Thursday, 12th November, saw me head off to Pike Water 24 in search of Esox Lucius aka pike leaving the house at 0700 and arriving at the venue at around 0730.
I was quite surprised to find that someone else had arrived before me with one car already parked on the carp park and it seems the owner thereof was already in his swim.
But my desired swim was free … and I was happy … at that point…
But I was soon to be slightly deflated as, when setting up my livebait catching rod I discovered the pre-tackled line must have snagged up since the rod’s last use and the hook had been snapped off …and I hadn’t packed my small hooks!
However, I had taken deadbaits in the form of smelt and sardines with me so I could at least fish albeit with less confidence as deadbaits are nowhere as near as good as lives on this water I find.
So the pike rods were set up with 25g polystyrene floats, suitable leads and standard wire traced twin treble snap tackles.
And so it was that I made my first casts at 0900 with both rods baited with smelt but fished at differing depths and distances out, casting out to my left and drifting with the wind across to my right. I say differing distances out but always within 10 yards of the bank as I’ve yet to have a take at any greater distance and, in fact, the vast majority of my pike have always come from within 6’ of the bank. I had also taken some cut up old baits which I distributed in the swim as an attractor.
And for the rest of the day, despite depth and bait changes (to sardine on one rod), I had to be content with watching the floats drift undisturbed as I had not single touch nor any follows to the bank of the slowly retrieved pre-recast baits.
The weather was actually quite mild all session and I fished it through wearing only a T-shirt and my Damart thermal vest on my upper half having discarded my jacket, waistcoat, and fleece top…
NEW STUFF:
I took one new piece of tackle that I’d obtained from Joom – a Chinese online shopping site in a similar vein to Banggood and AliExpress. I’m quite into Joom at the mo, and have bought a fair bit of stuff from them recently and very pleased with what I’ve received and all at a good price. In fact, JML are currently advertising on TV a cat toy which is a USB charged flappy fish at £20 … I bought one in my latest Joom order for £6 which includes shipping, etc… and its rather good despite the cats being currently wary of it! LOL! I’m sure our ferrets will have a bit of fun with it though! :)
Anyway, my latest tackle purchase (part of the same order as the cat toy) was also taken out on this session – but was unable to be used…. as its a livebait carrier/bag. Made of EVA it folds almost flat for transport but has a 28 litre water capacity, a fully zipped top with a smaller mesh covered opening to add and remove fish and a pocket to hold an air pump (not supplied) with another small hole through which the airline pipe passes. Seems very good and certainly less bulky and weighty to transport than my usual livebait bucket and at £18.50 I’m well pleased!
See: https://www.joom.com/en/products/5c70ce568b2c370101a3c932
PLANS:
Monday, 16th November, it’s a pike fishing trip out with Liz… J
TEMPS:
AIR: MIN: 9.2’C MAX: 18.4’C
WATER: MIN: 9.0’C MAX: 9.9’C
WATER TEMPS:
AIR TEMPS:
stevetheangler 
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