In Search Of Pike.

Today was one of those days…..
I had the opportunity to get out on the water today, the first Kayak outing of the new year! I was pleasantly surprised to see the weather forecast was looking favourable so i ventured out to an old freshwater haunt, one I had not fished for awhile (about 16 months). The last time I fished here the fish looked stressed, and almost emaciated. The pike resembled baseball bats!

I wasn’t overly confident, as many lakes and reservoirs are struggling a little this winter, with many suggesting the long hot summer may have had a lasting affect on the fish. On top of that, I was also trying to christen some new rods. So a blank was surely to be on the cards!!!
After fighting with the car park ticket machine and being about £8 out of pocket i finally launched and got out on the water. It felt good to be back out!

The tactic was to find a suitable spot to put my dead bait rods out, put my feet up, have a cuppa and sit and wait. The plan kind of went out the window straight away. Whilst making my way to an old mark I slung a lure over my shoulder and had a little troll. Within minutes I had my first fish on the Yak. A lovely little jack around 4lb, quickly followed by a second this one slightly smaller. I eventually reached my mark and sat with the dead baits out for about 2hrs, with not so much of a touch. I started to chuck some spinnerbaits about,as much to stem the boredom as anything. This proved worthwhile as it resulted in 2 more lovely plump jacks around a similar stamp to the first 2 fish.

I decided to have another troll for the last 40 minutes before I had to pack up, and whack! something have decent absolutely thumped the lure. I started filming, unfortunately unbeknown to me at this point the camera stopped working. So when I finally landed and went for the obligatory trophy shot I couldn’t take one. The fish was of a fair size, so i decided to paddle in and weigh it and asked a member of the public to take a photo for me. Result, I’d got my trophy shot after all….or so I thought. After releasing the fish I scrolled through the photos to realise that most of the pictures contained the index finger of the photographer, not me or the fish. I managed to salvage 1 photo, but the moral of the story is to make sure everything is fully charged before heading out. Lesson learnt!

The fish weighed in at 12lb 12oz. So 5 fish and one of them a double, I’ll take that. Not a bad way to kick off the year. The best thing about it is that all the fish were all in good condition, and went back full of beans. I don’t think I’ll be leaving it quite so long before I return again. TTFN.

Graham Shaw