A glorious morning after pike

Up early on sunday morning and taking the dogs for a walk noticed there had been a hard frost. That couple with clear skies and high pressure, I had a feeling it would be pretty tough going.

I decided to fish a gravel pit, casting different baits to different depths to mix it up a bit. Once the sun got up above the horizon, it formed a nice sun trap where I was sat and it was pretty pleasant, I'd have been quite happy just sitting there, woodpecker behind me working away at a tree, absolute stillness on the pits surface. Nothing much was happening when, out of the blue, the peace was broken as the drop arm hit the rod rest and the alarm let out a few bleeps. I picked up the rod, felt a knock pretty quickly so hit it straight away. The fish fought well in the crystal clear depths, and eventually rolled over the net, I knew it was a good double. At 17lb 7oz, it's a new Stillwater pb and definitely the result I was after.

It's been a while since I've had a solid upper double, so I was very pleased to catch this one. As the morning progressed, there was no interest on the pike rods so I spent a while scanning the lake for signs of anything of interest. I noticed a few fish roll towards the far side - unfortunately with the place being nearly 30 acres I wasn't able to work out what they were. Then something rolled a few times directly in front of me, which I suspect were tench from a recent stocking - I'll be targeting them come spring, as the place has great potential for special fish, a rarity for stillwaters around this area.  

Tees Grayling and chub update

After a blank on the swale whilst targeting pike (something that I get really bothered about!), I managed to sneak an hour fishing in midweek, after dark, on the tees. I really didn't have long, so the rod already set up was cast out with steak and mince in the feeder. I had decided that I wasn't leaving until I had a fish, and after ten mins the rod knocked then looped over, resulting in a great fight and a hefty tees chub. Looking at the width of the stomach, I had a feeling it was decent and the scales proved that at 5lb 2oz (only my third tees chub over the 5lb mark in many years of fishing it!).

I soon packed up and went home happy.

The weekend came and there was a clear marked shift in weather, with cold and frost setting in and bright clear days. The first couple of days like this are often challenging conditions to fish, so I often target something reliable, in this case being grayling. Hitting the Upper Tees, it was great to break out the centrepin, rove about with minimum of gear and trot maggots in different pools. I managed a dozen or so decent sized fish in a couple hours fishing - great sport and cracking fish.