Earliest/Memorable Visual Observations?

I've been thinking back over the years of pike fishing and been fortunate enough to have made some fantastic visual observations.

On one occasion just before the end of the river season I spotted a good double in the clear waters of the upper Witham and trundled a deadbait towards it where it readily accepted and following the strike, from under the bank came a second, smaller fish of around ten pounds which shadowed it's every movement during the play even to the point of almost netting itself too when I landed what I presumed was his spawning partner before it lay there and waited for the release and they both glided away together... I would go as far as to say it was actually quite moving, i've always held a well desreved respect and interest for pike but that experience certainly crossed the border into compassion.

Another occasion many years ago I had a small jack of around two pounds on a very underfished Lincolnshire drain and just as I was about to net him he shot off in a parallel line to the bank and almost shot up it before I noticed the huge head of another fading back into the depths right in front of me.

My earliest memory of actually seeing a take was as a kid, again on the clear waters of the upper Witham where I had stopped for a rest and dropped the sprat I had been wobbling onto the clear river bed and watched as I ate a sandwhich and I had a fantastic view of a jack moving up to the bait before picking it up across it's jaws and then slowly moving off as it turned the bait head first to swallow it, although it never got the opportunity of course.

That probably shaped my pike fishing and my understanding of pike from that moment on, does anyone else have a defining moment or memorable visual experiences?

hi steve, yes ive watched the antics of pike many times, ive watched them spawning one large female followed by a group of smaller male pike . but a few other observations i remember like the large pike at dam flask which followed every fish i had hooked right up to the bank and just laid there until i returned it and then grabbed it. I thought the cheeky sod im not having that so i started returning the fish a peg down the bank, and guess what the ****** read my mind and followed me down the bank. I thought well talk about cheek. I too have seen pike follow another hooked fish right up to the net, i was once catching roach in clear water when i saw this pike swim right up to my swim, i though thats buggered it, nothing of the kind. the roach carried on feeding as tho nothing was there, i thought thats strange and carried on catching roach for another hour then suddenly they all scattered it was as if they all knew that the pike had just switched on. thats just a couple of instances that i have observed that i remember.

I was fishing the river idle a few years ago for Barbel.
The water was low and clear 'cept for the odd strand of weed.
I had the bite I was waiting for from a Barbel that was laying beneath some overhanging branches of a far bank willow tree and soon after coaxing the fish into clearer midwater , the Barbel ,which ultimately turned the scales at a little over seven pounds was being harrassed and tail nipped by a pike that was around five pounds or so.
The pike had some five or six goes at the Barbel and as the bank I was standing on was fairly elavated I had a birdseye veiw of the whole thing.
Totally fascinating display of nature in tooth and claw.

binka said:

Earliest/Memorable Visual Observations?

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Don't know if you wanted me to go back this far, but ..... looking down a tunnel and seeing this frightful old woman holding a pair of surgical calipers and shouting "One more push Mrs Woodhouse and I'll have it out in no time."

As for fishing, it's looking into the clear waters off Paignton and seeing for the first time a small mackerel on one of our hooks. I've been hooked ever since in what lies beneath.

Jeff Woodhouse said:

Don't know if you wanted me to go back this far, but ..... looking down a tunnel and seeing this frightful old woman holding a pair of surgical calipers and shouting "One more push Mrs Woodhouse and I'll have it out in no time."

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I recall something similar along with the words...

"By God this is an ugly 'un!".

My first 20 lb plus Hants Avon pike was shadowed by a pike of around 5 lbs all the way through the fight and I could have netted them both as it stayed by her side as I netted her.
I once saw a big double on the Stour sitting in front of some reeds , close to the bank . I chucked out a Rebel frog lure just beyond it so I could bring it right passed its head . As I retrieved the lure and it was about to pass in front of the big pike I suddenly spotted an even bigger pike was following it ! It went for the lure ,but bashed it rather than grabbing it before shooting off , along with the other pike which was spooked by the splash !

I remember a roving session on the Wye. I was working my way upstream dropping float fished deadbaits into likely holes. On the third or fourth swim I lobbed the bait into a big, deep slack behind a Salmon groyne. As the bait wobbled downwards a big pike came up almost vertically under it and sucked it in whole. I'll never forget the sight of those big jaws flaring to reveal the white of the inner gills. It went just a bit under 17lb and is still my Wye PB