Dont Neglect Your Margins !

[mikey-1001]

I was out yesterday for an all day sesh, starting at 7.30 i set up 2 deadbait rods in my fave swim and settled back to wait for the first run which wasn't long in coming.
On the reservoir (my clubs water) i often hear of guys saying that they've went weeks sometimes without a run, well i can say with all honesty that ive only ever had a handfull of blank days in 4 years of membership. The mistake they make is quite obvious to me and that is that they are neglecting the margins, the reservoir used to be a quarry and so for half the perimiter it goes down to 120-200 ft right at the bankside with no gradual slope off or shelf to speak of. The bottom is pure rock and there is no plant life or structure, but if you walk half way round, the res. slopes off gradually to a depth of 40 ft in the middle and instead of a stone bottom there are mud and silt banks which support a variety of weed and plantlife which the roach often shoal up near and so the pike are never far away.
The water is full of very well conditioned pike and i would've thought that any angler worth his salt would be aware that predators like pike love structure for the ambush factor........to catch a pike you must think like a pike! I always fish swims were there are overhanging trees and some sort of weed or foliage near the edge, i know that at this time of year on some waters pike tend to move into deeper water near the bottom but to leger in the deep water at edgelaw you would have at least 100 ft of line out.......not possible i know ,which is why i always put a float fished smelt or roach in the margins.

Getting back to yesterdays sesh i had one rod at range and fished a float suspended lamprey section at about half depth to see if i could maybe pick up a patrolling fish, and my other rod was fished about two rod lengths out and had a roach on also under a float but presented on the bottom. After about half an hour of waiting the margin rods float steadily drifted under so i struck immediatley as in my experiance winter pike can be a bit finnicky and sometimes drop baits for no reason so i was taking no chances ,after a short struggle to keep the pike out of a submerged trees branches i had a lovely condition ,9 lb essox in the sling.
Needless to say the rod at range didn't pick up a fish all day so i think that there is no wonder that the anglers who are too lazy to walk that extra distance are sometimes going weeks without a bite, most still waters have an area of 'dead water' somewere on them its just unfortunate that at edgelaw its nearest the car park.......lol!
I took another pike at about threeish ,also in the margins so all in all it was another successfull sesh - i'm having one of those productive,lucky streaks just now.......long may it continue!!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read and some very good tips

[mikey-1001]

Cheers Richard........glad you liked it mate!

[pingu]

nice one mikey
nice report

[Portland Pirate]

Good Report.
I am hopefully going out tomorrow morning to try for a Pike. I have been promising myself that I will have a go at winter pike for the past 10 years. I went out for them 3 weeks ago only to find the lake totaly frozen over :-((

[mikey-1001]

You should give it a go pirate, the action can be intense at times.