stevetheangler

Tuesday 29th November 2016 and I headed off on the frostiest morning of the year so far on another piking trip to Pike Pool 17. The car thermometer registered -1.5’C on the trip down and over the day the waterside thermometer registered air temperatures between 2.5’C and 5.5’C over the 0845-1500 fishing session. Weather was bright sunshine during the day with very little air movement at all – the water surface being like a sheet of glass.

So before setting up tackle, etc I put out some rubby dubby consisting of cereal groundbait containing pieces of smashed oily fish and with added fish oils to act as an attractant for the pike.

I started off with the ‘roach’ rod for the first two hours of the session in hope primarily of attaining some small silvers for pike livebaits but also in the hope of possibly picking up some bonus chub, bream, etc. Also the silvers attracted into the area would hopefully also draw pike into the area. However, my supply of silver’s bait was not the best – I had dead maggots to use as loose feed but my main supply of hook maggots were also dead! It seems that they had been kept in ‘statis’ (ie kept cool in a plastic bag from which the air had been excluded) too long and succumbed. Anyway, although I tried fishing at varying depths from on the bottom at 11’ and up to 3’ deep I had only a few small nudges on the float and nothing hooked at all.

At 1100 I switched to the pike rod – I had planned to switch at 1130 but having had a mis-cast and being caught up on a bush from which I had to pull for a break that switch was made slightly earlier as it wasn’t worth the re-tackling up on the bank.

So the pike rod was baited up with what  I think is a ‘bluey’ – itself also properly called a ‘Pacific Saury’ – but which I had purchased as a ‘needle fish’. Does look like a bluey though, and whatever it is very oily and ‘fishy’… 

 …and definitely looks more ‘bluey’ than the ‘needle fish’ in the photos above.

And so, this was floatfished at varying depths, in varying points around the swim for an hour or so before changing bait to a mixed sprat (natural and red dyed) Xmas Tree offering – on each of the two double hooks on the trace two sprats were placed (ie 4 sprats, one on each hook bend) – which is intended to emulate a small shoal and can work when single fish offerings are not. However, on this day even the XT was completely ignored and thus I ended the day with a complete blank.

Thinking now for Friday – not sure if Liz will be thinking of coming out especially with the cold weather although she may be persuaded by a couple of hours lure fishing on the canal followed by a heartening drink in a hostelry … and even if she decides not to venture out then I may just do that anyway….

And, on Tuesday next week, I’m meeting up with a club member for a day’s piking on one of my other club’s pools.