Cliff Hatton
Well-known member
http://www.fishingmagic.com/fm-features/18449-new-venue-new-pb-short-session-piking.html
For me there are so many different aspects of fishing that excite me and get the adrenaline running. One of these things is visiting a new water, especially when the new water contains fish that are bigger than any you have previously caught.
For me, visiting a new water normally means much preparation and research but on this particular occasion I had limited time to prepare; in fact, very little time to even think about the trip.
A good friend of mine, Giles, (of AT Products) had been given a ticket for a Yorkshire water he’d been telling me about. Apparently it contains pike to over 29lb! My eyes lit up and I wanted to know more. He proceeded to tell me that he had managed to catch a 21lb fish on his first visit on a paddle-toad soft rubber lure and was intending to visit the water the following morning for a couple of hours before work. I was waiting to hear the magic words ‘would you like to join me?’ Sure enough, Giles was in a good mood and those very words soon soon fell out of his mouth. ‘Sure thing!’ I responded. I was buzzing, and I proceeded to ask a million questions in a short space of time, not giving much time for Giles to answer them all.
I was told all I needed to know: be at the gate for 6am, bring strong tackle - not your usual clutter - and don’t be late! Not sure what Giles was trying to suggest but I set to work de-cluttering my tackle and got a small amount of kit ready for a short piking session in the morning.
I got ready straight away and got to bed early. I decided to take with me one lure rod and one 10ft rod for free lining dead baits. I wanted to see which was going to be the winning combination and didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
At 5am the alarm broke what had been a fabulous night’s sleep. I am normally awful at getting up in the mornings and I soon received a text - ‘oi, Lobs, you up yet?’ followed by some friendly expletives!!! Giles was shocked at getting a response and even more so at finding me at the gate on time.
We quickly got our stuff together and set about the short walk to the lake. It was beautiful. I don’t want to give away too much about the lake in question but it is in Yorkshire; it contains water and has a number of different fish species in it, one of them the pike.
We were taking a very mobile approach to our fishing. Giles opted for an out-and-out lure-attack whereas I decided to alternate between fishing a dead-bait in any clear areas I could find, and lure fishing.
I was very excited to be on this water at sunrise, watching the natural world come to life . Plenty of small roach and rudd were surfacing and this made me feel the pike might be active too.
Initially, we tried 15 minutes in each swim but nothing was caught after a full hour; then Giles had a jack of about 5lbs. We continued to' bounce' around the lake but with no more signs of predatory action. My hopes of instant success had been dashed and this sense of disappointment was heightened by the huge amount of weed that made good bait-presentation impossible.
With only half an hour's fishing left I was thinking about breakfast and a nice strong cup of coffee. The sunshine was strong and hardly text-book pike-fishing conditions. The last bank I was to fish that morning proved to have a shelf which dropped-off quickly to a depth of around 16 feet; furthermore, it appeared to be weed-free! I flung my free-lined mackerel to the right and began to sort the line and indicator when Giles popped-up with his usual good-natured abuse. "Still blanking, Noddy?’ You couldn’t catch a cold if you tried $£&%head!"... and so on.
As he spoke, the line pulled forward then dropped back. It happened again and I lifted the rod, bale arm open, to avoid spooking any fish that might be on the end of my line.
‘Has your mackerel come back to life through boredom?’ Giles was still at it but I took no notice. There was definitely a fish there so I closed the bale arm and made a solid strike into a heavy moving torpedo! There followed possibly the greatest-ever pike-battle as Giles watched and dispensed encouragement. At least two escape-attempts saw my 40lb braid being stripped from the reel, and with the fish tail-walking and head-shaking my 10ft Sonik stalking rod did a great job.
Sheer relief was felt by the pair of us as the pike cruised into the net. Never had I seen such an immaculate and big fish in the flesh. I was in complete shock and awe of this monster. It was not just the length of the fish but its width and depth! Was this the 29lb fish reputed to live in this lake?
We quickly unhooked the magnificent Esox with the help of long-handled forceps; I certainly didn't want my hands going anywhere near those formidable teeth! We let the fish rest for the short while it took to get the camera and weighing equipment ready on a safe, flat patch of bank. I felt like I was 12 again, when I caught my first double figure pike form the Aldermaston Canal - just magic!
The scales read a very kind 27.5lb, giving me a new personal best by over 6lb. What an incredible short session and what an incredible water. A huge 'thank you' to Giles for the invitation and for being an all-round legend of a fishing buddy - never a dull moment!
