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.