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An unexpected treat


Rusty

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River Kennet, Sunday 6th March 2011

 

I thought I’d seen the last of this venue for a while, the plan was for Steve to take my place on the final visit of the season but with a couple of days to go I learned that Chris Plumb’s fishing partner wasn’t able to make it (thanks Chris) so that meant we could both go.

 

We were on a bit of a mission, firstly to visit a special swim and then to catch a pike from it. Steve was going all out; there was no trotting kit in his hands as we yomped from the car park to the swim, just a pike rod, an evil smelling black bin liner and a bundle of optimism. I was more conservative (read stubborn) and had opted for the trotting gear and nothing else, in retrospect I should’ve taken a quiver rod and hedged my bets.

 

On arrival we had a quick worship at the altar and then got down to business, me catering business and Steve hooking a rancid deadbait business. He cast just downstream of the obvious feature whilst I played russian roulette in the hut with a zippo and a fresh can of butane. The kettle hadn’t even boiled before we suspected that crays were on to his bait but after a few seconds his ‘float’ submerged and a strike met with resistance. We couldn’t believe it, we’d only been there ten minutes and had caught the first pike. I offered moral support during the unhooking activity claiming that unhooking a pike and recording the event was taking multi-tasking to a new level.

 

Steve in action and me a safe distance away;

 

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The only things missing were a proper beard and about 13lbs worth of pike;

 

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It couldn’t have been a better start to the day and I was so pleased that Steve’s plan had come together. It wasn’t to continue however, over the next couple of hours despite trying several different locations in the swim no more pike were tempted. My trotting didn’t help increase the catch tally, the wind was in my face and so even when I did spot a likely looking line I couldn’t stay on it unless it was a near bank swim. No bites for me and more practice required.

 

We decided to move on, me to a pool where I’d had some good results previously and Steve to a wider section of the river a couple of hundred yards upstream. I foolishly decided not to take the car and was absolutely knackered by the time I’d lugged my gear and the catering facility to this idyllic location. Bites here were harder to come by than I thought they would be, the sun was out by then and it was a nice warm day so conditions weren’t ideal I guess. Despite this I managed a couple of perch to just under 2lb on red maggot…nothing on lobs and no sign of the chub though. Steve called to say he’d had another pike (a little smaller than the first) and was going to stay for an hour before joining me. Thankfully when he did arrive he’d brought the car which meant that I didn’t have a long walk back to mine.

 

We spent the next couple of hours wandering about exploring some really beautiful spots (which sort of made up for the lack of bites) before settling in at the pool again for the last session of the day. The sun had dropped to create shady areas on the far bank and this must’ve got a few perch appetites going for bites were much more frequent. They were only small fish but they were taking lobs again so there was always the chance of a decent one. The ‘decent one’ turned out to be the only chub from this swim, the largest I’ve caught from here at 4lb 12oz;

 

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And if you ever wondered why chub are able to take such big baits this’ll give you an idea;

 

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The pool also looked a peach of a pike swim (and it has some history in that respect) but Steve’s mackerel stayed resolutely un-molested and was wound in for the last time as we packed up and headed back a short while after the chub was caught. Steve had to leave once we’d arrived back at my car but there was perhaps half an hour of light left so I decided to make the most of it, that decision provided me with my most satisfying catch of the day. I’d walked past this tree earlier and noted it as a chubby swim, I hadn’t stopped because I was on my way to the pool;

 

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The current on the far bank was much slower than mid river so the problems were two fold. Firstly to get the float over to the left of the tree and secondly to keep it there. I could just about cast a 2SSG loafer under the far bank but even 15 foot of rod held right up wasn’t enough to keep the line out of the water, it’s further than it looks in the photo. The answer was to cast to the far bank and let the mid river line drag the float back towards me until the float was just on the perimeter of the trees. Then I’d keep mending the line and let the slower current take the float gently along the trees always making sure that the line didn’t overtake the loafer. It took a few attempts to get really close but on one occasion the float buried and after a brief scrap this small chub was smiling at the camera. The plan had worked perfectly;

 

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I was pretty elated and was just thinking about the arty closing shot when it struck me that, more importantly, Steve had also experienced a wonderful days fishing and achieved exactly what he set out to do…a pike from a special place;

 

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5 Comments


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Yes I did Chris, I knew you'd be one of the few who'd know how far that was :D I completely mis-judged the distance, by the time I realised the error of my ways I'd gone too far to turn back, I won't be doing it again.

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He told me it was only a short hike and i am so glad i opted to fish a few bits around the weedrack/carpark area before driving to the next area ,Luckily for chris as i could give him a lift back to his car cos another treck like that would have finished him off :lol:

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Lovely write up Chris, and some lovely pics - that last one is a beauty. Sounds like a really enjoyable days fishing. Looking forward to catching up with you and Steve on Sat!

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