I had a day on the syndicate lake this week. I only caught one pike, a fish of 9lb 14oz which I thought might be my first double from the water but it wasn't to be. I got it on the bank and then realised I'd made a stupid mistake in leaving my forceps at home. Fortunately the hooks were right on the edge of the mouth so I was able to unhook it with my fingers but that was the end of my day's fishing. You just can't fish for pike without adequate unhooking gear so i packed up early and went home.
It was particularly disappointing since I had just discovered where the pike were. They had herded thousands of roach into a large reedbed and were sitting at the edge of the reeds making occasional forays into the vegetation, ploughing into the bait fish and taking a mouthful. I was astonished at how many roach were there, packed like sardines in a can in just a few inches of water. They went berserk every time a predator attacked, making quite a noise, which is how I discovered where they were. Look at the short film and you'll know what I mean.
After that it was out with the boat for a couple of days. Denis joined me but we found it quite tough, as did all the others fishing the lake at the time. To cut a long story short we had just nine pike between us with the biggest one weighing 19lbs 1oz. I caught this on a legered sardine in quite deep water very late in the day. Indeed a pattern is forming with regard to times of captures. We're getting very few runs in the middle part of the day just now, almost everything is coming in the first and last hours of daylight. That's the behaviour I expect later in the year, after the start of March, the pike can usually be caught all day long in January but then, this is no ordinary winter.
I had three doubles in all and one of them, an eleven pounder, was quite spectacular in that it was almost pure white. It wasn't an albino, just very very pale. Fish sometimes turn pale like this if they're living in very coloured water but of course this one was in very clear water so there must be some other reason for this phenomenon. Perhaps the fish was blind, although it's eyes looked clear enough.
That's 31 doubles since the start of the pike season but another week without a twenty pounder. Just where are those big fish right now?