as i'm still on holiday from work i took the chance to have a dabble on the venue of our next match.
arrived at the river about 10am walked the whole stretch and decide to fish what i counted as peg 11 along the river. river was clear and deep along most of it's length. the first 16 pegs our slow and ideal for pole fishing the last 3 pegs as i counted them widens out and speeds up to a pacey flow.
i plumbed up my peg and found it to be about 6 feet deep down the track and about 3 1/2 feet in the margin. first put in with a single white maggot on an 18 hook i had my first fish of the day a plump perch about 3 -4 oz's, good start. as i threw in my keepnet i spooked something in the margin? more about that later.
next put in a smalll roach followed by more perch , roach, bleak and chublets. as i looked down into the water by keepnet i could see the fish i spooked, a jack pike of about 2lb it was very interested in my keepnet!
i poked it with the tip of my pole and he just ignored me! not until i tried to scoop it out with my landing net did iot swim off, wasn't the last i saw of the bugger.
below is a picture of the peg to my left.
i was catching bits every cast then suddenly a good tug on my line and i was into a beter perch of about 12 oz it was putting up a good fight when all of a sudden my size 8 elastic shot out into the middle of the river, blimey thats one hell of a fight that perch is putting up i thought to myself! as i started to get ontop of the fight i could see what happened a jack of about 3lb had taken the perch and didin't want to let go. just as i was about to net the preditor it let go and i was left with the perch in my net covered in bite marks, he had a lucky escape! this happend at least 20 times during the day, the water is alive with jack pike. my advice to you lot is to get your perch, roach etc out of the water as soon as you hook it or you may not have a whole fish to put in your keep net!
below one of the pegs close to the car park.
and the next peg to the left.
below is the peg i fished.
the jack that was gaurding my keepnet decided he fancied the roach i was reeling in for his lunch. he grabbed it and made for the lily pads after feeling the hook. i was determined to get the sod out of my swim and as i showed him who was boss mr essox bit through my line but lucky for me i had him in the landing net by then, yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!
only a couple of pounds at most but good fun showing mr pike who was boss
i returned the pike to the water about 3 pegs up river, thats the last i'll see of him i thought to my self, wrong!
ten minutes later he was back under my feet noseing at keep net again
there were only two other chaps fishing the river today, one was a big fish hunter sitting behind his bait runner reels buzzers etc using huge pellets, he was fishless. the other chap half way up stream had a bag of perch and was also having pike trouble.
time to go home and below is my bag of perch, roach, bleak and chublets about 5 pound in all plus i had that pike.
as i released the fish i watched all the smaller fish swimming along the surface and i couldn't believe what happend next at least 6 jacks maybe more came up from the bottom and followed the small fish across the river, not one escaped the pike nailed em all! like i said earlier the water is full jacks, never seen so many. i will be taking two keepnets with me just in case i land a few jaks they could boost your weigt up as long as they are caught fairly i.e. no spinning or live/dead baiting. my advice fish as light as possible and keep quite and prey your not in the next peg to big peter!
