stevetheangler

On Friday 3rd November, in a change of plan to my previous thoughts of visiting the canal, I headed off instead to Pike Water 24. The change was brought about by, having had a busy week, I hadn’t had chance to sort out the tackle required for the canal which is lighter and more manageable, due to it being a roving day, than when I fish the pools, etc and am therefore more static and take more gear, bigger vacuum flasks, etc. Anyway, the tackle needed for PW24 was virtually that which I had used on the previous session and thus already 99% packed, just baits and food/drink to be added – and as a longer walk I also loaded up the barrow….

So, I left the house at a little after 0700 with the car thermometer registering 10’C and I was making my first cast of the day at around 0830 from my selected peg (12)…

As per my last previous trips out the plan was to fish with maggot for small silvers for use as livebait for the first couple of hours and then to switch to the pike…

So, by 1100 I’d had about 10 small silvers of up to around 2oz in my bucket – quite uneventful otherwise with no larger fish being attracted.

At this point I wound in the maggot rod for the day and set up my 2 pike rods, both identically tackled – 40lb braid mainline, 30lb wire trace with a single size 2 hook with squeezed barb located 3” from the trace’s end (used to lip hook bait) and terminated in a homemade double hook of a size 12 barbed whipped to the back of a size 2 with squeezed barb, the size 12 being hooked into the root of the dorsal fin to hold the hook and the size 2 as the ‘catcher’. Indication and setting of depth to be fished at was by a small pencil float, and the weighting and bait’s allowed degree of movement was set by a sliding Grey’s 10g quick change weight.

One rod was fished close to the bank alongside the overhanging bushes on either side of me. The other rod was initially cast further out over the maggot fed area where I’d been fishing for the bait – maggots attract silvers, silvers attract pike being the idea… and at 1215 the float on this rod did a ‘dance’ and then slid under and away … a tightening of the line and strike … and fish on!

Not a major fish – but a nicely conditioned 3lb 10oz jack…

And…. I got toothed again! Just a very minor scratch, barely visible, but did it bleed? Yep! Due to the anti-coagulant that coats the teeth of pike it takes even the merest scratch a while to heal over – and although I had to search for the actual puncture the amount of blood I was spreading around was quite noticeable. However, I was a bit better prepared this time as Liz had bought me a box of plaster to put in my bag – and I’ve since also ordered a couple of styptic pencils…

Anyway, back to the fishing – but nothing more to report really as I had not another touch all session despite ringing changes in depths and areas fished and so it was 1515 when I decided to up sticks and head back home…

BUT then ‘tragedy’ struck! Tidying up, I’d some cold coffee left in the cup of my flask so I swung the cup to dispose of the contents, cup slipped from my hand, followed splash-gurgle as it hit the pool and sank… OK it was only about 12” out but on the water, 12” from the bank its 4’+ deep, murky and rock strewn so sweeping the landing net wasn’t much use. I did have the notion of trying to do some ‘magnetic fishing’ on my next visit to the water but tests on Liz’s identical flask cup indicated no magnetic attraction at all – despite my magnet having originated in a piece of laboratory equipment (NMR – nuclear mass resonance) and things that it attracts you have trouble unattaching again – yes, its strong! So, a bit disappointed – the flask only comes with one cup (Thermos 1.2 litre ‘King’ stainless steel – see http://www.argos.co.uk/product/9270659) and are not cheap – around £25 – but are excellent flasks and well worth it. Cheapo flask off eBay, put in boiling water on a hot summer’s day – 6 hours later its just tepid – but these Thermos flasks, if you put in boiling water then 24 hours later, even on a sub-zero winter’s day, its barely any cooler – you’d definitely still need to sip your drink! Recommended item! HOWEVER… a solution has surfaced to the lost cup problem … Thermos can supply replacement/spares for their products and the cup I need is available … so its now been ordered (£5.95) … and should arrive early next week….

Plans for next week: Monday 6th, off to a club water with the lures for the day and Friday 10th possibly some river piking on the Severn or Warks Avon…

WATER TEMPS

Min:                 10.8’C
Max:                11.2’C
Average:         11.0’C

WATER TEMP TRENDS