Pike season has begun

The pike rods have been dusted off, new reels purchased (shimano 8000d's), rigs tied up and I was up and on the river tees for daybreak on sunday. I hadn't managed to get out midweek so I was pretty eager to get catching, and with a slight chill in the air and some autumnal colour in the trees, it seemed the right time to go chasing the predators.

Tactics involved moving around, spending an hour or so in a few swims, and offering the fish smelt or lamprey deadbaits. I was fishing slightly deeper areas between shallow flows of water. After some early rain, the sun shone through an all felt right in the world. Things got even better as my lamprey was picked up and I saw the pike float bob out of the corner of my eye. It soon started moving off, and I hit into it early. Well hooked, the fish gave a good account of itself with plenty of energy in the runs, but was soon netted.

Nothing big, but I love catching wild river pike, and hopefully the start of a productive winter chasing them (as well as chub!). The colouration on tees fish is fantastic as well.....

Fun with the lures - perch and pike

Loving the lures at the moment, so with the river up I went to a local Stillwater for some perch and pike. Started off with tiny cranks, fishing with a light outfit and I was catching perch from the off. All of them were small, but it was great fun, and I was watching them chase the lure. 

After that, I put the light gear away and got the jerkbait outfit out. After half an hour of casting the lure got smashed and I landed this tail walking pike. Didn't weight it, 6lb or so. Great fun!

A snowy morning on the river, with some fish to boot!

Dragged myself out of bed this morning at 5.45am, took the dog out for a quick walk and noticed we'd had a good blanket of snow, but given that conditions haven't changed much for a week or two i still felt I had a chance.

I had intended to walk a lot further today but the snow made it twice as hard so i only really fished a small section of river, one which i hadnt tried before. The plan was to fish away from my car for chub, and back towards my car for pike.

Given the conditions i wanted my chub bait to move around with the flow, so all I had was a link ledger with 1 x AAA and a size 8 korum hook, and starting off with my favourite cold water bait ;) ;D

The pic above was the first peg, which produced no fish. A move further and my next swim, i flicked the bait out towards the centre and after 5 minutes or so the rod wrapped round to an unmissable bite. A pleasing start, at 4lb 9oz...

Despite trying 5 or 6 other pegs no more chub were forthcoming other than the odd pluck. Away went the chub rod, and out came the piking gear for the walk back. Smelt was the bait (Again!!). The first two swims produced nothing, the i had a very slow dipping of the float which i hit and hooked. After a short tussle amongst the branches i soon landed this pike, not quite a double but a pleasing 9lb 8oz.

No more bites after that and I got back to the car happy with my efforts and supped a nice cuppa to warm me up.

The sort of morning I like!