Sunday 3 March 2013

Leaving it Late

I was back on the Avon again this week for a last crack at the Pike. I needed to be back in Coventry by 12-30pm, so it was going to be a half day session. I was on the bank and ready for action by 7-30am and it was a thoroughly pleasant morning. Gone was the bitterly cold wind that plagued us last week and it was replaced by much more spring-like conditions.

The river is now quite low. I'm not moaning though because after all the high water we've suffered in the past few months, I'd much rather face what we have now. It has retained quite a healthy colour though and looked very appealing.

I wandered down to peg 9 and fished the bay area with two rods. To the right of the swim I put out a float fished deadbait, while I took a more active approach with the other rod by wobbling a Sprat.


Half a dozen runs through with the Sprat and I saw a flash in the water close in to the bank. It only looked like a small fish, but with blank avoidance being the first mission, I decided to pursue it. A few runs through close to the bank and the fish was hooked. It was only a small jack, but I was off the mark and the session had barely started.


Nothing else showed up from that peg and it was a bit of a pain to fish to be honest. I snagged up a few times and it's clear that the floods have deposited some substantial debris in the peg.

I moved on to peg 4 and I was intending to try a similar approach, but first of all I needed to make alterations to the float rig. The wobbling rig therefore became a leger rig with a Lamprey section for bait. I didn't even manage to complete the changes to the float rig by the time the Lamprey was snaffled. A slightly better fish this time, but still only 6lb 6oz.

 
I like to rest the swim and keep on the move when I've caught a fish, so I quickly moved down a peg. I decided on a static approach - one rod on the leger and the other on the float.  Again it didn't take long to get a bite from the leger rig. Another small jack though which also liked Lamprey.


 

Time for another move downstream, but peg 2 didn't deliver. I returned to peg 3 and suffered a couple of annoying misses. The first felt like a small fish that I pulled out of shortly after the strike. The second fish was a good deal bigger and was on for a few seconds before it dived into a snag and shed the hook, leaving me attached to some rubbish! I was a bit gutted and I thought I'd blown my chance on that peg, so I hopped pegs again, but with the intention of returning to peg 3 for the last 20 minutes of the session.

Peg 4 proved to be a blank, so I made the final move of the day. With time running short, the Roach deadbait on my left hand rod was taken and I was into a decent fish. It led me a merry dance, but it eventually popped up in front of me and I slipped the net under it. As I plopped it down on the unhooking mat I saw that it had coughed up a Sprat. Now I'd only used one Sprat on that peg earlier in the session and it was taken by the better stamp fish that left me in a snag. I think it's safe to say I might have got my revenge!

It weighed in at 12lb 8oz. I'd have liked something in the upper double range from the Avon this season, but I'm not going to complain. My winter fishing on the river has been so curtailed by the poor conditions, which meant the Pike target was always going to be a tricky one.


That's the Pike fishing done with for me until Autumn. Hopefully the weather will remain kind for one more week and we can enjoy a good final weekend of the season.

2 comments:

  1. Well done Sean - nice to end on a double (not to be confused with darts !), it's been a pretty difficult one on the rivers hasnt it. Hope next pike season is kinder to us both.

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