Macc Canal 21/04/2012
It was about time I had a trip home to visit the mum and obviously this was not just a run home for some lovely home-cooked food and some money to replace my car tyres :p When I'm home though I just can't resist targeting one of my favourite fish, the Pike. Theres just something about Pike fishing that I crave and although there are some cracking Pike venues in my resident North Wales, the sea fishing takes over somewhat. That said I had pike to 19.10 from a lake on Anglesey last year, so I have no excuse not to target them more often locally. My decision to have a plugging session sparked from sighting some fish chasing fry in the shallows whilst walking Cassie, our family dog. I was literally in the door with Cass and ready to head back to the canal instantly, but unfortunately it started chucking it down so I had to temporarily delay my session. I used this time to watch Arsenal v Chelsea and then Soccer Saturday and thankfully come 5pm the rain had stopped, so off I went armed with just my lure outfit, a handful of lures, my camera and a set of pliers. Conditions were not to bad, overcast with a slight ripple but due to the rain the clarity was poor. With this in mind I started off using a fire-tiger coloured rapala J-11, one of my more productive pike lures, but after walking the whole length of the stretch with not a touch it was time for a lure change. Something bigger was needed so I opted for another favourite, the savage gear freestyler, but again after walking back along the stretch casting every few yards, no takers. It was at this time I made a rash decision, it was time for a lure that makes alot of disturbance, the depps buzzjet in black. I had not yet caught on it but had plenty of rises over winter with no hook-ups, Pike are useless at hitting these surface lures lol. I walked the stretch again but this time some hopeful signs, a few big surface swirls and a fish shooting from the margins as I lifted the lure from the water. On my final walk back another fish shot from the margins as I passed, so I stopped for a few chucks.
Casting no more than 8ft from the bank, I slowly retrieved the lure with no takers for the first 3 casts. I turned round, cast the opposite way and slowly retrieved the lure along the margin, adding in the odd pause. Just as it neared the edge of a bankside bush, I noticed a few twigs move and then a bow wave appear on the surface. I stopped the lure and with one further twitch the pike absolutely smashed me, ripping yards of braid from my spool. I knew straight away it was a decent fish and my thoughts were confirmed a few minutes later after one hell of a fight. It popped up in front of me and my face lit up. The adrenaline was pumping through me at this point but I had to compose myself, get in the water and chin the fish safely. After weighing the fish in at 18lb 2oz, a new surface lure PB, I wandered over to a bloke just down the canal from me. He kindly took a quick picture before I slipped her back into the murky water watching her power off to the middle of the canal in an instant, splashing me in the proccess. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show how thick the fish was across the back but I was just happy to have caught and released the fish quickly and without causing any damage. The pike fishing bug is definitely back in my system and I think I may be hitting the North Wales waters fairly regularly for the remainder of the year.
Hope you enjoyed the read,
Tight Lines all,
Ross
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