Adding a few valuable lb's to my P.B

[djfarth]

Following some sensitive negotiations I managed to talk my way out of attending my girlfriends nephews birthday party on saturday afternoon. With the rest of the day to myself there was only one thing on my mind, finding a nice stretch of water and wetting a line!

Being lumbered with a broken down car on the drive, I had resigned myself to having to walk to the local stretch of the River Tone running through the town centre, I'd fished this section earlier in the week and caught a 1lb 9oz perch and a chublet but unfortunately the pike which would have been todays preferrred target species do not travel this far up the river, but I thought something is better than nothing. While spending the last couple of hours with the mrs before she left to keep her sweet (although she would argue that watching the formula 1 qualifying is not quality time spent together) fate interviened and tha phone rang. After the usual chit chat Karlos asked what I was up to, I explained my plans and he asked if I fancied a fishing partner, this is where our adventure began!

Having fished pretty much every stretch of water holding pike on Bridgewater AA ticket I decieded to introduce Karlos to some of the water on Taunton licence. A trip to the tackle shop was required for day tickets, as time was cracking on I was forced to put on the blinkers and ignore all the shiny lures calling me to buy them and head straight for the till!!

Our first venue was to be West Sedgemoor Drain. Upon arrival I inspected the water as Karlos tackled up, the weed situation was not good a clear channel was present through the centre of the drain but bringing the lure back to the bank or landing a fish would be a problem. We deceided to walk down a little further and started to find swims that would allow a little fishing. It was all quiet for the first half hour untill Karlos hooked and lost a fish, at least they were biting I thought and doubled my efforts.

It was not long before my concentration was interupted again by the shout of "Fish On", I grabbed the landing net and ran up to Karlos's swim to assist in landing the fish. After seeing how hard the fish was fighting I was surprised at the size once it broke the surface, I expected it to be much bigger. Once it found its way into the net and onto the unhooking mat Karlos had been rewarded with the first fish of the day, a nice 5lb'er. I hung around to take a couple of photos for him before he returned the fish. Once completed I grabbed my rod and raced back to my swim, I needant have bothered though, there was to be no pike for me from this drain today! The closest I got was a follow from a nice double figure pike but this was more from curiosity, she had no intention of striking the lure and just sat in the clear water in front of me before slowly moving off.

With the fish only striking through terratorial aggression and not on the feed we deceided to not waste any more time and move onto a new venue, that is the beauty of the Somerset levels, you are never too far away from the next river or drain. I guided Karlos to the next spot, a stretch that had been very lucky for me, I'd had a couple of low doubles already this season from this location and plenty of nice fish last year. I was not expecting much this time of year but would much rather be catching jacks than nothing at all, it is a dire day when you blank altogether on this stretch. To start with it was a case of different river, same s#*t as nothing happened for an hour or so.

As time moved on we started to approach the magical time as the sun dropped lower and lower and the water began to fizzle with fish breaking the surface. Just as I thought it was going to be one of those days and I would be recieving the blankety blank chequebook and pen I started to feel knocks on the lure. I had a couple of nice bites before a toothy critter bit off the tail section of my shad. This could have been the best possible thing to happen to me a and forced me to change lure, I went to the "go to" lure that i put on when all else fails.

I punched the lure out to the opposite bank, wincing as it headed for the reeds then sighing with relief as it fell perfectly through a gap and into the water, more luck than judgement I think! While retrieving the lure slowly, I felt a knock and addrenalin raced through my body as I struck the rod. The take was fairly gentle and the fish did not put up much of a fight to start with, I signalled to Karlos who was now carrying the net that I had a fish on. As she came up and broke the surface I got a brief glimpse and shouted "its a double" which speeded up Karlos to a fast walk as he moved towards me.

I did not appreciate the size of the fish untill she started giving me the run around as she got closer to the bank. Once I had to tighten my drag in order to control the fish (I like to fish with a nice tight drag anyway) I knew this was a fish to be proud of. "Its a very nice fish" I shouted which resulted in Karlos nearly sprinting the last few metres to my swim. After playing the percentages game and deceiding that the balance was right between wearing out the fish and running the risk of loosing her I signalled to Karlos that she was ready for the net. It was only when she came out of the water and I witnessed the bend in the net pole that I realised the size of the fish. With space behind us restricted and my last but one double managing to slither back into the water before being photographed I decided to transport her 20 metres or so to a spacious grassy area before readying the unhooking mat and tools.

She was speedily unhooked and weight confirmed before being readied for photos, typically I forgot my camera when it was needed most and the mobile phone had to come to the rescue. Once the weight of the sling was deducted she came up at 18lb 2oz beating my previous personal best by 10oz and moving me ever closer to that 20lb'er!









Once rested in the water and released, I reviewed the photos and tried to calm myself down, typically I had given up smoking a couple of weeks earlier, I could have done with a fag, or something stronger now!! While stomping around still amazed with my luck I deceided that even with the spawny streak I've been on recently I was never going to better that today and it was time to start the long walk back to the car and find a pub on the way home for a couple of cold ones and a debrief on the days goings on !!

It just goes to show that sometimes the spur of the moment trips can be the best one's, you can guarantee that if this trip had been planned for weeks in advance, I would have blanked. It was only last week I was thinking of hanging up the pike rods and trying for other species during the summer months, now I have been rewarded with my new p.b and hopefully a fish worthy of an entry into Julys FOTM!

Dan.

[djfarth]

Sorry about the essay guys and gals, got a bit excited while telling my story!!

I dont seem to be able to figure out how to attatch photos to the post, if someone can advise me I'll add the photos of saturdays catch.

Managed to figure it out now!, Pictures posted!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

great read

[andystone]

proper job! you'll have to give me some directions etc!

[Maddison_Twatter]

great report mate, cant beat the fight of a summer pike
well done on the PB too

[djfarth]

Cheers guys,

No worries Andy, do anything I can to help a fellow Yeovillian!!

[pingu]

great result and report well done there

dave