Final fling

Yesterday was my final pike session until autumn, we decided to head west to a large glacial lake for the day. Mick picked me up at 04:00 and after nearly knocking himself out on my garage door we were on our way shortly afterwards.

We arrived just after 06:00 and I had my first cast shortly after. There had been a hard frost over night and it seemed to get worse as the morning went by. Eventually the sun came out and it turned into a nice morning, probably a bit too nice, bright sun and a flat calm aren't usually the best conditions when targeting these clear water pike.

We were using the bait boat and sounder to find the drop offs and to place the baits in these deeper areas, however we weren't having much luck. The morning past quickly and despite trying various baits and presentations we hadn't had any interest.

Early afternoon I placed a semi buoyant perch into 7ft of water, shortly after the backbiter sounded. Initially line was taken, but quickly stopped, I wound down and struck anyway, nothing. A quick check of the bait found a few marks nothing major, so the same bait was ferried out to the same point. Thirty minutes later the backbiter went again, the same thing happened. After bringing the bait in I checked the rig over and found that I'd left a braid stop on the line, a foot or so above the run ring. I think the run ring was bumping over the stop and the pike were rejecting the bait because of this.

After a quick re-rig and a change of bait (sprat with a couple of chopped sprats in the boat hopper) I found the 7ft of water again. Thirty minutes later I had another take on the same rod, far more positive this time around. I struck and was into a pike, the fight was fairly unspectacular but was lengthly due to the distance being fished.

The pike was short but plump and looked to weigh about 8lb, it felt a bit bigger when I lifted it so I quickly weighted it.

Short and fat, just shy of being a double - 9lb 13oz

We carried on until dusk, without any further takes. A difficult last outing which will probably be remembered more for the surroundings rather than the fishing itself, but still it was good to end my pike season with a fish.

A quick breakdown of my 2014/15 pike season -

Number of pike caught - 28
Number of doubles - 8   (15lb14oz, 14lb 6oz, 12lb 10oz, 12lb 4oz, 12lb 1oz, 11lb 6oz, 11lb 3oz, 10lb 6oz)
Largest pike caught - 15lb 14oz

Pike caught on baits - 26
Pike caught on lures - 2

Last season I only managed 14 pike (with 1 double) so I'm pleased with how my season has gone, especially as the rivers fished poorly for most of the winter.

That's my piking finished until autumn I'm looking forward to targeting some tench and eels before the rivers open, hopefully I can also increase a few p.b's over the warmer months.