Piking Pirate.

 After another busy week at work I had Saturday morning planned out to do some fishing, the rivers are slowly starting to abate and the colour is starting to drop out with the Thames being an exception which is still  the highest I've ever seen it, the plan was as the title suggests, to target a Pike or two in an attempt to get closer to my goal of 200lb of the species, up bright and early for dawn as usual but unfortunately the sun was bright and without a cloud in the sky it wasn't ideal conditions but oh well, best laid plans......

 At least it wasn't raining, again. I think we have all had enough of it and even most of the lakes are topped up above their maximum thus flooding acres of land, my plan was to use a selection of spinners and lures to try and catch, the gear was a straight 6ft spinning rod and at first I hooked up my new multiplyer but I couldn't get on with it, patience needed but not today, so luckily enough I packed my usual spinning reel, or the session may not have happened, but after an hour of constant casts and working different patterned spinners I could not muster any attention, then out of nowhere the rod slammed over and line started to piss off of the reel and as quickly as it happened it was gone. Damn it.

Usually very reliable, Pike love them.

 An hour of waiting for that to happen, ouch, good fun whilst it lasted though, it got the blood pumping and within five minutes it happened again, almost the same spot and this time it was on properly, 2 minutes of endless runs it decided to tail walk in front of me......a couple of seconds later it was gone, again. This Pike was about 3lbs in weight, only a jack but a fish is a fish, what a shame, so close.

Not the best Pike fishing conditions.

 I thought then it's not going to happen today so I moved a couple of swims around the bay and as I crept up to the bank I spooked a Pike around 6lb from out under a raft of dead wood from the over-hanging trees, it wasn't going to plan, or so I thought, with seeing that Pike I cast out into the bay and as I started retrieving the spinner the Pike became visible on the bottom so I changed the direction of the retrieve and bought up to around 5ft of the Pike and I watched it, clear as day from stationary to full speed in a flash, flare it's gills wipe open and slaughter my poor spinner, what ferocity, fantastic to that with my own eyes, this one was not coming off.

 And I convinced myself of that fact, so needless to say I played it as cautiously as possible and it tail walked right up to the net and then in it went, never felt so happy to catch a Jack Pike but it has been hard and my first Pike of the year was banked, a couple of pictures kindly taken by a passer-by and quickly weighed, she went back to terrorise the silver population.

5lb 15ozs, a great fight and in very good condition.

The eventual game changer, a 5g silver flash with red tail.

  Not quite 6lb but I could be forgiven for a 1 ounce discrepancy, the rest of the Pike seemed to switch off so I decided to do some trotting and my target was a Roach and I spent around 2 hours trying to tempt one in the coffee coloured water and only managed a Brown Trout of around two-and-a-half pounds, I didn't weigh her with one piccy and back off to do her duty, how long now until the rivers get back to their usual levels? please no more RAIN, I think it has all been quite enough.

Superb winter Trout.