I like fishing locally for pike and nothing would give me greater satisfaction than to catch a 30 from within 10 miles of my house in Gainsborough. Unfortunately I’ve never managed it. A friend of mine has though, and 6 times! If he catches a 7th and I don’t, I think I’m going to have to have a serious word with him. Regardless of that, there are short cuts to catching big pike. The most obvious one is to go to Chew Valley a water so prolific for big pike that lots of people are getting them. So off I went.
Last February I caught a 22lbewr in very shallow water so I decided to fish shallow. The water temperature was 3.9C, but Chew isn’t like other waters. There are so many big pike that all sorts of areas are occupied by fish. I also hoped that the fishing pressure would have moved the pike away from the more popular spots. I decided to follow the one hour and move if no action plan.
The first two moves were uneventful in 6 feet of water. Then a boat moved into the area I was going to try next. Luckily after about 30 minutes they moved and I slid downwind to a spot which was probably a little bit past where they were fishing. The depth was only slightly deeper, 5.8 or 5.9 feet rather than five.
Out again went the float legered smelt and herring head. I like herring head's and I’ve had a surprising number of good pike on them considering how rarely I’ve used them. Twenty minutes in and the herring head's away, but it's only a little one.
Back in the same spot it’s away again within ten minutes. This time the pike is running fast upwind, usually a sure sign of a better fish. (Big pike generally run faster than little ones, unless they are being chased!) I wound down and it jut kept going, another good sign. When I eventually got it to the surface a big humped back broke the surface. “Oh no not another deformed pike”, remembering the very odd 27 I had from Blithfield years ago. I kept the rod as low as possible not wishing to attract unwanted attention and bundled it into the net. I looked into the net and was confused, it was big alright, but it was almost carp shaped.
I needed some time to compose myself so keeping hold of the net handle I rang Gary Banks who was about 600 yards downwind from me. I told him I wasn’t sure how big it was. He offered to come and take some photos but I suggested that if it was under 28 I’d take some pictures on the mat. I actually thought it was around 26lb so having removed the one treble in the side of the mouth I was flabbergasted when it took the scales to 30lb 8oz.
Putting her back in the net I called Gary over and Phil and he were good enough to interrupt their own fishing to help me out. Now these two had seen plenty of big fish, but Gary’s remark that it was a carp summed it all up. Five photos and one of it going back and she was gone. The feeling of elation is hard to describe, but I’ve always believed that if a fish like that does not cause a rush of emotions you are either dead or should take up something else.
However no time to sit and wonder, a whole herring was dropped back on the mark and wonder of wonder away it went again. This one went 23lb 12oz and was photographed on the mat and returned. After 15 minutes I decided to move about 50 yards to cover the same area from a different point and in doing so give me another piece of water to exploit. This didn’t work so I moved another 100 yards. Then another 100 yards always keeping in around 6 feet of water.
It was getting near the end of the day by now so I moved again. There was a bush on the bank I could remember so I opted to fish opposite that. A boat was about 80 yards away so I sneaked in quietly and dropped the anchor. While my boat was swinging around I had a cast with the 10 inch slow sink Castiac. Five turns and something hit it. It felt like a jack, but it was running towards me so when it eventually turned on the surface I got a face to face look at a big pike with my lure folded in half inside its mouth.
It looked 30lb and that did get my knees knocking. Sadly it wasn’t, but I’m not complaining at 27lb 12oz. Banksy and Phil took some pics again, (they were in the nearby boat!!) but this time things were done even quicker because this one was a bleeder. The single treble on the lure had caught a gill raker. I have had zander bleed like this and subsequently recaptured then, so it is not fatal, it just looks grim to the angler.
With that it was time to call it a day, with the trip across the country proving to be more than worthwhile!
