Winter Stalking.

 Nearly Christmas now and if I'm not working, it's out shopping for presents, today all of that was pushed aside and I grabbed a lure rod for some spinner fishing and the cane rod if we found any other species that fancied playing ball, after a swift journey into Surrey we headed to a club lake of ours in search of a Pike, for my challenge I'm nearly half-way through so only a small Pike would see me move past the 100lb mark. The Pike are not very forthcoming on any of these lakes and the head of Esox is relatively small so it isn't a given that one will be landed but try we did.

At the Dam end of one of the lakes, that's all you need.

 Fishing into a stern head wind that was bloody cold, I plugged and span my way through around half a mile of water without a single knock and the wind had finally got the better of me so we both decided to move lakes, we had only arrived at the next piece of water and watched a nice Pike of about 12lb leap clear of the water and a cracking Perch of what was getting on for 3lb, a new PB that would have been but it stormed off out of view but that made me pretty confident that more of that size are present, after a good hour of lure fishing I finally got some action in the form of a very powerful Jack Pike that may have never been caught before due to the fact that these lakes are 95% fished on by Carp anglers. 

5lb 6oz. Oooosh, piking perfection.

 Finally a Pike......5lb 6oz and in pristine condition too and Dad wasn't to be upstaged either as I was releasing my one he latched into a shorter but fatter one which eventually went 5lb on the nose, just like buses eh!.

Oi oi chunky. At 5lbs, in years to come that will look magnificent.

 Later on in the day we did have a bit of fun, doing a bit of stalking for Carp, "stalking in the Winter I hear you say", oh yes it doesn't matter what time of the year it is, patience, watercraft and the fishes willingness to feed = Carp. Within an hour both James Snr and myself managed a lovely Common Carp and also a slab came out for yours truly which wasn't too bad either, 2013 nearly up, wow how quickly time has gone, just under 3 months to acquire the further 90 odd lbs of Pike to do my target but before the season is out I would love a Grayling of any size.

Dad's Common at 7lb 8oz.

Not to be outdone, my wood-carving at 9lb 11oz.

My Bream at 7lb 5ozs, poor impersonation of a Carp.