Pre-bait for Pike!

With just a week of the river season to go, we returned to the Avon in the hope of a points scoring bonanza. Having had a near 2 week lay off I was itching to give it a real good effort - so much so that I indulged in a little pre-baiting the afternoon before. It was a nice idea, but we failed to reap any obvious rewards from it.

I wasn't overly chuffed with the 0C temperature reading when I got in the car. I've come to learn that whatever it's reading when I leave home, it always seems to be 2C colder on the stretch I was heading for.

I winkled out a couple of small Roach early doors on maggot, while the other rig (on which I alternated bread and worm) remained pretty motionless. With bites drying up, I started to set up a float rod when I saw the maggot rod arch right over and then spring violently back. I grabbed it and it felt like a small fish was on initially, but it then seemed to wake up.

I confidently expected to be attached to a points boosting Chub, but after a brief battle on lightish tackle the fish surfaced and into the net popped a small Pike of 3lb or so. Not what I wanted, but it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day.

Brian wasn't fairing any better, although he amassed a mammoth 5pts for a 1oz Dace! He'd been after Pike already and I now decided to join him. It wasn't too long before his Lamprey section was on the march and although Brian allowed the take to develop, the single hook rig he's been trying out didn't connect. A few minutes later and exactly the same thing happened again. We got a good glimpse of this fish though before it made off and it looked a definite double.

I was next into the action when my line started to tighten up and the rod tip began to arch over. I connected with this one and thankfully the hooks (I was on trebles) held firm. Although only a small Pike, it stuck a few extra points on my tally at 6lb 8oz.

Brian's turn next and this time the single hook connected and held firm - and it needed to! The fish led him a merry dance and went under a landing stage and did a 360 around the support. I think we both figured this was going to end with the fish winning again, but I managed to net the Pike and Brian was able to slacken off the line so we could get it banked. As always, Brian seems to go a bit better than me on the Pike scores and this one went 8lb 5oz.

Not the day we'd hoped for, but pleasant enough nonetheless - it certainly beats watching Coventry City trying to play football by a long way!