Nice Surprise!

[Pross]

I went out for a few hours yesterday (2 July) in my continued quest for a perch for the species hunt and this time opted for a stretch of the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal in Newport. I arrived at about 8.00am on a beautiful morning and moved to an area where I'd seen some small perch patrolling a few days before and scattered some maggots before setting-up and enjoyed the treat of seeing this beautiful family of swans glide past



It makes a change to see them in good health as the local yobs enjoy shooting them or stoning them to death!

The section of canal is no longer navigable and finding a swim among the weeds isn't easy but there were soon some small fish there. Unfortunately some ducks also showed up and churned up the bottom to get at my lose feed so while it was settling back down I wandered a few yards up the canal looking for some decent sized fish and saw what may have been a branch or may have been a small pike. I threw some bait in but it didn't move but that got the ducks away from my swim as they chased the new offerings! I cast out into my original swim with a lobworm under my float on my new avon rod and then went back to see if the pike-like object was still there, it wasn't but then I spotted it slightly closer and it was definately a small pike that looked about 1lb! I went back to my rod, took off the float and 3lb hook length and tied a black "flying condom" lure to the 6lb mainline as I wasn't really equipped for pike fishing. I dragged the lure past the fishes nose a few times and it wasn't interested but then I think the hook clipped the fish and it attacked the lure. For a small fish it went mad as it tail walked to the far bank bending my avon rod over. I bullied it to the side as quickly as possible before it could bite the line and safely banked my first ever pike

It was bigger than I first thought but still only about 2.5 to 3lbs. My next problem was unhooking him as he wasn't very happy partly due to being hooked and partly as he had the scar of a recent attach by a bigger fish still bleeding on his tail and I didn'y have my forceps! Fortunately, I had a leatherman with me and the pliers did the job without me losing any fingers. He went back in and swam away strongly.

Having no luck in my original swim I moved a few times and eventually dropped my bait into a disused lock and the float dipped as a fish hit the worm on the drop. I reeled in and lost the fish half way up the wall . Next drop, the same thing but this time I landed this pretty little perch of about half a pound.



Three more quickly followed but then the fishing died off so I moved swim again (it's so much more fun fishing light and mobile!) back towards the car as my time was nearly up. I fed some bread and maggots in hoping to attract a few decent bream or roach and followed it as the surprising flow on the canal took the bait away hoping to see some decent fish. I spotted something big and wondered if it was a decent carp but when I managed to spot the movement again I saw it was a big pike, well into double figures. I decided to try my earlier tactic again and switched back to the lure and set up my landing net but when I returned couldn't find the fish again. It was then time to go and I left happy with 3 points and my first ever pike, I'll be back there soon with dead baits and wire traces! I only found out later how lucky I was to catch on a lure as a few people said they had tried several times and not managed it and, to be honest, there isn't really enough space among the weeds to lure fish but I've now got an appetite for pike fishing as even my tiddler fought better than any freshwater fish I've caught before.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Lovely fish mate and looks a great little place to fish

[pingu]

great report and pictures there mark
well done on both species

[biggun]

Well done on your first Pike, nice looking fish!

[baitmaster]

a nice read
well done on catching your perch for the species hunt

tightlines
kevin

[BaggieRich]

Cracking report Pross, and well done on your first Pike.

I've only had the one myself, but I've gotta say the buzz I got from watching that follow the lure was superb.

Which reminds me, I must get out and do some more soon....

Rich.

[fishypaul]

well done there mate,
looks a lovely stretch of canal

[Omahayank]

Sounds a Great Day!!!

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Mark, nice fish

[Greenheart]

Cracking report & pics & some some nice fish too. Well done on your first Pike.