Halloween Treat

One of the things I love most about fishing is its ability to surprise you. I had such a day a few weeks ago.
It was the Sunday before Halloween and my children were up early, as usual, begging me to carve the pumpkin for the next day. By 11am all my chores were done and I was free to fish. I'd been to the tackle shop the day before to pick up some bait and had heard that the 'Figure of Eight '.was fishing well at the moment. I had spent a lot of time there during the summer months and I fancied giving it a go on a beautiful and extraordinarily mild Autumn day.
Scots Lane New Pond is known locally as the 'Figure of Eight' due to its shape. Essentially it is two ponds joined by a canal like channel. Throughout the summer I had tried the back pond and the channel and had settled on a favourite peg about half way along the channel  that had been productive on almost every occasion I'd fished.
There were a few other anglers around but luckily my spot was unoccupied. Setting up with my favourite fibreglass rod- a Bacchus and Rhone Matchman's Peg-  a vintage Mitchell 300A, 3lb reel line straight through to a size 20 hook under a handmade antenna float, I begin to fish a few yards out  in the margins to my right. The fish here can be very finicky so it always pays to keep changing the colour of the maggot until you find the one that works. In the summer it was red ones. Today it turned out to be whites.
I started to loose feed another spot about two rod lengths out in front of me where the water is fractionally deeper and tried a couple of casts. The first bite was very fast and predictablly I had a cup of tea in hand so missed it, At least the fish were interested..
Settling down with no distractions I hooked a small roach on the next cast. More loose feed another cast, another roach. By now I'm feeling very content and relaxed. It's a beautiful afternoon and I'm catching some lovely Autumnal roach
I hit the next bite and the fish takes off like a train. First to the right 10 yards or so then all the way back to the left before it begins to slow down and I gradually steer it to the net. I hadn't really expected to catch carp today but in the net is a lovely almost scale-less mirror that stretches the spring balance to three and a quarter pounds.
Even after the disturbance caused by the carp I'm still getting bites almost very cast and a few more roach are follwed by a tiny perch of abouth 3" in length. The next bite I hook an acrobatic bream that leaps out of the water almost immediately after I strike. It's the biggest bream I've ever caught at one and a half pounds. Not big by current standards but I've never really fished waters that held many so I'm chuffed to have added another personal best for the season.

An acrobatic bream.

    I finish the afternoon with a lovely common carp of two and a half pounds which puts up the most dogged fight of the day. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                         

Oh Mr Pike where are you?

A chilly morning on the canal with just a few hours to spare in pursuit of the elusive Mr Pike.Setting up with a sprat deadbait foatfished under the far bank in what looked like a very promising spot- a feeder stream, reeds, a bridge and overhanging trees  I am full of hope that this could be the day I get my first fish of the season. I can see that someone else thought this too as a pike bung hangs sadly from one the branches. It's barely light when I arrive with the Easterly wind begining to freshen and the sky slate grey almost keeping dawn at bay.

After an hour or more with no interest in the sprat I decide to set up a spinning outfit. It's getting cold just sitting and my optimism is beginning to fade. I've brought a selection of plugs and spoons with me so I try a a spoon as the water looks a bit coloured and the low light conditions seem to favour something that will flash. A couple of casts and the problem I've heard other anglers complain about rears its ugly head. Balck plastic bags! Yes the canal appears to be full of them. I try to keep the spoon as high up in the water as I can but every other cast I seem to snag another. As I'm winding in my latest piece of plastic I can see the spoon still flashing and there he is- Mr Pike following along in an almost playful, inquisitive fashion. He's a couple of feet long, maybe five or so pounds in weight. He doesn't attack the spoon - just looks and with a flick of his tail turns away at the last minute.
This is exciting and I instantly forget about the cold. I cast again and again, exploring every bit of the stretch that I can. Alas time begins to run out as it always does and Mr Pike is nowhere to be seen. With numb figures I pack up safe in the knowledge that I will return and maybe next time Mr Pike will be mine.

Update:
I returned for a short session a few days later. The weather was mild with the ocassional flash of sunshine peeping through the clouds. I set up near the marina at Crooke. Once again I tried the floatfished sprat and set up the spinning outfit in reserve. A couple of blank hours on the deadbait and I decided to try spinning a plug through the swim.
A friendly chap came along with tales of pike to 10lb having been caught from this spot last year which cheered me up no end as little interest was being shown in my plug.
Persistence is often the key to these things, that and the belief that you are in the right place using the right method. Finally I got a take seconds into the retrieve. Initially I thought it was another plastice bag until I realised it was moving to the right. Within a couple of minutes my first ever pike was safely in the net. Just a baby one of a little under 3lb but I was thrilled and a little scared if I'm honest. There is something very primeval about them in the flesh.
Good day to you Master Pike. I will be back to catch your big brother.

Autumn Canal Perch

After a fruitless three hours on the River Douglas at Gathurst a switch to the canal was exactly the right thing on a mild October afternoon. Fishing next to some over-hanging trees on the far bank it was a matter of minutes before I hooked a lovely roach of around four ounces. Not big but a very welcome catch on a day that looked increasingly like being blank.This was followed by another three roach - albeit much smaller ones. It's good to see that these still exist in the canal and surely we are the envy of many a water that has been decimated by cormorants.
As time began to run out and with dusk fast approaching the float dipped again and I could feel that familiar jagged fight of a perch. A spirited tussle finished with me sliding the net under a fine fish of around 12 ounces.
My first perch from the canal and what a beautifully coloured and marked fish it was too.