SUNDAY 21st OCTOBER 2012

Here We Go Again.....

The leaves are starting to fall off and another Pike season has crept up on us this year. Been busy doing, Nothing ! but managed to sort out the gear for our first trip of the season.
 The weather although has been quite wet lately is still very mild and the temp is showing +8c at 6am  as we load our gear on board. Most of my pike fishing tackle is all stored together but you always get the feeling you've forgotten something as it keeps piling on the boat. We are not really sure what to expect today as the early season trips have tended to be a little slow. We normally catch a few smaller Pike on these first few sessions, sometimes not a bad thing as its better to get used to everything before the better fish turn up.
We head of towards the City center in Norwich, our usual spots will be tried today. As we motor down the river it really only seems like a couple of weeks ago we packed up in bright sunshine in the middle of March.
A few landmarks on our run in have changed this season. Several old sunken wrecks have been removed and just holes in the bank side vegetation show where they once were. Plenty more cormorants about still. More than the last time we passed their roosting spot near the Norwich city football ground.
I had tried to catch a few live baits in the boat yard but never had a bite in 25 minutes. Think the Cormorants might have found our bait supply and helped themselves to them as well !
We eventually reach the first swim not far from the Playhouse theater and set up our normal Two rods each.
We both put a float ledgered dead bait out, Neil chooses a Smelt while i go for half a Herring. Neil also rigs up his live bait rod with a small Perch which ive just caught while i carry on trying to get a few more lives.
Its just after 7:30am  and we are fishing. I easily catch Four or Five small roach and then put the bait rod away. We are still getting stuff out and in the right place when i notice a dip on my float. its just after 8am and my float is off already. A steady lift into the fish and its on and streaking off on a run. Feels a decent fish and it keeps deep initially. I start to ease back some line and its OFF ! Bo***cks.
I retrieve the bait and its barely marked so maybe i struck too early. Better too early than too late i say and back out it goes to roughly the same spot. Its only in for Five minutes and the float is dancing about again. I wait a few seconds more this time and im in again. This time it sticks and i boat a nice 8lb fish. I re bait and cast out again, ten minutes later, another run. This one comes off straight away. All this has happened in Twenty minutes. Neils baits have remained untouched. We fish on here for another 90 mins but no further action. We decide to move down half a mile to Quayside where Neil is into a fish straight away (Half a Herring ;-) )
As with my first fish, it keeps deep at first before realizing there was a nice outboard it could go round and snag him. Neil has to apply some pressure and this results in the fish coming up out of the water at the back of the boat. We are both looking at the mouth of a very decent fish 16 - 18lbs at least thrashing about on the top. The bait flag is clearly visible and just as i tell Neil to ease off a bit, it throws the hooks and melts off.  Insert swear words here (*******)
We re bait and move the baits about. Neil manages to hook and land another lively fish of around 7lbs.
With no further takes in the next hour, we decide to move right into the city center for the rest of the session.
As we approach the area we wanted to fish, there is already Two boats there and about Six floats have the whole area covered ! We give them a wide berth and head further downstream to a swim near the football ground. This turns out to be a waste of time as the amount of leaves and weed floating down makes fishing impossible. A final move to the Postwick outfall for the last hour is where we head next.
We soon have Two dead and one live bait out in the edge of the flow. The hour soon passes and we think about packing up around 3pm. As we are taking down some gear, my Herring rod suddenly bends over and the reel starts "Hissing" line off. I pick up, engage the reel and wait for the line to tighten up, then lift into...
NOTHING !  comes back completely clean, no bait, no fish. Not really sure what has just happened but with the reel screaming like it was i expected to feel something on the end. From nothing at all to float shooting under and screaming off was about Five seconds in total....
Talking to a friend that night, he seamed to think either an Otter or maybe a Cormorant could have been responsible. There were no signs of anything surfacing after but who knows...... watch this space.
All in all, a nice start to this seasons Piking with Neil already threatening his PB of 15lb 8oz.
Roll on next Sunday.
PS. We did forget one thing, The Camera. We were both to scared to use our phones near water as the inevitable would probably happen.

Tuesday 13th March 2012

I finally find time to finish the seasons blog over a month after the season has ended.


Weather  +7c to 13c later. Sunny Spells with the chance of a shower


Its myself and son Dean today on the last trip of the current season. As the river had not improved much from the weekend we decided to have a full English breakfast to kick start the day. We arrived at the boat and are soon loaded and on our way into the city. We had briefly tried for some live baits in the boat yard but never had a bite. We had plenty of dead's so that was not a problem.
We decided to fish just the one area today and concentrate all our efforts there. The ferry boat swim was our choice and we was soon in position with Two rods each covering the normal areas of the swim. 
Despite the river looking much better than of late, we could not tempt a run between us. Three hours soon passed and the writing was on the wall. The tide had been fairly low when we started this morning and it was still dropping off fairly quickly. With prospects getting harder by the minute we eventually decided to head back towards the outfall swim near the boat yard but as we approached the mooring spot, i notice the river level is so low we would struggle for clearance on the engine. 
A last hour in the boat yard was our only option now and we soon had one rod each, Dean fishing a dead Smelt while i opted for a live Perch. 
Within 2 minutes my Perch was taken and a 5lb jack saved a blank.
We struggled on and while i started off loading some of the gear Dean fished on. Just as i was about to call it a day, Deans smelt was picked up. As the line tightened up, he pulled out on the strike. He re cast the bait straight back into the same spot and it was only a couple of minutes before it was off again. This time the strike was met with nothing ! Again he tidied up the bait, re cast so i gave him another Ten minutes fishing time. At 1:45pm away it went again and this time he was connected. After a very careful fight we slipped the net under a lovely 7lb 11oz and Dean had saved his blank too.




Not a brilliant end to the season with the last Two outings being very hard indeed. Overall though the season has been a good one for us Three.
We have had Sixty Pike between us, almost 20 each too. I have increased my PB with my first "20". Dean in his first season had moved up to a PB of 17lb 4oz and Neil a PB of 15lb 8oz. At one point Dean had caught 16 Pike with 8 being doubles, not a bad strike rate.


David  20 fish  Best 20-4  5 Doubles


Dean  18 fish   Best 17-8  8 Doubles


Neil    22 fish  Best  15-8  6 Doubles


Total weight  488lbs 3oz


With all the Pike tackle put away until October, I'm now starting to fish a few matches with my club Sextons AC. Most of them are on commercial fisheries until the season re starts in June. Once the new season starts we start on the rivers until October when we start all over again...
Roll on October !!!!