Summer Pike

Hello Again,

I am still trying to catch up with the fishing from over the summer on the blog, so here comes another update from August.

 With trying to get to grips with the fly fishing, the pike have been playing second fiddle of late. I have been spending a fair bit of time fly fishing on the streams and rivers of Wales, but decided that a nice day on the boat was in order.

A late start saw me launch around lunchtime, the weather had been very hot for the last few days so I had an idea that the fishing may not be quite so hot.....but when I get the feeling to fish a certain way that's what I do. Lures were to be the method of choice....again.

To be honest the fishing was very slow, I had a couple of half hearted follows but no proper takes. Even these follows started to fade away to almost non existent action. I usually watch just behind the lure when fishing like this, keeping an eye out for any signs of pike, follows, swirls or flashes sometimes give them away if you look just beyond the lure.

After a few fruitless hours my concentration had started to drift a little, instead of being "on guard" for a hit or even any signs of pike I found myself instead watching the buzzards circle in the distance, paying more attention than usual to the jets flying overhead, basically just going through the motions with the lure.....not that it really mattered. it was a beautiful day in a equally beautiful place. Sometimes when the action is slow I can get a tad frustrated but today it didnt seem to matter.

In one of the moments of just enjoying being there, I was bringing the lure out from the margins over the shelf and back towards the boat. I was using a home made lure that only fishes about 1ft deep, and not really paying that much attention to the fishing. As the lure neared the boat (situated in about 25ft) it  got absolutely WALLOPED just when I was at my most relaxed, this sent an electric shock through my body that gave me a right wake up. There was a big swirl on the surface and before I even had chance to strike the tip of the rod was dragged savagely towards the surface of the lake with what felt like a decent pike.
A short fight followed before I netted the pike. It was a cracking fish, really healthy looking and in pristine condition..I didnt weight the pike as it wasnt quite as big as I first thought when it woke me from my semi conscious state, but it would have made mid double figures I guess.

A quick self take or two followed, then the pike was gently lowered into the water before she made an instant recovery and sped off back to the depths, giving me a good soaking on her way.

I know that I should have a life jacket on and normally do so, but it was a baking hot day, the lake was flat calm and I was only a matter of yards away from shallow water and the bank side.

The fishing continued to be hard work after that. I manged one more Pike that may have made about 6 or 7 pounds on the same lure but I just unhooked the fish over the side of the boat, and didn't get a picture.
So a total of two fish for quite a few hours fishing was not the best of results, but it was nice to get another good double on the home made lure. Despite the lack of numbers of pike, it really was a lovely day just to be out alone drifting around in the boat....the fish were just a bonus.