Well this is it, the first fishing session on my blog! I am looking forward to writing about all my fishing sessions with my good group of fishing friends from tiddler bashing on the river Frome to big carp and pike fishing on some huge gravel pits!
This time me and my fishing partner in crime Lavis decided to head back to lake 6 South Cerney also known as the predator lake in search of a pike or two. This will be the 5th session on the lake for me and we have already had some crackers in the last couple of years. The lake always fishes best in my opinion at the beginning of December time or when the first frosts arrive, but despite the very mild weather conditions for this time of the year we thought we could still wangle a fish or two. Me and Lavis both have our pike personal bests from here, mine at 29lb and his at 20lb and i have landed others of 28lb, 24lb and a small jack of about 2lb.
We popped to the Tackle Den for some deadbaits and supplies, of course i spent more money than i should of again and ended up with some new toys to play with! With no large whole mackerel in the freezer that we would usually use we opted for some medium size mackerel tail sections and some large roach and herring , payed for our 24 hour ticket and off we went with a starting fishing time of 2pm.
On arrival the weather was overcast and very mild ,there were about 4 people scattered around the lake but only fishing for the day and most of them lure fishing. We have 2 favorite double pegs here, 1 which was taken and 1 that was free around the opposite side of the lake that we would double up on in my 2 man bivvy. We loaded up our barrows and started the journey around to the other side knowing that we would be pushing through some pretty muddy terrain and helping each other over a small bridge on the way there. Speaking to a couple of the people fishing ,the lake had already produced about 4 fish that day which was a good sign, although nothing ove 11lb. On arrival at the peg we decided Lavis would be fishing 3 rods to the left of me leaving me with a large amount of water to fish my 2 rods , 1 in front of me and 1 to the right of me, the weed had definitely not died back like it usually has by December and you could see it was very thick in the margins. Lavis chucked a lead about for a few minutes and the bottom was found to be of mostly light weed with some slightly heavier weed in front of us, nothing that a popped up bait a foot or so couldn't handle!
We got the bivvy up first and then started setting up. I opted for size 4 semi-barbed trebles on running rigs on both rods, one baited with half a mackerel and one baited with half a herring, all popped up a trace length with 2 red polyballs. Lavis opted for mackerel with a similar set-up. Both rods were fished about 20 yards out, one in front of me towards the tree and one to the right towards the other trees you can see in the picture. All the rods were set and we put on the kettle for a brew and tidied up the swim.
A few hours later and just as it started to get dark one of Lavis's bobbins bounced up and down with about 5 beeps on the alarm, he tightened down and couldn't feel anything at first but after a few little knocks he knew something had hold and he struck into it. After a few minutes fight a pike was in the net weighing in at 9lb, he had already saved a blank! Not a monster but a nice lean pike in good condition, a good start i would say. The fish was safely unhooked and returned (and i didn't even have any treble hook holes in my net!)Just before that something had caught my attention in the corner of my eye, something crawling in the grass......it was a toad! I scooped him up and took his picture although he looked a bit grumpy with me.......We called him Terrance before putting him safely to the side of the swim by the lake.
I woke up from my sleep just as it got light and was led there nodding when my receiver sounded at last! It was the popped up mackerel rod. It was a hard fast take to begin with before the line peeled off the spool slowly, i almost tripped over putting my boots back on as fast as i could! I didn't need to feel down for this fish and i hit it straight away.....it was on! I knew it was a good fish straight away, it was going nuts and stripping line like crazy, minutes into the fight it tail walked right out of the water, what a sight, this fish was definitely over 20lb and i estimated it to be around the mid 20 mark. A few minutes later it kited to my left towards the weed in the margins and i just could not stop it! It wasn't long before everything locked up and i had that gutting feeling.....again. The rod was put back on the rest with slack line as the fish was probably still on there and was just sat in the weed sulking, this has happened before and the fish freed itself from the weed before the fight was finished and the fish was landed........but this time it did not,i even stripped down to my boxer shorts and got in the lake to free the lead but the bottom was too soft and too dangerous to go out any further, i felt him still on there but the lead was caught in a snag in the margins and the fish was about 5 yard out in front of it, if the lead had came free from whatever it was caught one i would of stood a better chance. Eventually after pulling the line weakened from trying to free him and i snapped up leaving a curly pattern on the line from whatever it was snagged on, goodbye pike, and even worse the pike was now carrying around my trace around, although i was gutted did learn something and from now on when using running rigs for pike even if the weed doesn't feel that bad i will tie a weak link between the lead and run ring so if the lead gets snagged it will snap free. The rods were both baited and put in the same spots with the 6 hours we had left.
Nothing happened for the rest of the day but to be honest we knew we had missed the prime time going by what we had caught before. We packed up the kit and had a spin on the way back around the lake as nobody else was there. With no interest on the spinners, to much weed and the wind picking up we headed back to the car before popping in to a McDonalds on the way home, now i could drown my sorrows in grease hmmmmmmm!
We will be returning this year when the weather is colder and the weed has died down, probably December time, this time to catch the one that got away and maybe even bigger, another blank for me tho and things are not going well recently, but hey thats just fishing and its what i love for :)
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| A lean 9lb pike caught on a mackerel tail section |
