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A Bittersweet day (more bitter than sweet)


Rusty

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River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 23rd October 2010

 

What could have been a brilliant session today actually turned out to be a bit of a disaster.

 

I met up with Steve at a civilised 10:30 for a spot of chub trotting. Steve waded and I stayed on the bank further upstream where I put a concerted effort into a swim which should produce but hasn’t for me yet. It’s where the barbellers fish but it’s also a nice near bank trot for maybe 30 yards until a fallen tree blocks the way. I’ve never really given it a proper go, always preferring to fish downsteam but today was different.

 

Feeding regularly after half an hour the fish started to show, first the gudgeon then the dace and finally the perch, nothing large but they’d been brought up by the feeding so the plan was working. I retrospect I should’ve stayed with it but I wandered down to see how Steve was doing and found that he’d moved, apparently a couple decent fish lost to snags prompted the departure.

 

I waded out and continued where he’d left off, exactly where he’d left off by losing a good chub to snags first cast. The fish just buried itself as soon as it realised what was going on and whereas previously I’d been able to bully them out I was less fortunate this time. At least I got the end tackle back albeit with a straight hook.

 

A fresh hook later and the action continued with a bloody pike making its presence known. Each retrieve would result in the pike going for the loafer and it really was getting to the stage where I thought it was time to move, I didn’t and soon after I hooked a good chub which was on for 5 seconds before the braid parted above the float. That was my own stupidity at work, how many times have I read that braid isn’t as abrasion resistant as mono? Did I check the line after the snag and the pike antics? No, an embarrassing lesson learnt.

 

After re-tackling I decided to carry on partly because I thought there might be a chance of catching the hooked chub, the loafer and shot would just slide off the line so it shouldn’t tether but still the thought of a fish trailing a yard of braid wasn’t pleasant. What happened next just made things worse, I hooked the pike. I managed to get it into open water and could see it wasn’t huge, perhaps four or five pounds, but it put up a hell of a struggle and bit though the line before I could land it. This needed a change of plan so a quick call to Steve and we were mid-river with the spinning rod and lure (he was fishing, I was watching) but after a few casts there was no sign of Mr Pike. Perhaps he’d gone off somewhere to sulk after being hooked?

 

Steve left soon after so thinking that all was safe again I carried on trotting and actually landed a chub of a couple of pounds…..by accident. I was retrieving through some slack water and managed to get the rod caught in some foliage. Once freed I looked back to find the float gone, the next second a good pull on the rod indicated that something had grabbed the bait.

 

15 minutes of inactivity calmed me down a bit but it wasn’t too long before the pike was back again going for the float on the retrieve. There were only two possible outcomes for me, land a pike and then not know what to do with it or lose a pike to another bite off. Neither appealed so I decided to retire hurt and go home early, there was no point in continuing. At least I’d be able to sort everything out for tomorrow without a mad rush in the morning.

 

If I find myself in the same situation again I’d probably move swims straight away, at the very least I’d check the line after a pike attack. Mind you, I’m out with Steve tomorrow on his boat, a good time to learn how to deal with pike. Let’s hope we catch one or several.

 

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