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Wingham Pike Survey


Steve Burke

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Mr Burke has a lot for which he must answer...

 

For reasons he knows, I have always resisted the temptation to go pike fishing, but the enthusisam and passion shown by people, particularly the likes of Steve himself, Leon, Fudgie and Dunk Fairley have truly whetted my appetite, and in my case, it WILL happen at last.

 

A friend of mine from work is a keen pike angler who spends a lot of his time fishing the local canals.

He has regularly invited me to a session with him as he knows I have a dexterity issues which prevents me from handling pike safely and has said he will help me out. I feel a little lure fishing session coming on.

 

Having given Steve a spinning rod and reel to pass on to his brother a few years ago, I had acquired replacements by default last summmer. Just have to go and get a few lures now.

 

When you next come back to Kent give me a bell and I'll arrange a guest ticket for both you and Leon to go piking at Wingham.

Wingham Specimen Coarse & Carp Syndicates www.winghamfisheries.co.uk Beautiful, peaceful, little fished gravel pit syndicates in Kent with very big fish. 2017 Forum Fish-In Sat May 6 to Mon May 8. Articles http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/steveburke.htm Index of all my articles on Angler's Net

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I returned to the Coarse Lake the day before yesterday, and decided to fish right at the other end of the 40 acres hopefully to avoid any more repeat captures. The swim I chose was "Last Platform", a swim I'd fished only once before.

 

The first rod was cast out a little later than intended at 9.45 and the sky was clearing nicely after an overnight storm with a water temperature of 45.2F (7.3C). There was a moderate to fresh westerly wind over my left shoulder that enabled me to fish a drifter float, another reason for the choice of swim.

 

However before I could cast the drifter rod out line was running out nicely from the middle rod that was set up with a ledgered smelt. I thought I'd give a circle hook one more chance in case the other day was uncharacteristic. I wish I hadn't! Another fish missed! I left it 5 minutes and then wound in a baitless hook. Needless to say I immediately replaced the circle with a snap tackle.

 

I had to wait until 12.40 for the next take and again it came to a ledgered smelt. The fish stayed deep and fought really hard - at least it did so for a six pounder! This was one of the long slim ones, but obviously very fit and I expected it to be bigger. Interestingly it coughed up a half joey I'd cast off earlier. I wonder if it was the one I missed earlier on a circle?

 

Five minutes after I recast to the same spot I was away again. This time the fight wasn't as good, but the fish turned out to be bigger, weighing it at a pleasing 13lbs. This was another of the fat ones, and so that might be the reason for the (relatively) poor fight.

 

And despite ringing the changes, that was it for the day.

 

I'm going to have to get to know this swim more as the only takes I had were from 1 small area at range. Usually I can find 3 or 4 spots in a swim that produce, but that's often after a lot of experimenting and switching baits around.

 

The next trip will be out in the boat deadbaiting with Ron, so I'll give the area a careful going over with the echo sounder.

Wingham Specimen Coarse & Carp Syndicates www.winghamfisheries.co.uk Beautiful, peaceful, little fished gravel pit syndicates in Kent with very big fish. 2017 Forum Fish-In Sat May 6 to Mon May 8. Articles http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/steveburke.htm Index of all my articles on Angler's Net

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When you next come back to Kent give me a bell and I'll arrange a guest ticket for both you and Leon to go piking at Wingham.

 

 

Steve...I read this and started to salivate!

 

Thank you so much.

Alan

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My pleasure, Alan. Leon's a very experienced pike angler so will be able to show you the ropes.

Wingham Specimen Coarse & Carp Syndicates www.winghamfisheries.co.uk Beautiful, peaceful, little fished gravel pit syndicates in Kent with very big fish. 2017 Forum Fish-In Sat May 6 to Mon May 8. Articles http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/steveburke.htm Index of all my articles on Angler's Net

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a quick update.

 

I went out in the boat with Ron a week yesterday. This time we deadbaited rather than lure fished. I had a jack in the middle of the day, whilst Ron had nothing until seconds before packing up when he had a thirteen pounder.

 

I haven't fished since but Alex went on Sunday to a couple of swims past the Point and had a jack, a scraper double, and a thirteen.

 

The pictures showed that the 13 was our old friend - it looks as though she's been out 4 times in 4 weeks! Together with the repeat capture of the 21/22lber it's also suggesting that my concern that the predator/prey ratio has changed is going to be borne out by the results. We'll soon know.

Edited by Steve Burke

Wingham Specimen Coarse & Carp Syndicates www.winghamfisheries.co.uk Beautiful, peaceful, little fished gravel pit syndicates in Kent with very big fish. 2017 Forum Fish-In Sat May 6 to Mon May 8. Articles http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/steveburke.htm Index of all my articles on Angler's Net

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