A 31 inch pike!

I have been fishing on and off over last week without catching anything of note. I noticed that it became appreciably harder in certain spots to catch anything at all and I found myself moving round to parts of the dyke where fish could always be found. It was cold at times and the water had become exceptionally clear, so perhaps that explained why the fish had been reluctant to feed. There were certainly no big perch about, although a friend nearby caught a good one but didn't get a picture of it. I did purchase some worms for bait, but didn't have much success with them. Perhaps it is the way I present the bait. I did get bites but I think this was usually a fish taking the worm at its end, away from the hook.

Today it has been about 9C or 10C but extremely windy as storm Imogen has been crossing the country. I have been avoiding really windy days for fishing as it is such a pain having tackle flying about, but I had some extra time today and so I thought I would go to the dyke at the back of the house which provided a bit of shelter. I changed my tackle to a slightly heavier waggler (taking five No. 4 shot), a barbless size 16 hook with a 3.5lb leader. I always tend to put the shot nearer towards the end of the rig, but leaving the leader virtually free. I think fish prefer a naturally falling bait.

I think the cover of having choppy water was enticing the fish out and I was catching a selection of roach and rudd really easily. I also had one small perch, but nothing else. I had been trying a worm again and as I was reeling in a roach that had successfully taken the bait, a pike made a lunge for it making a big splash. I decided to set up my pike tackle using a carp rod that my brother had lent me. This consisted of a No1 Drennan pike waggler, a single threaded weight stopped with two swivels, a semi-barbed size 6 treble on a 20lb trace.

I had just dropped my bait into the water, literally just beside where I was sitting, when the float disappeared under as soon as it hit the water. I had been intending to cast a bit further down the dyke where I had seen the pike and hadn't expected this sort of take. I sort of did a double take about the float, wondering if something had gone awry but I realised that this was a pike and struck into the fish. I could see its greenish sides as it twisted in the clear water.

It didn't take long to land. It was a fairly big fish and it ended up going tail first into the net. This is it:-

You can see it has a fairly big belly where it has probably been feeding on smaller fish. The forceps in the picture are 30.5cm and this makes the fish about 79cm long or about 31 inches! This is the largest pike I have caught since I have been down here and I reckon it was pushing 8lb  or more (I must get myself some scales). A nice way to end the day!