Ending 2016 on a high.

We have a bit of a tradition of trying to fit in a social fishing session between Christmas and the New Year.

If possible a handful of us try and get out onto a new water and this year I was fortunate enough to have negotiated kayak fishing access on one of my local club lakes. This is an incredibly hard water to fish. There is bank access for only around 100 meters and the rest of the lake is untouched, so whilst I hoped it would be a successful session it was a bit of an unknown and we could only hope for the best.

The days running up to the session didn’t bode well. Temperatures rarely got above freezing. The day itself was incredibly cold with no wind and a bright sunny sky. This is the last thing you want when predator fishing on a shallow lake so it wasn’t looking too good.

At first light half a dozen of us were winding our way down the narrow lane to the lake. It was a glorious morning and after the usual chit chat comparing notes about Christmas we were soon ready to launch. Eddie was first on the water trying out his new Cuda 14 and the smile on his face soon told me he was liking it.

I decided to have a circuit of the lake trolling my favourite Westin lure ‘ Percy the Perch ‘. It soon became apparent how shallow and clear the lake was and I could see the bottom for most of the way. It didn’t bode well. However when paddling against the far tree line there was a tell tale knock on the rod tip and then it slammed round……fish on. It wasn’t very big at just 5lb but any fish on a day like today was welcome. This was quickly returned and I continued my circuit. Five minutes later fish number two was in the net.

After continuing the rest of the circuit with no further fish I chatted to the rest of the guys. They were all struggling. It made sense to head over to the area where I had caught fish and soon pike number three and four were caught. At this point I had to share the info with the rest of the group and there were soon four kayaks concentrating on a very small area, a stretch of just 100 meters.

The fishing was insane. I have never experienced such prolific pike fishing in such a small area. Between the four of us we caught thirty pike in less than two and a half hours. My personal tally was fourteen fish to 13lb 7oz with back up fish of 13lb 2oz, 12lb 10oz and many many scraper doubles. Its fair to say none of us stopped smiling as the banter flowed and the fish just kept coming.

Then just like someone had flicked a switch it was over. The fish stopped biting and no matter what we tried for the rest of the day we just couldn’t find another fish. It didn’t matter though, we had all experienced a very rare feeding frenzy of pike and that with the company made for a great day.

As dusk came we called it a day. A leisurely pint in the local pub finished off a perfect day and was a great end to another fantastic kayak fishing year.

Here’s hoping that 2017 is equally as good.