A pike before breakfast.

[northern eye]

I had been mildly excited for the whole of last week knowing that come Sunday, I would be out on the bank for a mornings pike fishing. My excitement was bolstered further upon reading the front page headline of the Angling Times 'The pike are feeding'. With money tight I decided to get my bait from the supermarket instead of spending a small fortune on smelt and lampray at the tackle shop so I waited until late in the day on Saturday before heading to Morrisons, as they always put the fresh fish out on the sale counter later on. I was in luck and was able to pick up 3 mackeral, 5 sardines and a pack of sprats for less than three pounds. That would do for a morning's deadbaiting.
Sunday morning came and my gear was ready to go into the car so I could be at the water for first light. Parking the car, it was still gloomy but the winter sun was beginning to turn the horizon pink as it slowly rose above the trees. The temperature was a pleasant six degrees and the wind and rain of the previous night had now turned to a calm December day.

The large, picturesque deep water is an old gravel quarry about ten miles from my home and nestled, barely heard of, next the River Wear and secluded by trees. Originally created as a nature reserve, often you never see another angler and can walk the banks uninterrupted, sitting for hours without seeing a soul except for maybe the farmer, who charges a fiver if he even comes. It also holds some huge pike, the biggest I have caught was 21lb but there are stories of bigger and I have seen one grainy old mobile phone photo of a fish that could even be nearing 30lb. Nonetheless, if the big girls are not feeding you can have excellent sport from the nation of resident jacks.

I set up two rods with matching leger rigs to 15lb mainline line. Using a rotten bottom set-up, the 6lb leger boom was 2.5 feet in length and attached to a
3-way swivel in line with the mainline. The trace, with 2 barbless size 8 trebles, was attached at a right angle to the main line and leger boom. I would be popping my deads up, the mild autumn had meant that the weed was still evident around the waters edge so I figured it would still be covering the bottom also.
I mounted a whole mackeral on one trace, injecting a little cooking oil into its body to help get a nice slick of flavour through the water for the pike to home in on. The second rig took a sardine and again a touch of oil was injected, being carefull not to burst the delicate bait. I pushed slivers of foam into each baits mouth to make them bouyant and tested this in the margin before casting. One rod was cast out to where a shelf drops around 30 yards out, the second rod was cast into the bull rushes in the margin to my right where a field drain runs off.
It did not take long before I noticed the line on the margin rod slowly tightening and followed by the slow clicking of the baitrunner. I was immediately alert and ready to strike but it was not to be. Something was interested and when I brought the bait in, the soft belly of the sardine had been torn away. I quickly re-baited and cast out to the same spot. After forty minutes I had no action so I reeled in both rods, gave the baits a little more oil and cast out to similar spots as before and set about making some bacon on the stove. As the bacon sizzled in the pan and I slurped a hot cuppa, my eyes drifted across the calm water. Two swans and their young glided effortlessly around whilst a pair of ducks playfully dived under the surface and the geese landed at the far side of the lake as if congregating together for a meeting. In the distance, a cockeral crowed its morning call.

Suddenly, without warning, the baitrunner of the mackeral rod began to tear off, in three slow bursts, the line was stripped from the spool and on the fourth burst I wound down and firmly struck into a fish and the rod began to pump from a pike having its breakfast ruined. She must have wanted revenge as I stood to fight the fish and kicked over my breakfast, still cooking in the pan. No time to worry about breakfast now though, the fish was in deep water and I had to get her up and over the steep underwater shelf without allowing the line to wear on the rocky ledge. After what seemed like an age, the fish was nearing the bank and I was treated to a glorious tail walk as my line went slack and a pike of around 11lb's leapt out of the water, what a sight!! As she neared the waiting net she gave one last gasp for freedom but she was beaten and within minutes she was in the net and I carefully brought her into the shallows to unhook. One of the trebles had already dropped out and the other was neatly hooked just inside the mouth so with a quick twist of the forcepts it was out.
Having no camera I had no need to take her onto the bank so instead, I covered her with the net and allowed her to bask in the shallows for a few minutes to recover. She was a wonderful fish, shades of bright green and almost jet black speckles adorned her flanks, she may never have been caught before. I took her, gently from the net and held her in the shallow water until, with a kick of the tail, she slowly swam away, back into the depths.

I gave the rods a break whilst I cooked my breakfast and ate it with relish, topped off with a fresh cuppa and then a relaxing cigarette. How beautiful it was here on the bank, tucked under the brolly, warmed by the recent battle and a hearty breakfast.

For the last few hours I moved to a new spot, over the other side where the geese were gathering. The rods were cast out and over the shelf, about 20 feet apart. This time I used a delicate sprat on one and a mackeral tail on the other. I injected the baits with oil but did not pop them up as I know the weed tends not to grow in this deeper corner of the lake. Two nice slicks of fishy oil glistened on the surface of the water and beyond that, the geese sat unpeturbed by my presence. Fine, cold rain began to fall and a slight wind blew causing me to sink down in my seat and push my hands up inside my sleeves. I had an hour of fishing time left before it was time to pack away and I re-cast at regular intervals along the shelf, searching the water for another hungry pike, twitching my baits to raise interest. After a last hour of constant fishing, and keeping things active there had not been a bite and I began to gradually pack away, leaving out the rod baited with the sprat whilst I got ready to go.

As I folded up my seat, the very last thing to do before I reeled in, my baitrunner began to gently click, very slowly the spool turned and continued to turn, gathering pace I decided to strike before the fish dropped the bait and I was in. The fish was manic, writhing and swimming left to right, definately a fiesty jack pike I thought. He fought very well for a small fish, and as he leapt from the water I thought around 5lb's in all but as he neared the net he was quite slender so maybe be a little less. What an end to my morning, just at the very last minute, I couldn't beleve it. The fish was strong and full of energy and as soon as I placed him in the water he swam instantly away. I knelt at the waters edge for a moment, savouring the situation before packing away my rod and setting off back to the car.

Walking along the bank, the geese, who had been quietly and calmly sat, huddling together on the water, began to make a commotion before flying off as if in a panic...could something have put the fear into them I wondered? Could it be the thirty-odd pound pike I had seen in the photograph, cruising on the surface causing the peacefull geese to flee. We will never know but I would certainly like to think so...

[SIMPLE MAN]

Well done chap sounds like a nice mornings fishing

[Fishing Forum Admin]

cracking read mate

[pingu]

nice one there

dave

[Bungz]

Great read.

A little tip use open bail arms for pike, using baitrunners causes resitance resistance and pike don't like it which can lead to dropped runs ;)

[northern eye]

Cheers Bungz. Yeh, I've done it that way in the past before I had baitrunner reels but a few hasty/forgetful winddowns and strikes have caused huge birdsnests of line which had to be untangled whilst the bloomin fish was still on the end of the line.
The reels I'm using have barely any resistance on the lowest setting and even the ratchet is very quiet and smooth running. I also fish with the line very slack so the pike can pick the bait up and feel confident long before my baitrunners are even engaged - Seems to work, missed a few too but it's all part of the fun. Pleased you like my report.