A bad days fishing, beats a good days work!

A cold day had decended upon us and setting out early morning armed with a freezer bag of dead baits and my fishing rod, I headed down to my beautiful river for some fishing.

The target species was an old advesary of mine proving to be a shy and nomadic creature that demanded respect and admiration as one of the most ferocious inhabitants of the deep the Queen of the river the Pike.
Knowing that the tempreture was slowly falling with a low band of pressure, I decided today was a better chance of catching a pike than any we had seen of late!
With high hopes of snagging at least one toothy critter I set myself up for a good few bites with a bag full of bait and a flask of coffee.

I finally found a likely looking slack water that had some roach and dace escaping the waters surface. A good sign of predatory feeding as they attack from beneigh.

Starting with a roach for bait I clipped it to the hooks and cast the rod tight to a small opening between some overhanging grass.

An hour had passed and it was time to move afyer no bites had emerged yet. The river had started to pick up pace with the last draw of the previous days flood water passing and bait presentation in the fast water was difficult making a move upstream seem inevitable.
Swiftly making my way to another pike looking area, I began fishing again.

Peg number 2 didnt have much happening either, everything seemed to be going slow and a change of location looked like it was on the cards again untill the rod started to get some enquiries on the bait. A small amouny of tension pulled the tine tight and then slacked off to nothing.
I now knew that Peter the Pike had made an apprearance. Nothing else in our river would have picked the bait up that slow and precise as that, other than a pike.
The line slowley tightened as I could see the bait had been picked up. I just needed it to turn it in its mouth and and I would strike, strike too soon I would risk not ensuring a solid hook-up so I waited for that second pull... and waited......
And waited some more.
I started to realise today was going to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. The weather conditions seemed perfect however the river still had some pace and the colour was still that dirty greenish, brown shade.

Foam was starting to build up from the storm drain outlet upsream showing signs that the river may be on its way up again with the last of the upstream floodwater.

Deciding to call it a day did not sit well with my lust for a toothy critter to grace the net so making sure I had not packed everything down completely and leaving this section of the river early enough to move upstream seemed like my only option left.

I knew above the weir we have a lot more water to choose from that would be slower and deeper.
Perhaps I could find some clearer water to explore in my bid to find that bend in the rod I had searched for.

I had brought one Sardine bait with me and it was a lot bigger than the roach bait giving it more visual apprearance and a salty oily fishy smell that works well in cold waters.
This was my secret weapon against a blank producing many good pike over the years on a sardine I knew it was time to "go big, or go home" as they say!

Half an hour had passed with no bite detection making me more anxious that I may be blanking today. I sat tying more rigs trying to occupie myself, hoping soon the bobbing would swing up and unclip the freespool of line. It just didnt seem to happen at all. Trying various rigs and bait sizes all day made me think that perhaps I didnt get the conditions just right.

With what was now a negative feel towards my laxk of success I decided to pack up the rods away and make my move home where tea was on the stove and the family would be waiting.

Typically when ever you try to do anything it never goes to plan and trying all the tricks I had available to me didn't seem to work.
The one thing I didn't expect to happen while packing up was have the bait taken midwater while reeling in!!

I have had it happen before but after such a long day trying to generate bites I thought none of the pike were actively feeding but here I was playing the first fish of the day!
It didnt feel big by specimen standards but none the less I was not going to turn my nose up at at any fish!

I wish I had have fillmed the fight as the Pike was dancing across the surface of the water in true beauty before giving inti the net awaiting her capture.

A strange way to end the days fishing but a result all the same.

Here she is weighing in at 9.12lb and after a good rest she was released back into the river to fight again another day. Or simply to fulfil her life and repopulate the future generations of our beautiful river. Pike and predators that are living naturally in their indiginous regions play an important role in the echosystem. They take the weak fish and only the strong survive and any that are dead will be eaten reducing diseases spreading.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this story of my fishing adventure, remember to UPVOTE, RESTEEM& most importantlyFOLLOW me for more fishing adventures from myself and friends.

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Thanks again guys & "cast" you all another day!