefully this approach will produce a fish or two.

Short river session

I had a chance to get out for a short session on my local river this week, with the weather conditions we've had here over the last week conditions seemed to be perfect. I decided to bait fish a swim which has produced a few fish on the lure in previous outings. I decided on a 2 rod approach, the first rod was a float ledger close in, around 20 yards or so baited with a medium sized smelt. The second rod was fished mid river with a large lamprey section.

The baits were moved around the swim every 20 minutes or so, things were quiet for the first hour and a half. I then had a take on the lamprey rod which failed to develop, I think it was possibly an eel as I have had issues with them on this part of the river before. The rest of the session passed quickly without any other takes, however the dog did manage to knock both drop arms off within a few seconds of each other (last bait session he comes on for a while...).

I decided that I would move the baits one last time, whilst retrieving the mid river rod the trace found a snag and was stuck fast, normally the hooks bend and I get the rig back. Unfortunately this time the line parted and I left a baited trace in the river, something I dislike. So still no pike to report..... In future I think I will stick to the lures on these shorter sessions as I have more confidence that something will happen.

Good deal on Pike and Predator subscription.

In the past I have always received magazine subscriptions as gifts however when my recent P&P subscription expired I had a quick look at the deals they had on, a years subscription and Devon bait package for £51. It seemed like a pretty good deal then minus 10% for being a PAC member it comes to roughly £46.

                                         
The bait arrived yesterday as promised, was still frozen and all look like quality baits. 18 packs of bait in total, not all as described on advert but I am still very happy with this package.

On the pike fishing front I am still struggling for time to get out, however I am planning on a couple of short sessions in the coming week, hopefully with the cold weather over the weekend I could be onto a winner, hopefully I will have something to report in here shortly.