A lucky escape...

For this session on the Warwickshire Avon I wanted to try a certain swim that was a sheltered and slack area away from the main flow. I’d seen some topping Roach there a few weeks ago and with it being reasonably deep at 5ft there was a chance of a decent Roach. The issue I could see was the minnows might get to the bread disc first. It’s stupidly mild for this time of year, 18 degrees when I left at 11.30am and there were even jaspers flying about. To counteract if the little nibblers were an issue I has some lobworms as back-up.

I’ve never really been excited by Pike and I’ve only had a couple of sessions where I’ve targeted them specifically but for this session and as a sleeper rod I decided to use up some sprats I had in the freezer. I swopped the 50lb braided leader I use my Zander fishing for some trebles and a wire trace but essentially it was the same set-up. The biggest Pike I’d caught came to an inch of Lamprey that I’d intended for Chub.

The bread hadn’t settled in the swim for more than a couple of minutes when the quiver whacked round and I was in to a fish. It was trying to get in to the marginal undercut bank so I know it was a Chub. They are such dirty fighters and the reason why I love catching them. It was soon in the net and not the biggest at 3lb on the nose, but it made up for it with a powerful fight. There are some massive Chub in this stretch and come winter time I’m aiming to up my P.B.

The sprat had been in position for about ½ and hour when the Delkim beeped in to the life and rollover indicator was steadily rising I lifted the rod and struck in to what seemed like a half decent fish. The short rod was bent double and the Pike jumped out of the water and started to tail walk and make a right mess of the swim. It felt a bit of a lump when I lifted up the net. Not the biggest of Pike but at 9lb 1oz it beat my personal best. An easy Pike to identify again as it has a large open sore.

It was only a short session but no Roach were banked, I managed a Jack pike and a 1lb Perch took at liking to the lobworm but as I was playing the fish a large Pike took it broadside in his jaws. It let go when it saw me but then as I was netting the Perch, it grabbed it again. Eventually after what seemed like ages it released its prey and I managed to land it. It didn’t seem too badly injured considering its ordeal, just a few puncture wounds. I released it up stream so it could see another day, it had a lucky escape that's for sure.