Pike Fishing Report 15/8/07

[lewis888]

Well it was 19th birthday today and what better way to celebrate than going fishing! Due to the recent weather I opted to go pike fishing at a local Loch not far from Dumfries.

 

Sport started slowly with nothing to deadbaits - float fished or ledgered - but my brother Harris managed to pick up a few small (1lb-ish) pike and a perch on a mepps spinner. It was around 1pm Harris hooked a small perch, when it was on the surface the perch was nailed by a pike of about 6lb which ran around with the poor perch clenched in its jaws for about 30 seconds. Amazingly the perch was almost completely undamaged with only a few scales missing and it swam away strongly This fiasco prompted me into having a few casts with a yo-zuri surface lure.

 

After about 30mins of thrashing the water with a surface lure I had my first rise, a jack of about 2lb hit the lure from below somersaulting through the air (great white shark style!)! I didn't hook it but to see a fish hit a surface lure was excellent and it completely renewed my faith in poppers! With morale at an all time high I was popping that lure with passion! with a wiggle/wiggle/pause movement. Bringing the lure along the shallow, reedy margins induced another take, this time a dark shape appeared and the lure seemed to vanish the hit was so quick! This was a much better fish and was giving a good account of itself, not expecting good fish we had left the landing net about 50yrds away with out bait rods so I played the fish as my brother ran for the net.

 

I soon had the fish in the shallows, I guess it probably only weighed about 5-6lb but my heart was racing! There was no sign of my brother with the landing net so I climbed in and managed to get the fish out by hand. Holding the fish between my legs I managed to get the middle treble out, before I could start on the rear treble the fish gave a shake dislodging the hook...result! It was then I felt a dull pain in my arm, the fish had unhooked itself by digging the free hook point into my forearm :blink:

 

To make matters worse, I had desperately wanted a picture of my first surface lure caught fish but at this time I was a little preoccupied with the hook in my arm and the fish slipped between my legs and back into the water. Needless to say there was a fair bit of cursing The hook was well past the barb but I managed to get it out by pushing it through and crushing the barb, not the most pleasant feeling and now I have a pierced arm

 

My "pierced" arm!

 

Still we both had a brilliant day, in total I had two pike (one lure and one bait) and an eel, my brother had 4 pike (all lure), 2 perch and an eel. And it was great to get a few rises to a surface lure. All in all it wasn't a bad birthday

 

A small jack caught on a lamprey bait

[Newt]

Great report and thanks for sharing it.

[Neil G]

Cool report

 

That lure in the arm looks flippin painful

[WickerDave]

Ouch and nice report/photos.

 

Re the "we had left the landing net about 50yrds away with our bait rods so I played the fish as my brother ran for the net.", I hope the bait rods didn't have bait in the water, or else the pike police might have something to say.

[HOPPY4]

Lewis888, Good Read!!!!! The fish made it to the shore and was returned, but you paid a price. Happy to see that it was not more serious. Good Luck and Many MORE!!!!!!!!

 

HOPPY4

[Neil G]

Ouch and nice report/photos.

 

Re the "we had left the landing net about 50yrds away with our bait rods so I played the fish as my brother ran for the net.", I hope the bait rods didn't have bait in the water, or else the pike police might have something to say.

 

50yrds.....ah that's nothing....you can watch a float at that distance and play a pike on a lure at the same time (laughter)

Edited August 16, 2007 by Neil G

[lewis888]

Ouch and nice report/photos.

 

Re the "we had left the landing net about 50yrds away with our bait rods so I played the fish as my brother ran for the net.", I hope the bait rods didn't have bait in the water, or else the pike police might have something to say.

 

I was thinking about what I had typed in my report last night and new someone would pick up on this, and no the bait rods were not in the water. We set up a small "camp" with shelters where our bait rods are, normally one person stays with the rods if the other is wandering around spinning. On this occasion there was very little action on bait and as a result we were both spinning.

 

The bait caught fish came later in the day after the lure fishing had died down, you'll notice on the picture of my bait caught pike I have an improvised "bandage" over the cut from spinning about an hour earlier!

 

Hope that explains the situation and gets me off the hook..no pun intended

[WickerDave]

OK, I'll let you off the hook this time .

 

It is a good idea to take all landing, unhooking and photographing equipment with you when you wander. And maybe a first aid kit too!

[ColinW]

The real fun starts when one hook goes into you and the pike stays attached to the other one!

With small fish it's usually easier to grip them under the "cheek" and suspend them off the ground so they have nothing to kick against while you unhook them, rather than unhook them on the ground.