"Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learned"
Isaak Walton
...and if it could be fully learned then
how boring angling would become!?!
In fact I would say my barbel fishing, was
becoming a little tedious at times. Long periods of inactivity during
those late night sessions in the summer and autumn months on both the Thames
and Loddon certainly tested my patience. I would find myself trotting a
float for bits, or spinning for perch for an hour before the light was lost and
traps were set.
In fact it’s fair to say I enjoyed this
aspect of my fishing more, which is at the end of the day what matters most.
Don't get me wrong the challenge of chasing big fish still fills me with
excitement, but over the last couple of seasons I've realised it's less
important. I have no pressure on me in terms of angling sponsorship, or
articles to write for the press, so why go out and put in the hours catching a
barbel, I have and most probably caught before? Time is precious and often
most species are off limits due to my nocturnal habits, but not through choice
you see. Home life and a demanding job means balancing the three and means fishing
comes third in the pecking order and so it should. Short evening sessions
were and still are in the most my only escape, so naturally my and the barbels
nocturnal habits were and still are to some degree a good match.
However I mostly get stood up.
Errrr nice flask!!!
Something had to change as winter
approached, as the thought of just fishing in darkness continually didn't
appeal. I had a cunning plan! My family like to sleep in on a
Sunday morning, so naturally I wouldn't be missed until at least 11am.
Little resistance was met when the subject was broached, which I'd like to
say was down to my powers of persuasion. I'm sure Hayley was thinking
less snoring and farting to tolerate if I wasn't there to disturb her sleep.
With my new found freedom, albeit short, my
very local club venues were to be blessed with my presence. Predators were the
order of the day and the frosty mornings are usually conducive to active pike.
The pit in question is a good size, uniformed in depth with a couple of
shallow bays. Having fished it for bream, tench and pike for a number of
seasons on and off you start to get a feel for the place and where the pike
might frequent. Anglers very often create their own hotspot, if fishing regularly
enough and this was the case here. So naturally like a sheep I followed, as this
was a good starting point with my limited time.
Late October my mini campaign, if you could
call it that started surprisingly well. Armed with a pair of rods setup
with the ever versatile Drennan zeppler floats and one rod fished with a
running ledger, to allow me to fish at distance. Bait wise my number one
choice has always been smelt, with sardines and mackerel as backup baits.
It wasn't long before my baits were in the water all fished hard on the
bottom.
I never tire of watching the float dip as
the pike hits the bait, and after a bite less first hour it did just that, and
soon after the first pike of the season was safely resting in the net. During
the next 90 minutes I didn't have time to drink my coffee, as I had run after
run on the same rod, whilst the other two remained untouched. None of the
fish were big and all were in the 8 to 9lb bracket but fighting fit and made
for an entertaining morning.
Strangely the following four or five
Sunday mornings produced little excitement in terms of catches, with the odd
jack taking a liking to my bait and a few blanks thrown in. The water
temperature was dropping after colder weather dominated. I'm convinced it
takes some time for the pike to become acclimatised and so probably chose to
feed later in the day, or moved to deeper water. However, just being by
the water watching and photographing the sunrise and the amazing wildlife more than
made up for the lack of bites. I can see why the twitchers like coming
here.
Sport suddenly switched on again
mid-December, but I’m not sure why, as we experienced our first proper frosts
and high pressure. One observation I made, was that as the warmth of the
sun hit the water after sunrise the pike became very active for a short period.
This usually resulted in up to half a dozen runs during this short
feeding frenzy. Also my super bait the smelt was starting to lose its
effectiveness with oily sardines dominating, which meant for a few pennies
saved.
Although milder wet weather featured most
of the winter this feeding trend lasted well into February, with most morning
sessions producing on average three to four fish and occasionally more. A
good few were a nice mid teen size, but no monsters.
I'm convinced this pit will produce a
better fish soon. It won’t be this season though, as signs are the pike
are getting frisky. Upon reflection I enjoyed those mornings, the long
chats with fellow anglers and alike; sharing experiences, educating, being
educated and catching over a couple dozen pike was a bonus.