Until next time, all the very best.
Andy
For me there are so many different aspects of fishing that excite me and get the adrenaline running. One of these things is visiting a new water, especially when the new water contains fish that are bigger than any you have previously caught.
For me, visiting a new water normally means much preparation and research but on this particular occasion I had limited time to prepare; in fact, very little time to even think about the trip.
A good friend of mine, Giles, (of AT Products) had been given a ticket for a Yorkshire water he’d been telling me about. Apparently it contains pike to over 29lb! My eyes lit up and I wanted to know more. He proceeded to tell me that he had managed to catch a 21lb fish on his first visit on a paddle-toad soft rubber lure and was intending to visit the water the following morning for a couple of hours before work. I was waiting to hear the magic words ‘would you like to join me?’ Sure enough, Giles was in a good mood and those very words soon soon fell out of his mouth. ‘Sure thing!’ I responded. I was buzzing, and I proceeded to ask a million questions in a short space of time, not giving much time for Giles to answer them all.
I was told all I needed to know: be at the gate for 6am, bring strong tackle - not your usual clutter - and don’t be late! Not sure what Giles was trying to suggest but I set to work de-cluttering my tackle and got a small amount of kit ready for a short piking session in the morning.
I got ready straight away and got to bed early. I decided to take with me one lure rod and one 10ft rod for free lining dead baits. I wanted to see which was going to be the winning combination and didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
At 5am the alarm broke what had been a fabulous night’s sleep. I am normally awful at getting up in the mornings and I soon received a text - ‘oi, Lobs, you up yet?’ followed by some friendly expletives!!! Giles was shocked at getting a response and even more so at finding me at the gate on time.
We quickly got our stuff together and set about the short walk to the lake. It was beautiful. I don’t want to give away too much about the lake in question but it is in Yorkshire; it contains water and has a number of different fish species in it, one of them the pike.
We were taking a very mobile approach to our fishing. Giles opted for an out-and-out lure-attack whereas I decided to alternate between fishing a dead-bait in any clear areas I could find, and lure fishing.
I was very excited to be on this water at sunrise, watching the natural world come to life . Plenty of small roach and rudd were surfacing and this made me feel the pike might be active too.
Initially, we tried 15 minutes in each swim but nothing was caught after a full hour; then Giles had a jack of about 5lbs. We continued to' bounce' around the lake but with no more signs of predatory action. My hopes of instant success had been dashed and this sense of disappointment was heightened by the huge amount of weed that made good bait-presentation impossible.
With only half an hour's fishing left I was thinking about breakfast and a nice strong cup of coffee. The sunshine was strong and hardly text-book pike-fishing conditions. The last bank I was to fish that morning proved to have a shelf which dropped-off quickly to a depth of around 16 feet; furthermore, it appeared to be weed-free! I flung my free-lined mackerel to the right and began to sort the line and indicator when Giles popped-up with his usual good-natured abuse. "Still blanking, Noddy?’ You couldn’t catch a cold if you tried $£&%head!"... and so on.
As he spoke, the line pulled forward then dropped back. It happened again and I lifted the rod, bale arm open, to avoid spooking any fish that might be on the end of my line.
‘Has your mackerel come back to life through boredom?’ Giles was still at it but I took no notice. There was definitely a fish there so I closed the bale arm and made a solid strike into a heavy moving torpedo! There followed possibly the greatest-ever pike-battle as Giles watched and dispensed encouragement. At least two escape-attempts saw my 40lb braid being stripped from the reel, and with the fish tail-walking and head-shaking my 10ft Sonik stalking rod did a great job.
Sheer relief was felt by the pair of us as the pike cruised into the net. Never had I seen such an immaculate and big fish in the flesh. I was in complete shock and awe of this monster. It was not just the length of the fish but its width and depth! Was this the 29lb fish reputed to live in this lake?
We quickly unhooked the magnificent Esox with the help of long-handled forceps; I certainly didn't want my hands going anywhere near those formidable teeth! We let the fish rest for the short while it took to get the camera and weighing equipment ready on a safe, flat patch of bank. I felt like I was 12 again, when I caught my first double figure pike form the Aldermaston Canal - just magic!
The scales read a very kind 27.5lb, giving me a new personal best by over 6lb. What an incredible short session and what an incredible water. A huge 'thank you' to Giles for the invitation and for being an all-round legend of a fishing buddy - never a dull moment!
Until next time, all the very best.
Andy