With the temperatures beginning to drop slightly in late October the thought of targeting some predators was crossing my mind more and more, knowing how little they have featured in my angling over the years I certainly fancied getting out in my boat more often to attempt in catching a few. Pike of course are my main target with one eye on a twenty pounder, for me on the tidal it would be a great achievement, I believe they are present but without fishing it pretty seriously I'm only ever going to come across one by pure chance.
Luck is a massive factor in any anglers life, there are times when it abandons you, equally however there are times when you question, how? how did i just land that? it's a question I've asked myself on numerous occasions over the years. Now this may not be pertinent to this particular post, but when I do finally catch up with my scribblings all will become clear!
On this fine, dry, late October day myself and Brian "the vice captain" launched the boat for a jolly around on old father Thames, the joy we both get from being afloat almost turns us into little kids again. The fact that we are also fishing on pretty good hunting grounds also fills us with confidence that at any point our floats could disappear and be connected to an angry Pike aiming to take us into one of the many snags that are present within the swirling cauldron within which they live.
For myself, catching is fairly important to me now owing to my lack of time that is available, I know I keep saying it, but I have to admit, it makes me fish even harder, never in one place for too long and only selecting conditions that I think would be conducive to fishing for that specific species. Something else that Brian and I have discovered that there isn't a rush to get a bait out for a pike, typically bites don't come around until mid afternoon, so being that early bird doesn't necessarily mean you'll be the first to catch!
Enquiries I find come anytime from 1345 onwards to dusk when they cease feeding, efficient as they are it narrows down the time that we have to be successful, these findings may not be relevant on other waters, here, on the Thames these are very relevant as more than 95% of all pike caught off the boat in 2 years have been beyond 1330, quite an astounding piece of info for those who aren't sure what times are best to target them. This however is only based on info collected by myself, Brian and my brother Richard.
So naturally, Brian and I drifted around the pool, dropping the weight down on areas we fancied 20 mins to trot around. Great thing with liveys is that they just amble around and effectively search out the fish for you, they want to find cover and the predators are hiding in the cover, lying in ambush for such prey! Just before 2pm and my float bobbed and vanished from sight, could only mean one thing! Pike on!
A handful of firm runs made for good sport and in the boat the fish fight seem to fight so much harder, before I caught a glimpse of it the visions of a mid double esox was running through my mind, then this spirited fish around the 10lb mark finally gave up and lye in the net awaiting its photo to be taken. The first two hours as expected yielded no action, this was hopefully the beginning of the fast and furious action.
Well......fast and furious is what we both hoped for, alas that is not what happened. For over 2 hours we continued to work the pool to no avail, as dusk was beginning to settle in we decided to drift back over the area we started on and within minutes the float stopped dead in its tracks and stormed under, action once again!
This slightly longer less podgy Pike had slipped up, just as we both thought that Pike time was coming to an end. Both pike were in great condition and bodes well for the future of the tidal river. After the release of that second fish we continued to trot around the pool, unfortunately there was no further action. Until next time, tight lines.
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