Uneventful

A morning stint was all that I had for a session for old esox and the start of my piking season.

As I was short of time, a local venue was chosen, but a new swim was called for. I head to and area which has always been a good location late in the season and I has faired quite well with lures in seasons past, so a bait session should hopefully throw up a fish or two.

I arrived before dawn and found a nice swim where I could happy fish three rods with ease. Depth was not vast, but being as the roach were topping all over the place, I was confident with my approach.

To ensure I have the bases covered, I this a close in float ledger, a popped up bait at around 40 yards out and a third bait running rig in a deeper channel some 70 yards out.

I sat back and enjoyed the sight and sounds of the old place with a steaming cup of flask tea.

The water was alive with roach as far as the eye could see and I was pretty confident with the location, so after an hour, I recast the baits back to the same spots.

With the rising of the sun, but presence on the bank was stopped by a threesome of ducks, and soon the three of them had swam over all three lines and cause the alarms to sound.

After resetting the alarms and cursing at the invaders, I noticed how tame these three were. Not wanting them to hang about I decided that feeding them wasn't a good idea.

By 10 am the alarms were still silent, well apart from the ducks tripping over the lines and a change of plan was called for.

So the two end rods were rebaited with different baits and recast into different areas of the swim.

The warmth of the sun could be felt on my face, and it felt more like an early session for tench rather than for pike, but I continued in the hope that one hungry pike would come along.

By midday and with no prospects of a pike, I wound in and headed for home.