Back in the UK for 1 day only!

[Chappa]

Hi guys, long time no see. Well after moving out to Dubai in Feb, I've finally tied down a flight back for an RAF reunion, and a day of piking on the Soar at Barrow

I've ordered bait delivered to good old Mum, got a hire car to pick up the kit from storage, and arranged a pal to keep me company. I've really missed my fishing, the only fishing out here is sea fishing which can be excellent but very expensive unless you own your own boat. So a day on the river in chilly November will be just the ticket.

Obviously having been out of it for nearly a year I need a few pointers, namely:

1 How have the pike been fishing recently as I remember last winter was very slow going for all.

2 Has there been a lot of rainfall lately as that can make the Soar unfishable?

3 Has anyone fished the Soar nr Barrow recently? It's well known for being a good pike water.

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read and reply, almost a year without a fish on the bank means any help avoiding a blank would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Chappa

[blackwater]

Nice to hear from you again, i dont know what about England but Northern Ireland has had a lot of rain recently but the water is slowing reciding. As Far as the piking is concerned it was a decent summer for me with a couple of twenties and a few good doubles so fishing has been good. Since the cold weather has drifted in i havent been out for a decent session yet. Look at Lman's post from Chew about a week ago or more and you will see how the piking is!! With his absolutely stunning PB.

Tightlines,

Justin

[Chappa]

Well lads, what a belting day. We arrived at the weir pool by the Navigation pub, an hour after sun up to very low pressure, fog and an overcast sky. Not a hint of wind, my perfect piking weather! We cast out over a few of the usual haunts but after almost 2 hrs of changing swims, trotting dead-baits we'd got no joy. I went back to a piece of slack water about 100yds downstream of the weir, which was screaming pike and dropped a roach on the bottom of a light float rig, and waited. The float went under I stuck, and NOTHING! Pah! At least I knew there was a fish around so dropped the same bait on the same spot and waited. No more than 5 minutes later The bait was being played with. This went on for about 3 minutes and was excruciating to watch! Never quite being fully taken I wandered if a zander was toying and not liking the float? Eventually after a good "dunk" of the float I wound down and struck again, again NOTHING! I have been 9 months away from the water and couldn't work out what I was doing wrong? But there was definitely a fish there, although the bait showed no teeth marks at all, so back went the bait to the same spot. This time it took about 20 minutes before the toying of the bait started, I resisted until the float towed off under water towards me and YES! A solid strike, short battle before this cheeky little jack hit the bank. I didn't weigh him but gave him 3 1/2 lb on the elbow scales.
http://s982.photobucket.com/albums/a...osoarpike2.jpg
I gave it another 45 minutes but this narrow stretch produced no more so we continued the mobile approach and went upstream of the weir to the main body of the river. I decided that on this far wider stretch to go curve-ball with the bait and float fished a mackerel tail against the drop off on the far bank, and used the ledger rig with a smelt (never used before on this river) right in the middle of the water, at the deepest point in the weed, about 13' depth. No sooner had I settled into a chat with Mark the drop off indicator showed a drop-back bite, the line still clipped in, so I wound down and struck straight away, bingo! Another fish, and this one was bigger. I took the play slowly and this cracking fish came to the surface and shot into the air like an exocet! The first time I've whitnessed tail walking by a winter fish on the Soar, and it beat my river pb (just!) by half a pound tipping the scales at 8lb dead. Unfortunately the early stike hadn't been quick enough, once inside her mouth all I could see was the tip of the smelt's tail. The rear most treble was free but the one on it's flank was deep hooked proper. This is a nightmare for me but I stayed calm and worked logically. During the surgery she played ball and wit the 8" forceps in up to the handle, out came the smelt, and treble to boot. Much relieved we took a quick pic, (do I look worried?) and back she went. I gave her about 30 sec support in the shallows, and off she went.
http://s982.photobucket.com/albums/a...osoarpike1.jpg
Later in the day after more changing swims we had one more jack down at the 1st weir pool by the boat yard, about 3lb again but no photo as it was getting late, this lad went to smelt again. Many thanks to my good mate Mark Fuller for all the support, he had had a lousy day, with no fish and lots of snags wiping out his stock of traces, but he kept smiling all the way through. For me it was a brilliant day that had it all, long stretches of inactivity to which we changed tactics to bring success; I beat my river record if only by half a pound, and 3 fish after months of not even fishing. So it's off back to the desert for a while, I'll be back at Christmas to see the kids, and see if I can slip in another session on my favourite home river, to pick up that elusive river double I'm after! Cheers boys!