Predators Part Seven. Night Shift.

 Night fishing isn't something I do very often and the reason for this is the amount of the next day I end up wasting catching up with sleep, but after a hard but good week a trip fter training was planned and Ricky joined me for a night's fishing after Pike primarily but Rich had Zander and Perch also in mind but I myself was in tunnel-vision mode and only Pike were on the menu, after arriving at the river we quickly discovered that after the rains over the last couple of weeks it was carrying a fair amount of colour but as we were using dead bait Roach and Sprat we felt that a catch was on the card's even still.

 Even with the colour I felt confident and there was a feeling nagging in the back of my mind that  something was going to happen but we'd have to fast-forward 2hrs before the first indication of the night came about and it was myself who's pike bob started to slither away and vanish from sight as a fish made off, no invitation needed as I lent into a sizeable but slow fish, Pike it was and the fight was pretty mute and I don't know if that was down to the colour in the water or what but it's not what I expect from a top predator, a couple minutes passed and just as it came to the net in submission a last gasp tail walk threatened to spoil the fun but when it did cruise in - the tail walk felt much more spectacular, a certain double in the bag.

11lb 9oz first double of the night.

 These are the Pike I was after and then once one of those were on board then it was hoping for something bigger, but with this sort of fishing you never know what's coming next, could be a twenty or a little jack, lottery is the only word I can think to describe it. 3:20am nearly two hours after the first fish was caught my Pike rod was back into action with Richard looking on as a spectator, a firm take was met by a larger Pike which fought much harder than the first although it didn't have to do much, four or five minutes past before I saw the Pike and in the dull light it was hard to gauge how big it was but when Rich did the honours of landing it we saw it was a better fish around the mid-double range.

 On the scales at 15lb 1oz I was chuffed and two doubles in two hours for me is good going but hoping it will only get better as I gain more knowledge and the fish feed more as it gets colder, until my next foray out, tight lines and bag a biggy.

A pristine Thames Pike at 15lb 1oz.

 

Immaculate condition but has plenty of room to grow.