Nearly off the mark ... but not quite

I had the day off so decided to have another attempt at catching a decent Pike before the lure of other species took my attention.   I was back on the same lake as my previous pike session and started in the same peg.    Both rods were set up and cast in, one with a float fished roach and the other with a legered smelt popped up above the weed.   Within minutes I had a lengthy drop back on the smelt rod that had the alarm singing.  I wound down but the fish must have already dropped the bait and missed the trebles, not to worry I thought it's a good sign.   I cast another smelt back out to the same position and waited for another bite to happen again !

Unsurprisingly, the new smelt lay there unmolested, I also tried drifting the float rod around, with roach, smelt and herring baits but nothing could provoke any interest.

There were two lads fishing on the southern bank, both had three float rods out each and one was spinning with another.    I never saw them have any takes all day and by 3pm they had packed up and gone.  By this time I had moved to another peg further up the north east bank with the wind in my face.  I had even less confidence here so moved back down towards the southern bank where the wind was across me leaving a calm bay infront of me.  I had both baits positioned on the margin drop off  but again couldn't raise a take.  

As last cast time arrived I decided to wobble a smelt to see if I could get lucky and annoy a Pike into swiping at it, but this was more effective at frightening the coots that were diving in the bay.    The rain had started to fall quite persistently by now and I had optomistically left my raingear in the car, so I called it a day and headed home a little bit dissapointed at blanking again.

I will be trying to record the weather conditions at the end of my blogs ( if I can remember ) which will be useful for future reference.

Weather am
sunny
air temp 12 - 13c
water am 9c

wind  - light / medium gusts  dir  s/w

Weather pm
cloudy, then rain.
Air pm 13c
water 10c

So near but so far...

I headed to the Dove for my final foray of the 2009/2010 river season, trotting for Grayling.   The river looked good on arrival despite the showers throughout the day, a nice tinge of green but a little low for my liking.   I headed for the swim that I had caught my previous and only Grayling in and fished red maggots on a size 16 barbless to 3lb line.    I tried for an hour or so but was unsuccessfull, so eventually decided to move to another area where I could trot a nice pool with a slow back eddie.

On arrival I spotted a Pike in residence below my feet,  I guessed it to be a low double ?   The fish looked like it was resting up after spawning and had some damage to its mouth possibly caused by the proceedings ?   I managed to get some pics of it, as it was very docile and wasn't bothered by me standing above it at all.   I even spooked it away at one stage by waving my arms at it but within minutes it was back again !   She didn't even flinch when I took pics of it using the flash later as the light fell.   If I'd had some pike tackle I'd of had a try for her but then in retrospect, judging her mood, she may not have been temptable anyway ?

Back to the trotting and the only fish I managed to hook in the pool escaped as it twisted and turned in the current, wriggling free just before I got it in.  My haste to get it past the Pike probably didn't help either.   It was only a small one but it would have been nice to finish the river season off with another Grayling, no matter what the size.  Oh well there's always next season, for now its back to the canals and lakes after Zander, Perch and Tench - (when it get a bit warmer).   Hopefully my next post will have a fish/es actually on the bank to show you.   I hope this new season will be more productive than 2009 /10 which has been a bit of a grueller for me, a few others too, from what I read on the forums.   I have caught a couple of nice fish along the way but it certainly hasn't felt as successsful as previous seasons.

The temperature was a constant 7c during the session a rise up from 4.5c on my last trip, so hopefuly we'll be into double figure temps by next month.    Tight lines for the new season !