Double take

Yesterday I planned on fishing the river, I decided to fish a free stretch so I could use more than the one rod. It was still dark when I arrived at the water, however it was obvious that the river was still carrying some extra water as it was pushing through at some pace. I made the decision to fish until it was light so I could see how coloured the river was. After setting up I passed the time trying to take a photo of a robin that was begging for maggots.

As the sun rose I could see that the river was still heavily coloured and my confidence started to fade. I stuck if out for another hour but I could tell that 3 blanks would soon be 4 blanks if I didn't move elsewhere.

I did have a bit of interest on a smelt, the rod tip was nodding but I struck into nothing, the head of the smelt had been chewed, possibly by a chub. There was no further interest in the baits so I decided to go to a water where I (unsuccessfully) targeted eels this summer. I had a couple of jacks during my sessions there and although it isn't a known pike water I was hopeful of ending my run of blanks.

The water is still quite weedy so I had a cast around with a lead, found a couple of weed free areas and cast a deadbait (lamprey and mackerel) to each. I set the third rod up to float fish a bait (skimmer) over the weed. I also fished the maggot/whip in the margin hoping to snatch a few live baits for the float rig.

Within 30 minutes a backbiter sounded as the mackerel tail was taken, no line was taken so I took up the slack, felt a fish and struck. A pike was on, it gave a very good account of itself until it became stuck in the marginal weed and I scooped the pike/weed combo from the margin, the net felt fairly heavy and I was hoping the fish would make double figures. After removing about 20 pound of weed from the net it was obvious that the fish was no double.

First of the day 6lb 6oz

I took a couple of self takes with the camera as I'm still getting used to the settings. The top treble was still in the tail of the mackerel so I quickly recast to the same area. I carried on fishing for bits it the margins but I couldn't tempt anything with the maggots. A good 40 minutes after the first fish, the float started to move, bobbed a couple of times and then it flew under. The pike fought well and was probably a little bigger than the first, but the line went slack just before I could it into netting range.

I recast the skimmer into the same area and started twitching the bait back towards the bank, hoping the pike would take the bait again. The backbiter (mackerel) sounded again, this time line was peeling from the spool, I wound down struck and another jack was on. As I was drawing the jack over the net, I noticed the float going under again. I quickly netted the first pike, moved to the second rod on which the baitrunner was rapidly giving line. I disengaged the baitrunner, it was another jack, smaller than the fish I'd just lost and it came to the very quickly. Both pike were lightly hooked and were quickly unhooked. I had caught pike in quick succession before but never at the same time.

Two in the net at the same time a first for me

After the double take things went quiet, I gave it an hour and then moved to the opposite side of the water for the last hour. As I was setting up I spooked a pair of large carp (20lb+) which were sat in the margin. The rest of the session went by without further interest in the baits and I was home by 14:30 to do the school run. My next session should be on Sunday, a few lads from a local forum are meeting up for a pike session on the local river, hopefully the river will be in better condition and we can get a couple of fish on the bank.