River Piking - 25 September 2011

As the darker morning start to set in, with a hint of freshness in the air, pike fishing takes on a different character - this is what it's all about. I got to the river at first light this morning, with the hope of catching a few pike.

After trying a few different swims, i got to a slow paced glide going under an overhanging tree which quickly provided my first run. The float bobbed a few times, and with the hope of avoiding deep hooking a struck quickly into something solid. Unfortunately the hook pulled after 10 seconds or so....they always seem bigger when you lose them!

Moving to the next swim, this offered a much deeper hole close in next to a raft of weed and overhanging tree - a perfect pike swim (also a perfect chub and perch swim!!). It wasnt long until my float bobbed and then quickly dissapeared, mackerel head the bait. I picked up my rod, and was about to strike when i noticed my overfilled spool of line was tangled. Before hitting into the pike, i had to sort this, all the time knowing a potential leviathon was munching at my bait. After 30 seconds or so it was sorted; the pike was ponderously moving upstream with the mackerel, and i hit into it - the result being an 8lb pike in fighting fit condition.