River Swale Pike!

An interesting day out! Got to the River Swale about 6.30am, and walked 1/2 a mile to my swim. I was keeping all options open, trying ledger tactics for chub (with liquidised bread for feed and breadflake on the hook). My other rod was cast to a deep section where the river came back on itself under a tree. For this rod, i had a small ledgered smelt deadbait in the hope for Pike.

I was starting to get indication that chub were there when my pike rod tore off! I quickly hit into the fish to avoid deep hooking, and not suprisingly it went straight for the tree. I managed to hold hard and stoppped it's run, just short of the snags. After that it went for a few interesting runs which were stopped short. This is when the fun started! As i was preparing my landing net, the bank caved in and i was standing in half a foot of water and the same depth of sticky mud. Completely stuck, i managed to land the fish but couldn't get back up the bank! Trying to get my foot free, i fell into the mud and, taking care not to harm the fish, ended up on my arms and knees. Eventually, i managed to haul the fish up and at 17 1/2 lb i was well pleased. In summer, it probably wouldnt be anywhere near that because it was a short stocky fish. Stangely, it seemed to have a healed bite mark on its flank. I want to catch the pike that did that!

Try as i might, i didn't get that chub - they must have all been eaten!

Fat Pike!

The Pike's lair!