The snow fell properly here on Friday and if I hadn't been stuck at work waiting for the OK to go home, I would have been out trying to catch a pike. I'm not sure why but there's just something about catching a fish in the snow that makes it that little bit more special. So, after sledging and snowman building yesterday with the wife and kids, I was free to head for the local river this morning armed with a deadbait and a lure rod hoping for some pike action.
The second wave of snow had started just as I arrived bankside about 8:00am, this didn't put me off though as I love being out in the white stuff. The first stretch of river didn't produce any signs of a take despite being a known holding area for plenty of baitfish so I headed to another length further upstream where the water is slightly deeper on a nice sweeping bend in the river. The water was a slight murky grey but the visibility was enough to present a lure perfectly well I thought.
The deabait rod went out upstream in the margin under an overhanging tree leaving me to concetrate on the lure rod again. The real eel was sent out on the first reconnaisance mission to see if any pike were home in the slower flow on the outside of the bend. Soon though I changed the lure for a soft 4play roach when the real eel kept snagging the remains of weedbeds on the bottom. Now with this lighter lure I could waft it over dead weed beds to try and entice a fish. After quite a few casts I was just switching off as you do when there's nothing much happening, when a pike swept up from the bottom without warning and grabbed the lure, it felt quite a nice one maybe a scraper double, but before I could get into the fight it was off again the single treble hook not taking hold ! grrr.
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| Fish on! .......... fish off ! b***** |
I normally use a stinger on these lures but I didn't have one on for some reason, must have swapped it to another lure at some point. That was to be the only chance of the session and would have been a great result to get that pike in the snow shot for the blog. It wasn't to be though and soon enough it was time to head back home and get on with some diy jobs that I've been putting off.
