Afternoon Break

With the domestic duties done and the wife full of cold, an afternoon session in the sun was much needed.

The last few weeks have been very hectic, weekends come and go as fast as the week, so grabbing the pike gear, plus some snacks I head out to the local water to soak some baits until it got dark.

The car park was quiet with only a couple of cars about, probably dog walkers or maybe the odd twitcher. Over the style and into the first available swim in order to get as much time in as possible.

With the rods setup, it was only a matter of attaching a baited trace and casting them out. First out was a roach below a float which would be cast every 10-15 minutes, second was a mackerel tail on running rig to the far deep water and finally was a a bluey tail popped up about 30 yards out.

No brewing gear was pack, which in hindsight was a mistake, so I had to settle for a bottle of squash. whilst sat on the unhooking mat.

It was a bright blue afternoon, with little breeze and it felt pleasantly warm on the face. There was plenty of activity in and around the water with the last few hawkers buzzing about, spiders catching afternoon rays and various small birds in the bushes behind. On the water surface was a number of grebes either diving or chasing each other around the lake,

On the bank it was quite. Then the back biter sounded on the middle rod, the bluey tail was away.

I grabbed the rod and the line was limp, nothing spooling off, but I tightened down and the pike moved off as I set the hooks. The rod took a nice bend and I was enjoying the fight. the pike making strong runs and I clicked the clutch a couple of notches. The pike pulled back and even with the additional resistance, line was taken and the pike surged off towards a snag.

Side strain was applied and the pike was turned and headed back out underneath the outside rod and it started to wallow over the marginal shelf. The net was readied, but the pike saw this and charged for open water, but it had lost some of its strength and didn't get very far, and soon it was ready for the net.

Nice start to the afternoon, a low double was soon unhooked and snapped as it slopped off to plunder the silvers of the lake.

With the rod rebaited and recast to the same spot, I rummaged around for the the snacks, only to find I left the nicer bars at home with the tea gear.

The afternoon drifted allow with some pace and before another hour had past and it was time to recast the static baits. The suspended roach had in the meant time been recast a number of times, so I shallowed the depth of the float to present the bait high in the water. I was hopeful that the pike would see the silhouette and come up to take it, but also it just bopped along with no interest from old esox.

Another hour past and the bluey was recast, but the mackerel didn't look very good, so got changed to a nice piece of lamprey which had been left to defrost on the bank.
This was cast out even further than the mackerel tail and into a slightly deeper spot.

With the afternoon passing quickly, I soon had the camera in hand and snapped a couple interesting bugs and spiders.

Before long, the sun started to set, and with it this piking session. While it hadn't been hectic, I had gotten the first double on the bank.

I note this is piece 200 for the blog, which is abit of a milestone I reckon, hopefully I be good for a few more hundred!