It only takes 1 run.....
Some times in angling you can get wrapped up with a specific water, chasing a species over a certain weight or a certain individual fish. Over the last 5 years I have had the privilege of crossing paths with a specific fish on an untouched water where this stunning specimen is thriving on pure neglect and a natural food chain. This isn't a water stuffed with trout or stocked in any manner, she is simply a natural predator of the highest level. Meals will not show themselves on a plate unlike some prolific predator waters across the country. She will earn her rewards with flared gills, stealthily stalking the roach and rudd shoals.
Our latest encounter comes 22 months after she graced my net previously, 669 days where she hasn't seen a sea dead bait or had the opportunity to gorge on pre-bait. In terms of proportions she is near perfect specimen in my eyes....one of them fish that you dream of catching or read about as a child in Mr Crabtree goes fishing. Irrelevant of her size she was no doubt a stunning fish at 10-00 let alone now nearing that magic figure.
Currently I am cramming sessions in during any free time I get as myself and my partner have a little girl due towards the end of February. With time running out as such in terms of my predator season to have this fish grace my net once again completes my season's targets with 1 run.
A single bleep from the alarm as the monkey climber indicator rose and dropped off the pole on the 'sleeper rod'. Leapfrogging my other 2 rods around this static dead bait it hadn't been moved for 3 hours before the big girl took a fancy to 3/4 of a mackerel, coated in salmon oil.
A heavy short fight pursued though she was soon on the matt, unhooked and resting in the sling .
I thought as the tension of the sling was taken by the scales that she may just do that magic number that so many pike anglers across the breadth of the country are chasing but she was short; not that I was solely focused on what she weighed. To know she is in such good conditions is enough of a reward from the capture.
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