My Second Pike of the Year.

After a bout of fairly nice weather, well nice for November, plans were made of a session hoping to try and bag a Pike during the dawn feeding. But what was supposed to start as an early morning Pike fishing session quickly changed into a mid morning session after lots of traveling around trying to find a spot that actually gave us a bit of confidence.

We set up with of usual stealth this time round Steve opted not to fish for any silver fish in favor of using a second dead bait and considering the total waste of time and effort on our last session I think he made the right choice.

A very slow start with nothing but the odd clump of weed gracing the bank and as an added bonus the wind and rain helped us maintain our enthusiasm by making sure we were both cold and wet.

Almost two hours into the session we were discussing whether or not to pack up and and call it a day and go home to a nice warm bath, but this discussion was ended when one of Steve's floats started moving we both sprung into action, Steve was on his rod taking in the slack line and I was there net in hand both waiting for the float to dive, the float danced around for a few minutes moving back and forth but without any confident dives or runs to give Steve something to strike at, then it stopped, we both stood there staring at the motionless float for a good quarter of an hour before Steve reeled thinking that maybe the bait had been pulled off the hooks, but it was still there with the addition teeth marks and a full bite mark with a diameter of about one inch. All this excitement over a lost pike that cant have been much bigger than the dead bait.

Almost another two hours had passed and nothing had happened the little one hadn't come back to have another go and all the other floats remained motionless. I noticed a single knock on the float furthest away thinking it was only the wind I didn't really get too excited I slowly made my was round to my rod as soon as I was in clear view of the float I could see it turning in the water in a fashion that could only be a Pike, I picked up the rod clicked off the bait runner and whistled to Steve and he came running and as soon as he seen the float he run back for the net, there wasn't any mess around this time, the float sailed off and soon as it was fully submerged I struck then the fun began with a powerful kick it darted off head straight into a patch of lilies, I managed to steer it out and then around the lilies with ease which made me think the it was going to be a small one but then after a few little kicks in front of me a big head broke the surface and I thought I'd hooked another double.

Steve arrived with the net just in time to slip it under my second Pike of the year, it weighed in a 9lb 7oz not a double but another very nice Pike, it didn't put up as much of a scrap as the last one I landed but I wasn't disappointed.

Another good result and my second of the year, 9lb 7oz.

Steve took a few pictures for me but all but one were completely blurred as he couldn't stop shivering long enough to take a shot.

To be honest all our captures are always the result of a team effort so its only right that Steve gets a shot with the fish and as I wasn't shivering uncontrollably I managed to get a pretty nice shot.

Stevie boy showing off the pride of the session.

Raaghh!! It still amazes me how vicious the inside of a Pike mouth looks.

Steve put the Pike back in the weigh sling which turned out to be a bit of a task but once it had let go of the sling it was off and out of sight within seconds, check out the clip bellow.

Now that we had banked a fish the endurance of the weather was now worthwhile and we decided to pack up and go home to defrost and get some dry clothes on.

With a Pike landed it was automatically a good session and outstanding by last years standards where every Pike session ended in a blank or with tales of the ones that got away, hopefully our success will continue but as with all fishing you never know.