pike in the ice

[fen slodger]

well what a mistake it was going pike fishing this weekend. For weeks me my brother and a mate of ours were looking forward to a weekend on the fen drains on my brothers boat. So Friday morning we loaded up the boat with all the fishing tackle food beer wine and the dab radio for the cricket. It was a bright sunny day cold but not freezing. We were all excited like three boys on a adventure and god it turned out to be one. We set off heading for whittlesey we wanted to get moored and set up before dark fall. We finally moored up on the old course of the Nene not far from march. Got the rods out bleeper's on by this time it was getting very cold so it was time to get the sausage casserole on the stove and the kettle on for a nice cup of tea. So we were settled for the night all snug and waiting for the cricket to start on the dab. Anyway morning came kettle on and a look out the frosty window and snow yes snow in November brrrrrrrrrrr but i have had pike in this weather before so dead bait out. After a few hours of dead baiting and spinning with no luck i said we needed some live bait (sorry if you don't agree with live baiting but each to there own a )so we had to move to where the bait fish were so we headed for march town .well we got to about three miles from march and bugger (well i said more than that and a bit stronger lol)the river ahead was frozen .well we were thinking one more cold night like the last one and all the drains will be froze up so we decided to head back so we were nearer to home. We got to angle bridge where cock bank comes off the twenty foot water was fine. So we moored up for the night rods out chicken curry on the stove wine and beer out. It was cloudy so we was hoping it would not be so cold how wrong we were. So when bed time came me and my brother got our rods in our mate left his in. he had one of them radio bleeper things well he is a carper boy lol.anyway as i was laying in my pit at 1am i looked out the window and it was frosted up. needing a pee i popped out side and shock and horror the drain was freezing over we had to make a decision. if we stayed there for the rest of the night we would be stranded .so gear and rods back in the boat. me and my brother were getting the rods and passing the gear to our mate on the boat when we came to our mates rods (and you can imagine how down and worried we were)my brother shouts to me GET THE NET THERE'S ONE ON i could not believe it(god knows what happened to the radio bleeper thing ? i wont be getting one of them if your not with your rod don't have it out that's what i say ) .the thing is i had to smash the ice to get the pike in the landing net. The pike was on the bank unhooked and weighed in at 12lb11oz photos taken and back in the water . well we were so chuffed we were dancing on the bank...........well i had better get off this PC got things to do .i will let you know how we got the boat home later. To be continued

[fen-boy]

looking forward to the next chapter.

[Baz T]

Nice report, well done. I imagine the pike being caught took your mind off the cold weather, for a while at least.

[pingu]

nice one look forward to next installment

dave