As some of you will know I went Pike fishing this weekend. Here’s how it went…

I went to the Canal near Crofton Crossing in Wiltshire with my son, Jack (7) and my friends Greg and Craig. For Jack we took his rod and only a dozen redworm that I found in my compost heap. His Grandpa was due to arrive later in the afternoon with more bait, and we thought they would tide us over.

When we got there Greg, Craig and I all set up floating ledger rigs with Mackerel on one rod and a sprat on the other. And jack plopped his worm into the canal in front of him.

Jack caught a little Perch on his first cast and said “this is going to be a good day Daddy.” He wasn’t rwong.

Within 2 minutes Greg was in, catching a feisty 3lb Pike on the Mackerel. It danced its way towards the net out of the water on its tail!

With the Pike safely returned, Greg cast out into the same spot, which he pre-baited with some chopped sand eel left over from a trip to Cornwall. He and Craig within the next 15-20 minute both caught Pike of around 3lb. Each one was very feisty but also quite skinny, and each one was caught on Mackerel. Greg lost a battle with a large Pike which twice got hold of his Mackerel and twice got away.

At that spot Jack caught 3 more Perch, a small Roach and a Bream and was delighted. Here he is with the Bream. I was getting concerned as we only had 5 redworm left!



The Piking slowed down a bit so we moved further along. It took a while to convince Jack to leave his hotspot but he was soon into his first ever Gudgeon (one of two he’d catch) followed over the following hour by another Perch and his PB Roach of 1lb.

In the meantime Craig lost a run. As always it felt like a biggun! Over the next hour Grandpa appeared, but only with bread as bait, and Jack ate his supply instead of fishing with it, despite he was on his last worm!

Greg and Craig caught another 3 between them 2 on the sprat and one on the Mackerel and they were all around 3-4lbs.

Just before Greg’s last catch of the day I finally tucked into my first fish. I stood with Craig, and pointed out a strange dinking movement on the float. Craig said, “That’s just disturbance from the lock, that’s no fish.”

“Rubbish!” I said as I tightened the line to see the float shoot off and I stuck quickly and the fight was on. After a very exciting and at times worrying (due to the reeds) fight I netted the fish, which weighed in at 7lbs on the nose. Not massive but it beat my PB and gave me a good fight and a very big smile. Thankfully it was hooked in the side of the mouth and it was very easy to move. I was glad I struck quickly, as Greg and Craig tend to wait longer, and ended up with more deeply hooked fish (although the were all returned safely and well cared for).

I must say I was also impressed with the success of the redworm. Before the trip I was concerned they were too small, but they were much more successful that the fatter summer ones. FYI I Jack fished these with a waggler float on a size 12 hook.

So here’s my fish. I was delighted!!!!

I bet your lad hasn'y shut up about it since well done.

He was very happy mate. On the way back in the car we went over a bridge and he started shouting 'That's a river, that's a river, let's go fishing again!

Glad you enjoyed your day, and some nice pics.....
.......trouble is, I can only look at one corner at a time Can some clever so.....er mod reduce 'em for us please, ta

BB is actually better looking if you only see a corner of him at a time

Nice fish, and well done Jack too! It's nice to see a youngster getting fun from catching the small fish - just like it should be!!

[ 11. October 2004, 03:55 PM: Message edited by: Spindle ]

Hey! at least I'm not so ugly I show a picture of a centrepin instead of my face!

Only joking.

Jack was dead happy and I'm glad he likes it so much. I might be brave and take a mate of his along too, although their noise together might scare the fish off!

[ 11. October 2004, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: BoozleBear ]

Here ya go Vagabond.

Do so mate, you'll be surprised. On the bottom photo look at the green shrubbery on the far bank just to the left of my elbow. That's where the fish was.

I spotted (not that visible in the photo) a bit where the bank dipped bank, and guessed a Pike might be holed in there. There used to be a tree there so there's probably a cavernous bit under the water where the roots were before it was removed. Look for dips in the bank like that or reedy areas where they like to lurk!

Good luck.

Simon

Nice to see some one actualy smiling in a fishing photograph!

[ 12. October 2004, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: BUDGIE ]

It's funny how some people don't bother smiling, I think they reckon they need to look like a serious fisherman, whereas I can't hide the fact that I am just delighted I caught a goodun!