I often justify the wearing of my Russian hat by calling it lucky, however, I haven't really ever had much justification for calling it that. Today, after missing or dropping four runs out of five, frankly I was thinking of taking it off and setting fire to it.
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Pike were the target, with the realistic prospect of beating my personal best, all thanks to Chris Lambert, who not only organised exclusive access to a previously hardly-fished (for pike) lake for our party of nine, but also leant me a couple of rods that were more up to the job than anything I owned. Well, one of the rods at least, a Nash something-or-other, I think. But the second rod he handed to me saying "Here's the piece of litter", a Dragon Carp rod which sadly didn't feel the weight of a pike all day, though bent alarmingly on the cast.
My first run came on that rod though; a twitchy affair which failed to pull the line from the indicator, but I was using a small rudd deadbait and didn't want to delay the strike. Nothing. Just as I was cursing my luck, the other indicator did drop off and this time I set the hooks. I won't even speculate on the size as I haven't caught enough pike on these methods to for any estimate to be credible. Besides, I thought the next fish felt much bigger and turned out to be a jack of around 7lb, so it can't have been that much bigger if it was.
I was to have another stuttering run a bit later on, but once more my strike met with thin air. Small jack pike? Surely too cold for eels. The next run was unmissable, except I did miss it! I was on the phone at the time, bemoaning my bad luck to my dad, when the alarm started screaming as line poured off the spool like a carp picking up a bolt-rigged boilie. I picked the rod up and could feel the fish kite from 2 o'clock to 1 o'clock. Well, as my mate Dom Garnett says: "they don't pick up the bait with their fins", do they, so I had to strike. Bugger. More excuses sought. Another active jack? Carp fouling the line? 20lb pike? Damn.
That was at 12 noon - most of the activity around the lake had subsided by this point - and I had one more chance an hour or so later. Finally I connected, and this time a long, heavy pike stayed on, but only just. I could see a single point of one of my trebles in the top lip of the fish. Thankfully I managed to avoid a hook pull or getting the trailing treble caught in the mesh. Truly heart-stopping stuff. I then unhooked it in the landing net without the need for forceps, as though I'd just landed a 2lb chub.
Neil Edgar shouted over asking if it was a good one but all I could muster in reply was "it's a double". That was an understatement. I've never seen a bigger pike on the bank myself, though all the other lads certainly have. She was a bit lean at the bottom end, but the dial on the scales still wrenched round to just shy of 19lb, before the weight of the net was subtracted. This gave a final reading of 17lb 7oz, easily a new personal best, and a stay of execution for the lucky hat! Thanks to Neil for a great photograph, which the fishery liked as much as I did, using it as their cover photo on Facebook.
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What's more, it was the biggest one of the day, which was an organised pike trial. The fishery opens to day ticket anglers (booking only) in a couple of weeks time. For more info, go to www.emperorlakes.co.uk
Again, I can't thank Chris enough for inviting me along and lending me the rods, and Neil for the pictures of the big one. Thanks guys.
Pike were the target, with the realistic prospect of beating my personal best, all thanks to Chris Lambert, who not only organised exclusive access to a previously hardly-fished (for pike) lake for our party of nine, but also leant me a couple of rods that were more up to the job than anything I owned. Well, one of the rods at least, a Nash something-or-other, I think. But the second rod he handed to me saying "Here's the piece of litter", a Dragon Carp rod which sadly didn't feel the weight of a pike all day, though bent alarmingly on the cast.
My first run came on that rod though; a twitchy affair which failed to pull the line from the indicator, but I was using a small rudd deadbait and didn't want to delay the strike. Nothing. Just as I was cursing my luck, the other indicator did drop off and this time I set the hooks. I won't even speculate on the size as I haven't caught enough pike on these methods to for any estimate to be credible. Besides, I thought the next fish felt much bigger and turned out to be a jack of around 7lb, so it can't have been that much bigger if it was.
I was to have another stuttering run a bit later on, but once more my strike met with thin air. Small jack pike? Surely too cold for eels. The next run was unmissable, except I did miss it! I was on the phone at the time, bemoaning my bad luck to my dad, when the alarm started screaming as line poured off the spool like a carp picking up a bolt-rigged boilie. I picked the rod up and could feel the fish kite from 2 o'clock to 1 o'clock. Well, as my mate Dom Garnett says: "they don't pick up the bait with their fins", do they, so I had to strike. Bugger. More excuses sought. Another active jack? Carp fouling the line? 20lb pike? Damn.
That was at 12 noon - most of the activity around the lake had subsided by this point - and I had one more chance an hour or so later. Finally I connected, and this time a long, heavy pike stayed on, but only just. I could see a single point of one of my trebles in the top lip of the fish. Thankfully I managed to avoid a hook pull or getting the trailing treble caught in the mesh. Truly heart-stopping stuff. I then unhooked it in the landing net without the need for forceps, as though I'd just landed a 2lb chub.
Neil Edgar shouted over asking if it was a good one but all I could muster in reply was "it's a double". That was an understatement. I've never seen a bigger pike on the bank myself, though all the other lads certainly have. She was a bit lean at the bottom end, but the dial on the scales still wrenched round to just shy of 19lb, before the weight of the net was subtracted. This gave a final reading of 17lb 7oz, easily a new personal best, and a stay of execution for the lucky hat! Thanks to Neil for a great photograph, which the fishery liked as much as I did, using it as their cover photo on Facebook.
What's more, it was the biggest one of the day, which was an organised pike trial. The fishery opens to day ticket anglers (booking only) in a couple of weeks time. For more info, go to www.emperorlakes.co.uk
Again, I can't thank Chris enough for inviting me along and lending me the rods, and Neil for the pictures of the big one. Thanks guys.