Two Big Girls, A New Lake Record and a Nearly Burnt Bivvy!
With cold easterly winds and a welcome break in the
persistent snow flurries that had embraced the country for the last couple of
weeks, there was still a window of opportunity for another pike session before
they start to move to areas of the lake to spawn.
I was lucky enough again to be asked to guest on the
private water by good friend and fellow angler Richard. We arrived at the same
swim as previously fished in February where I landed a new personal best at
26.01.
Before I had chance to wet a line Richard had had his
first run landing a small pristine fish of around 7lb. This felt very positive
as it showed the pike had not yet moved to the spawning areas which are presumably
around the large reed beds at one end of the lake.
Fishing the left hand side of the swim I cast a leger rod
into a deeper channel to the far left and fished a float leger rod in front of
me. Before I had both rods in the water Richard had another
run resulting in a slightly bigger fish than the first. I sat back under the
bivvy out of the wind.
The leger rod was the first to roar off and after a short
fight a lovely fish at 14.08 was soon slipped under the net. Once returned I brought the the float rod in and injected the herring dead baits with salmon oil
to increase scent attraction, I also sprayed red dye on the head to improve
visible attraction as the water was gin clear for the time of year. On the
leger rod I swapped the sardine for a large mackerel head and again injected
and sprayed the dead bait. The next run came off the float rod and a
energetic fish of 13.06 was soon on the matt and safely returned.
The next run again came off the float rods at around
12:20pm and setting the hooks I knew I had latched onto a heavy fish. After a
powerful fight she soon broke the surface and was slipped into the net, on the matt
she was a long fish and tipped the scales to 26.06 and another new personal
best and my 3rd fish this year over 25lb.
Sitting under the bivvy we decided to turn the stove on to make a brew, though as Richard turned the dial on the stove a small ring of blue flames on top of the stove turned into copious amounts of flames lapping up from underneath the stove, seeing this mass of flames I was out of there quicker than you could say FIRE! Luckily Richard had the brains to flick the gas off at the bottle and the crisis was averted! Lesson learnt...don’t be lazy and get out of the bivvy (even if the front is open) to make a brew!
Reflecting on landing a personal best already I had said
to Richard to take my next run as he had only had the 2 smallest fish. Not long
had passed before my far left hand rod screamed off and the monkey climber flicked
off the pole with a typical ‘jack’ take, I followed Rich to the rod but he
refused to take the rod so I struck into what felt a decent fish. It made
several lunges stripping line from the drag, though it also made several runs
towards me meaning a few quick turns of the reel to keep contact. She soon
showed herself on the surface and was soon lying in the net. Getting her on the
matt I recognised the fish as the one I had landed a month ago to break my personal
best, the question was had she put any more weight on to increase my PB. The girth
of the fish was ridiculous, 23inches at her widest, she then tipped the scales
to 27.15 increasing my PB by 1.14, setting a new lake record and my 4th fish over 25lb in 2013. From what we
know about this fish and in comparison with other fish from the same water she
looks young, healthy and clean, hopefully she makes an appearance next year at possibly
30lb+.
We both received no more indications of activity and
called it a day late afternoon.
Thanks Adam! Tight lines to you to!
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