Big Girls Come To Those Who Wait..

13:17 Lewis Gaukrodger 2 Comments

Arriving at the estate lake on a glorious March morning, mist was rising off the water as the sun broke through the tree cover at the far end of the lake. The preparation for the session had started the night before, calling into the supermarket to collect my order of sardines. Disappointingly at the time my order had not been processed and I was left with no option but to take all 24 herring which they had left. Injecting the baits with salmon oil before placing in the freezer I specifically kept 7 baits aside, 4 of which would be placed in the fridge over night and the remainder mushed up for chum along with other bits of pre-bait which I collect weekly off a local fish market and freeze.


With the rods already set up sat poised in the holdall I sprayed 2 kg of chum just off the shelf in a round 12ft of water. I then proceeded to clip a 2oz lead on to the free running rig hook up a fresh and heavily injected herring on each set of Drennan size 4 trebles which were mounted onto 34lb Drennan nylon coated Super Trace wire. Dropping the baits in to the chosen zones the oil disturbance as the bait settled allowed me to further accurately feed a few more chunks of chum over the baits.

Richard received the first run of the day which resulted in a lovely marked female fish which weighed in at 15-08 and this was soon followed by a dropped run on my left hand rod which was clearly a jack, fishing such large baits generally allows me to distinguish when a jack has picked the bait up as i will usually receive a series of small runs as they struggle to turn the bait in their mouths whilst a bigger fish will generally give a continuous indication. Saying this I am never one to leave a run and wait for it to develop as this increases the risk of deep hooking a fish. In my books if there is indication strike! 



Adjacent to the estate lake is an area of land that has been flooded for a number of years and we have seen signs of fish in the water previously, peering into the shallow shelf which drops off into a deep channel with over hanging trees lining the boggy marsh banks, I noticed the distinctive dark silhouette of a pike sat on the edge of the reed line. Chumming a few bits of herring into the swim these were soon devoured, hooking up a small sardine myself and rich watched in awe as the pike flared its gills and turned the bait instantly, striking into the fish, a bigger pike (which had been sat under the trees) projected its self from the cover and for a second I though was going to nail the pike that I had set the hooks into. Landing the fish it was distinctively a different colour to those in the main lake as the flooded land is shallower and much more silty  compared to the gravel bottom of the main lake. She was a long lean fish and tipped the scales to 11-13, noticeably she was missing her anal fin which had clearly been attacked by a pike much bigger than herself. Any information like this I note and for future reference and if another fish of that size or smaller is caught with similar injuries or old scaring then there are signs that a big girl or two could be lurking the depths.

With the sun glaring down on an unusually warm day, I had received no more indications of the morning feeding spell continuing, constantly thinking about why this could be i decided to move my baits to an ever so slightly deeper part of the lake at distance. Once again a fresh herring was mounted on the rig and I followed my usual routine of puncturing and injecting the fish to release more scent into the surrounding water. Using a stringer I attached two lumps of chum to the lead an cast out to the area I believed the fish would be in the warm weather. 

It was my right had swinger that lifted and then dropped, slapping the bank stick it was attached to, as the line trickled off the spool sounding the receiver, I lifted the rod off the back rod rest, flicked the bait runner off closed the bail arm, tightened down and struck into a heavy weight. An initial run stripped line off the tight spool and I was confident the hooks had been set firm. After several lunges and powerful head shakes I began to gain control the fish though she still hugged the lake bed staying deep and only rising to the surface as Richard held the net through the reeds and I slipped her over the lip of the net. Looking into the net I knew I had landed one of the special fish in this untouched, immaculate water and the girth was evident to see, her white belly was enormous for the length of her. Lifting the net from the water and laying her down on a wet unhooking matt her enormous razor sharp cavity of a mouth flared and her gills flashed red and she lashed out whilst I straddled her, catching the unhooking matt with her teeth in the process; erupted polystyrene ball everywhere! After safely removing the hooks, the nylon coated trace had done its job as there wasn't a mark on the exterior of her jaw line. Breaking the net down I rolled up my salopettes and waded into the freezing water to rest her again before returning her to the matt (which had been turned over to reduce the explosion of polystyrene balls!) This is a fish that I had previously caught a year ago but this time her body shape, markings and condition were immaculate and what i would describe as near pike perfection. Slipping her into the weigh sling she went 28-13 a new pb for my self and an increase on the lake record. Wading back into the lake to support her whilst she full recovered her mosaic markings running down her back were equally as impressive as her olive green and yellow markings on her flanks. A truly stunning fish.





As the afternoon progressed and the weather became overcast another feeding spell began around 4pm. Richard landed numerous jack whilst both my rods went off at the same time resulting in two 13's gracing the matt, both young females, demonstrating the balance is in place for the future of the pike in the lake.