A few pike sessions

Last Tuesday I had a short lure session on a stretch that usually produces a fish or two, however after a quiet 90 minutes without a touch I accepted the blank and called it a day.

On Thursday I fished a new stretch with a bait rod, which was also fairly uneventful, the only highlight being catching a new grayling p.b whilst bait snatching in the margins.

1lb 1oz - a new p.b

Today I had a deadbait session on a stretch I had only fished once before, two rods, one with a running lead cast towards the far bank and the other fishing the near bank with a float. After a couple of quiet hours the first take came on the far bank rod, the lamprey was taken and line was peeling from the spool. I wound down, struck and the fish was on, after a short fight a pike of about 7lb was on the surface. As I was drawing the fish towards the net, it managed to get under some marginal snags and shed the hooks.

Fourty minutes later the smelt on the float rod was taken, the pike put up a short scrap and when it surfaced it looked a similar size to the first one (possibly the same fish). Again whilst bringing the fish towards the net it managed to shed the hooks !

Despite regularly recasting with different baits I had no other takes, this stretch is probably more suited to a roving approach but the banks are still massively overgrown so I'll stick to the more static sessions for now.

New book

Earlier this year I pre-ordered Stephen Harpers latest book, Extreme Pike. I'd actually forgotten that I had ordered it so it was a nice surprise when it arrived last week. The book is in a similar style and format to 'Dream Pike' and after reading a couple of chapters it has definitely whetted my appetite for the coming months.