stevetheangler

Thursday, 1st December 2022, I set off for a day on a club pool (AA-GH) with the coarse rods. Given the perfect piking conditions on the day I would normally have gone out pike fishing but for a couple of things…

• After the previous outing I had put the recently acquired 2 pints of maggots in the porch fridge, lidless but in one of the drawers, to keep ready for the next time they were needed. Unfortunately they were either damp from the misty environment of the last outing or had become sweated on the trip home, the result being that when I had opened the fridge door a day or two later a cascade of maggots fell to the floor and even as quick as I could sweep/gather, the vast majority disappeared under the fridge/freezer and cabinets … so soon a huge swarm of flies is to be expected when the weather warms up. Hopefully, as porch is between kitchen and a lean-to they will be contained in that area and will get out via the door to the outside when the time arrives.
• In the week I purchased a fresh supply of maggots and so had the mind set of using those at the time and had sorted my kit for that ….

So, at 0730, I set off to the intended water so as to arrive in the light… which I did at around 0800.

Nobody else was at the pool so I had my choice of swims and I elected to fish a nice swim in a small clearing surrounded by bushes and trees – so ‘private’ and sheltered – and I set up my two leger rods with 8lb lines and frame feeders and both with size 10 hooks – one baited with 2 worms, the other a strip of calamari/squid. The feeders were loaded with green commercial cereal groundbait laced with dead maggots and seeds (wheat/hemp/barley) with added hemp infused oil.

First casts were made at a little before 0900… but when I packed up at 1030 in order to get home quickly (pills taken the day before had a delayed action it seemed) I had had no action at all – but all was not a waste as seagulls over the water gave me an indication as to where the small fish were and therefore the most likely pike active location – information I look forward to making use of on my next trip to that pool….

WATER TEMPS: 7.5C

PLANS

With Christmas approaching its the time of the year when my fishing gets curtailed by ‘things to do’ – cards, presents, etc, etc –I’m still hoping to make one trip out a week if I can. And now the weather and waters have cooled sufficiently I’ll most likely be thinking pike….