Pre-Bait Expectations...
For our first real session on the estate this season we decided to pre-bait using the sardines i had left over from last season and some fresh off cuts that i get free off a local fish market. This therefore covers a wide range of sizes from whole fish to half's, to heads, to guts, to chunks, to the tiny bits and then the juice. Hence this should draw fish of all sizes into the chosen swim and if the smaller fish latch onto the scent we were hoping the big girls would not be far behind.
Arriving at a swim i had a PB fish (at the time) last February, there was clearly little weed affecting the bay. Rich straight away had tempted a small jack and he was off his blank which he had been delicately nursing for the last 6 sessions! Yes 6 sessions! Unbelievable!!! Anyway he was like a pig in sh*t having landed this fish which gracefully manged to death roll around 20 times in the net, leaving me with no option but to cut the net to return the fish quickly.
Casting the rods out with an array of dead baits including sardines, herring and trout, the interest was immediate with Rich landing two more fish in quick succession, all taken on sardines. The bigger of the two (14-04) had a distinctive mark around its gill which could have been caused by a cormorant or a sore, positively it was well on its way to healing and otherwise the fish was healthy.
The feeding spell had clearly finished after and hour or two of no action and i was left wondering what i had done wrong. I am not one for sitting back and leaving baits to soak, i want pike to have an instant attraction and appeal to my bait so the lethal injection of salmon oil was administrated on a willing sardine and re cast. The bait settled and time passed, what caught my eyes was the large displacement around my float (middle float) which suggested the bait had been disturbed and the oil had risen to the surface. Watercraft is something that i am constantly learning and noting these subtle changes had improved my fishing across numerous disciplines.
Shortly after the float bobbed away and i lifted into a welcome fish, she was soon in the net and on the mat and weighed in at 12-03. Its nice to see such a healthy female fish, showing they are healthy at all levels of their life cycle and are clearly in a balanced environment.
There was no further interest as the sun dropped around revealing all the brown, gold and bronze autumn colours in the trees on the opposite bank. The pre bait clearly had not pulled in the bigger fish and they must be holding in other areas of the estate, hence we will be moving to a different area on our next session in the hope the bigger fish are in slightly deeper water. The chase is still on for that magic 30 that will hopefully make an appearance this year!
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