Again my only opportunity to fish this week is Sunday morning and typically my local rivers are well rivers are up, almost approaching record levels in some areas. Targeting river pike in these conditions would just be a waste of time, a stillwater it has to be.
Lack of options
My local area isn't really a mecca for angling, the rivers are good, but the lack of decent stillwaters is very frustrating. Like most parts of the country we have plenty of match style puddles but generally I avoid these manicured waters, preferring less crowded more natural waters. These puddles do serve a purpose, however they just don't meet my (current) needs except for maybe for the occasional perch session. Even if these commercials did hold pike I doubt I would target them, pale pike with messed up mouths and god knows how many traces left in them don't really appeal.
Being a member of 5 local clubs (plus a few associations) I have access to plenty of waters to target, over 50 miles of rivers, 15 miles of canals and 10 stillwaters. The rivers are great, hard work but can be very rewarding. The canals hold pike, as most do, but these aren't local, an hours drive minimum, which isn't always viable for a short session.
Out of the 10 stillwaters I can fish only 4 hold pike and only 1 of these is local (within a 30min drive). Unfortunately it seems like this water only holds jacks, plenty of them but I don't know of anything over 7 pounds being caught in the last few years.
I have a few other options locally but these are either uncontrolled ponds that generally contain more beer cans than fish or overpriced 'carp' syndicates. I have a few waters that I need to recce, hopefully I get lucky and one of these holds a few pike.
Well I'll be out tomorrow, chasing jacks for a few hours, you never know I might catch two at the same time, the only double that I'm likely to get from this water.
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