The end of the line

A long awaited delivery arrived yesterday, the final book by Tony Miles.

A complete rework and rewrite of his 1980’s book ‘ The Complete Specimen Hunter’ I’ve only had chance for a quick flick through and a read of the introduction but it looks like a ‘good un’.

Surprisingly there’s still a few copies left - http://www.littleegretpress.com/index.php?action=viewbook&id=239

A social blank

Out for a barbel session last night, fishing a river with a much larger head of barbel than on my last session, so I was hopeful of a fish or three. I was fishing with Mick for the first time in a few months and we decided to fish a double peg and have a bit of a catch up.

It was a very mild night, still t-shirt weather at 03:00, a very nice evening to be on the bank, unfortunately the fishing wasn't up too much and we didn't have a take between us. Probably should of went eel fishing!

A new book arrived last week, Dilip Sarkar's River Pike, the first book for nearly thirty years dedicated solely to fishing for esox in our rivers. The last effort was the late John Sidleys 'River Piking' which is a bit dated and mainly focuses on a section of the River Severn. The Sidley book has a bit of a following and usually commands a high price on eBay, sometimes up to £100, luckily my copy didn't cost anything like that.

I haven't found the time to start reading the newer book (yet), but I have only heard good things about it so far and I'm looking forward to reading.

I'll be starting to get my pike gear sorted over the next couple of weeks, with the aim of having my first session towards the back end of September. I have a few stretches of river in mind for my first pike session of the season and plenty of areas that I haven't covered before for later sessions. I will also be continuing my search for a local still water that holds pike to a decent size, I want to try and avoid the jacks this winter and finally land that first elusive twenty.

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.

Books

When I get the chance (usually after the kids have gone to bed) I enjoy reading fishing books and over the last few years I have acquired a fairly modest collection. Currently I am reading 'The Eel Angler' by Barry McConnell, which I think is excellent. I have a chapter or so left but it is definitely one of the most enjoyable fishing related books I have read.

Last year I picked up a copy of The Perchfishers 'The Biggest Fish of All' and although I have not read it yet (just a quick flick through) it looks excellent. I had also been on the look out for a copy of The Perchfishers first published book, 'The Book of Perch' and managed to find one for a reasonable price. Well the book arrived today and considering the price I paid I am very pleased with the condition.

New addition to the collection

I will probably finish the eel book over the weekend and then start on the Perchfishers efforts, hopefully I can get some ideas to help me achieve my perch target, then I can fully concentrate on the eel fishing until the autumn.

Christmas 2013

Normally I am given some really random (shite) fishing related presents for Christmas, such as a heated fishing hat ? etc.... However this year the only fishing related gift I was given was a copy of 'The Eel Angler' by Barry McConnell. I had a quick flick through on Christmas morning and I was very impressed, I didn't get a chance to start reading the book until the day after boxing day. This is one of those books that you pick up and don't want to put down, very inspiring. I am restricting myself to a chapter a day to make it last as I could easily finish it in one sitting otherwise.

It has reinvigorated my interest in catching large eels (well trying to) and I have rejoined the National Anguilla Club. As a Christmas present to myself I managed to get hold of a signed copy of John Sidley's 1985 'Successful eel fishing' to add to my growing collection of angling books.

I haven't managed to get out fishing over the Christmas period and now things have started to settle down at home the rain has started and the river is in flood, hopefully this will settle soon as am I itching to get out and add to the meagre 3 pike I have caught this season.

Boredom.......

I am still out of the country working until the 7th of December, so I'm still waiting on my first pike session this season!

Reading through the online weather reports it doesn't look as if I would be getting out much anyway. I've been told that my local river has been up to 6ft higher than normal in places, which is quite something when the river level is maintained by a barrage. Hopefully the weather will improve over the next week or so as I will be climbing the walls of the house (or painting them if the other half gets her way!) if the rain continues to fall.

I have planned a good few sessions (weather dependant) for my month off a couple with the Porta Bote on the river, a guided trip with Gary Palmer which I am really looking forward to, and possibly a trip to the Lake District.... hopefully I will have something decent to report on from these trips.

To relieve a bit of the boredom/cabin fever I have been catching up with the excellent Esox World and the recent release of Nev Ficklings Mammoth Pike update. Both are ebooks/emagazines available online only from Steve Rowleys online publication company Portfolio Collection. Esox World is a free monthly magazine with Esox articles from around the world, the quality of these articles are of a very high standard. They often from well known anglers and the overall standard of the 'emagazine' is comparable to a printed version but with the added bonus of being free ! - direct link to Esox World.

The Mammoth Pike update cost's a fiver, well £4.99 but it is well worth it, I haven't read Neville's original Mammoth Pike (yet) but I have read Fred Bullers Doomsday Book of Mammoth Pike and the update is in a similar format. Whilst the update doesn't go into the same depth of detail as Fred Bullers original it does provide an excellent overview of the most recent captures of 35lb+ pike, with pictures backing up the majority of these. It is an excellent read, but I wont go into any detail here as I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone, the only thing I will say is that it is very surprising how many captures of these 'Mammoth Pike' there has been over the last 8 years.

My only minor grumble is that the ebook is only available as a 'online read'. The book could have been made a lot more user friendly if it was available as a download for offline viewing on the Ipad etc.... This would of been ideal for my plane journey back to the UK, but I have the latest version of Esox World to keep me occupied.

Hopefully the Mammoth Pike update is a success and inspires Nev/Steve to produce another update in a few years time.