Small River Pike Fishing

After talking about sorting a river pike fishing session with my friend Oscar Bates for some time, I suggested that a roving trip on a particular tributary would be the best call for a catchup and the chance of a nice fish or two. On arrival at the small waterway, we could see the river bed in many areas suggesting that the water was very low and gin clear. We certainly knew that our work would be cut out to get a few takes. After acquiring a few baits to lip-hook, we started slowly roving our way through. On the second swim Oscar had a take and had hooked into a good perch, which was soon landed. My bait was left in the water and I then saw my float sail off. We must have found a pack of decent perch! Oscar's plumper fish weighed a little under 2lbs at 1lb 11oz and mine went 1lb 8oz.

A pair of beautiful River Perch!

Later on in, the session took a different turn when there was an accident involving my favourite feeder rod when we headed back to the car for lunch. Henceforth, we decided to leave all the excess feeder gear in the car and headed back out with a lot more roving flexibility. In the process of Oscar catching a few more small baits on his lure rod, we suddenly saw a pike come and flash at a particular perch Oscar hooked. Hoping we hadn't spooked it, I casted my float out and waited. Sure enough as the bait steadily settled into a steadier area within the swim, it slowly sailed under. I waited as I was only using a single hook on the trace before winding down. I had connected with the first pike of the day. It was only a 'Jack' pike but it certainly gave a great account of itself and displayed some fine colours.

A lovely streamlined River Pike!

Oscar and I were both overjoyed that we had managed to break the deadlock and roved on with a spring in our step. After covering a fair bit of water, we had now roved the entire stretch. Just as we were thinking of retracing our steps, Oscar sighted a decent pike sitting in a slack really tucked away. With the swim being an awkward one to get to, Oscar scrambled down with his rod and managed to beautifully cast the bait towards the fish. Just as the pike was looking at it, Oscar's bait mysteriously disappeared. We were both quite confused until I got a better view of what was going on and saw another pike was moving the bait in its jaws. Oscar struck and hooked into the pike, but as he was doing so the larger fish came into view and was either eying up the smaller pike or investigating the commotion. I couldn't resist to have a cast, considering the fish had moved into a perfect position to cast to. As soon as my bait settled into the water I saw the pike absolutely devour the bait with its whole jaw structure committed to engulfing the whole thing. Without any further hesitation I struck and we were in this bizarre scenario of having two feisty pike on at the same time! Oscar quickly landed his which was a nice Jack of a similar stamp to the one we had just caught, before kindly giving me a hand with the turbo-charged culprit I had hooked into, confidently chinning it after what had been a series of serious sprints!

A cracking small stream pike!

We quickly took this quick shot and released the stunner back to swim back to sulk at her snaggy home. All in all, it was an enjoyable session on the river with thanks going to Oscar for being great company throughout the day.

Tight Lines,

Tom

First time Piking in a while!

A tiny carp from a recent session on the river

With the rivers having been low and clear of late, the past few trips on flowing water have been far from straight forward. I was in actually sorting this blog out the other day and had a good look at what I had published since starting this little site. It is evident from the last couple of years or so that I have certainly neglected my perch and pike fishing in general, so I knew now was as good as time as any to go and do some pike fishing with the season having started. As I had only a few baits in the freezer, the session was always going to be a short recce which I didn't mind with limited time anyway.

After getting some work done, I decided to head straight for the lake. The morning had been rather chilly and I knew with the bright sunlight making an appearance that the pike could well be in a sluggish mood. On arrival at the lake, the largest lake looked the most attractive for the first cast. This was due to the fact that it was too quiet and I knew that breaking this silence with a deadbait offering could go down a treat. Having seen a strange swirl in a nice bay, as well as the wind blowing into it looked far too good to wander off elsewhere. Excitedly, I casted out a sardine offering to a more shaded part of the bay and started to tighten up my line to set the float. After the float had cocked and was set, I was pretty confused when my float suddenly seemed to have fallen flat. I tightened again, but noticed my float was moving unnaturally. I picked up the rod and realised that something had picked the bait up. After a second or two, I decided to wind down and strike. I connected to a good fish which made a prompt dive for the lillies on realisation that this was not one free sardine meal! Some vigorous charges towards the cover followed and luckily I managed to get the pike under control and the fish thrashed furiously on the surface. As I started guided this prehistoric creature to the net, I knew that this fish was at least approaching double figures with the girth of its back and decent length about it. Once she was landed, I readied my photography kit and sling, whilst a well earned revival was carried out.

A nice low double to start the pike season!

As a result of striking early, a nice and quick unhooking procedure was to follow. The fish weighed in at 11lbs 13oz, which was a nice start to the official pike season and hopefully one of a few fish that will make an appearance in the coming months. This was to be the only fish of the session, but it was certainly nice to have got my first proper pike from this particular lake and to have had one when the sun was getting up. I look forward to getting back out for these fantastic creatures as soon as possible.

Tight Lines,

Tom