stevetheangler

Monday 16th October saw the start of my new pike fishing season, delayed this year due to having been on holiday from 2nd to the 9th October at White Acres in Cornwall where there were 13 fishing lakes of which 6-7 were out of bounds during the Mon-Fri for a ‘festival’ but even if they hadn’t have been none of them contained pike anyway…

Anyway, before leaving on that holiday I had prepped most of the needed pike tackle ready for my return intending to set out on Thurs 12th but as usual I underestimated the return home tasks that need to be completed on the return – unpacking, washing, putting away, etc along with sorting tackle I’d taken away that needed to be combined with the prepped pike gear (scales, float rod and maggots for catching of livebaits, unhooking cradle, etc) – and so my start of season was necessarily delayed until Mon 16th.

Come ***THE* morning I only needed to load the bait and food/drink bags into the car – those already having been loaded with their contents just before Sunday night bedtime and the rest of the gear had already been loaded into the car during the Sunday afternoon and so when the alarm went off at 0545 it was out of bed, don the Damart thermals and usual top clothing (although as I was taking my heated gilet I did leave off my ‘SPAR’ fleece top to pack into the car ‘in case’) and head downstairs to boil the kettle and make a cup of coffee and put milk on my ready prepped bowl of cornflakes (and inject my insulin and take my usual Metformin and iron tablets)… 0645 took Liz her ‘see you later’ coffee, put on gilet, coat, gloves and fleece beanie hat … and put my ‘fluffy muff’ in my packet for its first trip out since purchased last year. Then after de-icing the car’s windscreen (car said exterior temp of 4’C) I sent off on the road.

My destination was ‘Pike Water 24’ about 30-40 minutes away… and I was first there… in fact I was the ONLY one there all day fishing although a couple of members turned to look and wander around during the day. I arrived just after 0700 with a mist hanging over the water …

Misty At The Pool

… but I was quite hot and so the jacket was removed and remained removed all session and only the muff and my USB/battery hand warmer came into play late morning when my hands started to get quite cold. The day itself was quite calm and bright with a very slight ripple blowing in towards me on diagonals ie from the slight right and slight left, changing from one to the other at various times of the day.

First thing, as usual, was to sort out my ‘station’ – landing nets (one for livebait fishing in case anything of size was hooked, the other my Savage Gear rubberised pike net), unhooking cradle, pike unhooking tools, tables, etc – and then the livebait catching rod was tackled up, my 13’ pseudo Hardy Matchmaker with 6lb line and size 16 hook under a bodied antenna float..

So… at 0810 the first cast was made with my maggot baited rod…. and by 0930 I had managed to put 1 solitary 1oz silver in my livebait container despite having takes at various depths and drop rates but failing to actually hook anything.

0930 – the livebait rod was put away and replaced by a 2.5lb TC carp rod set up to float fish – 30lb braid mainline, 30lb wire trace with two single hooks (size 12 for lip hook, size 2 into the film of the dorsal fin – that way I can fish a livebait for 30-40 minutes and then release it without any more harm than a lip hooked capture). I had intended to give my solo livebait a 30 minute run out BUT somehow I managed to lose it when I tipped out some water from its container whilst trying to find it it seems – I know it was there (felt it) before tipping the water but couldn’t locate it again after… SO … a smelt was used instead (I had taken various deadbaits along with me just in case or to use as an alternative).

1015 … the float bobbed away, line tightened up and hook set … and a 6lb 10oz pike was landed, weighed, photo’d and returned to grow to a 20lb’er! J

6lb 10oz Pike

The rest of the day was quiet (ie no action at all) and at 1330 with coffee flask contents diminishing I decided to pack up for the day and headed home contented in the fact that I’d caught my first pike of 2023 and I was not a blanker!

The usual visit was made to the local hostelry later with Liz for a post-fishing beverage (Titanic Plum Porter was on, one of my delights!) and cobs…

PLANS

Well, Liz is off to Cyprus on Monday 23rd for her mother’s funeral flying out of Birmingham … her brother and sister-in-law are also flying out that day but, as they now live in Great Yarmouth, they’re flying from Stansted … but both planes land within 10 minutes of each other.

I shall travel with Liz to the airport on Monday morning for her 1530 flight out on the train – quicker and easier than battling the M6 at that time of day PLUS probably cheaper fuel costs than parking up at the airport.

Liz is flying back in at 0150 on Tuesday 30th …

So, a few opportunities to do a bit of fishing may arise … I’ll probably return to Pike Water 24 on Tuesday 24th for the usual day session and possibly have a short hour session (possibly two) on the local canals jigging with some newly acquired pike flies and the usually soft bodied lures and wobbled sprats…

OTHER

I was planning to do some water depth plotting with my Deeper Sonar attached to the back of a R/C boat that I had – operative word being ‘had’. I went to the chest of drawers where I’d kept it yesterday … and lo! The drawer was empty! It seems on my last tidy up I either skipped it or possibly donated it to a local charity… :( It was great too although I hadn’t used it for a few years (so that might be why it was removed). Cost me £16 from the local Cash Converter at the time, about 15” long and worked fine, towing the sonar behind it was no problem – and had a decent radio range of about 100 metres and the batteries lasted a decent time too… I’ve been looking today for a possible replacement but fail on one or more of cost, battery life, radio range … if only I could find one of the same model that would be perfect but nothing I can locate anywhere on the web at the mo…