Fell Tyrant of the Wat'ry Plain

Well the conditions are now getting a bit iffy for barbel up here so it's time to get my pike head on! 10 minutes in the garage and a quick root around in my freezer for a small shoal of dace that might fancy a posthumous swim and I was off to the Swale.

The river was very low and clear, but it had a very slight peaty tinge. There were a few people fishing for barbel, but I didn't fancy their chances.



There was someone pike fishing in my first choice of swim, but my second choice looked equally as good! I settled in between two bushes about 20 yards apart clipped a snap tackle on to the end of my line impaled a dace and dropped it just off the downstream bush. This rod is permenantly set up with my standard river pike rig: a 28g Drennan slim pike float, a 20g Fox sinker and a quick release clip for attaching a snap tackle. This is a simple as it gets and, once the float is set slightly over depth, it shows every nudge of the bait by a fish.

It wasn't showing anything at the moment, so after half an hour I cast the bait up to the upstream bush. The water here was shallower so I had to adjust the stop knot for the float. After 10 minutes I'd had no indication so I twitched it back slowly and recast. Sure enough this provoked a bit of interest and the float twitched then rose slowy out of the water, waving gently. This is my favourite bit of piking: the thrill of not knowing if it's a monster or just a jack. The float began to move off, so I wound down and pulled hard into the fish. It didn't feel too bad, not a jack, but not an obvious monster.



After a short struggle Mr Angry, a pike of about 8lb, was thrashing on the surface ready for the net. With the fish in the net I unzipped the pocket containing my unhooking gear to find I'd forgotten my glove - being a wimp I always use a light gardening glove to protect my soft little pinkies. Lifting the fish's head I slipped the hook out of where it had lodged just inside the mouth, but it looked a lot more complicated than it should have. There was another trace in there which had tangled round my snap tackle. After a bit of a struggle I managed to untangle the wirey mess and was then left with a trace disappearing down the fishes throat. I pulled gently to invert the gullet, but it didn't want to come. I gave the fish a rest in the net and had another go, but still I couldn't get at the hooks. The fish had thrashed a bit by now, making a bit of a mess of my fingers so I decided I'd better return it. I cut the trace as far down as I could and slipped it back.



I'm now bleeding and a bit peed off so I decide to move. My next swim had produced a 20 for me in the past, but this time it was a jack of about 5lb. A couple more moves resulted in another jack before I packed up and headed home. Not a bad start to my pike fishing!