I am still what I would class as a novice angler and have yet to catch many types of fish. I would love to go for an early morning session for Chub or Tench and I have really enjoyed trotting a float down a river. But the type of angling that has really got me hooked? Pike fishing. I'm not going to try and analyse why Pike fishing over any other type has got my interest, all I know is that it is a great experience and I am eager to get out and wet a line at any opportunity. Being a novice however I don't have the confidence of handling Pike, so the recent trip to the Soar when we landed a deep hooked fish was good experience to be able to deal with that situation and return the fish unscathed. I do rely on my fishing guru for his skill, knowledge and Pike fishing equipment (e.g. Fox long nose pliers, large landing net etc.).
I have been doing a lot of reading on the internet and have come across some good sites. Pike Angler is a great start, it has links to many different blogs of like minded pikers and offers tips for the novice and experienced angler alike.
So the next trip out for Pike is planned for later on this month at Thurlby Gravel Pits near Newark. It's a Notts AA water and their website specifically mentions Pike to 20lbs. Tactics have already been discussed and we will be fishing various different methods, dead-bait, spinning and my angling companion/guru will be trying out drift float fishing. It looks like an excellent method to get your bait to different spots of the gravel pit, a field report will follow
So again it's been a while since my last post, and this one brings news of a trip to the River Soar in Leicestershire. A windswept Saturday morning found me and my angling guru trudging along a beautiful stretch of riverbank not far from Kegworth. The Soar is a relatively small river that is deceptively deep, particularly on the section we decided to pick on a bend in the water. The approach was to trot a float down in what was a relatively fast flow following some recent rain. Red maggot on waggler was the order of the day and in total I got 21 small fish, mostly Bleak, skimmers and Perch. The only other notable fish was a 6.5lb Pike that we landed after a damn good fight. Unfortunately it was deep hooked but thanks to the skill and experience of my fishing guru (with a little assistance by myself) the fish returned to the water unharmed.
