Pike fishing lesson with Peter

How much rain have we had recently? Sunday 20th January 2008 was when Peter and I ventured out to a large cumbrian lake hoping to catch a pike or two. With there being so much rain over the previous few days (weeks, months it seems like) I knew there would be quite a bit of extra water in the lake - but I didn't reckon on there being a good 18 inches of extra water. This had quite serious implications on where we would fish because the swim I normally like to drop in at first was now underwater! 'Not a problem, just sit further back' you might say - well if we did that we'd be sat in the road and that would be quite dangerous fishing there to say the least. Anyway, I was intent on fishing the swim no matter the height of the water or the difficulty we would have casting due to the overhanging branches that hinder fishing there. I felt a bit sorry for Peter as he'd brought his new chair only to have to stand next to his rods waiting for a run.
We arrived at the parking area early in the morning when it was still dark and as I was parking up 2 deer were caught in the headlights of the car, a nice start to the day. We got our waterproof clothes on and quickly set up our rods in the lights of the car - much easier than struggling in the dark at the side of the lake (even then it was pretty difficult). We both set up identintical rigs which were running ledger rigs with a length of weak line for the weight, just in case it got snagged on the rocky bottom. A simple snap tackle type wire trace was attached to the line and away we went. I make all my traces myself and have started trying single hooks on one of the traces and trebles on the other, just to see how they perform.
We started fishing just as it was starting to get light and because Peter was wearing boots and I was wearing waders, I cast the baits into postion. We clipped up our drop off indicators, opened the bale arm on our reels and waited. An hour passed and nothing happened. Usually after an hour I get itchy feet and want to move and try somewhere else, but the weather wasn't too great (even though it wasn't raining) and I still felt pretty confident there. I could see Peter was getting a bit bored (he's more used to watching a float i think), but he soon jumped into action when his bite alarm started beeping. He almost barged me out of the way to get to his rod and strike, but I told him to halt and see what was happening. As his line started to pull from the reel again it was evident the fish was moving off with the bait. Under instruction Peter wound down to the fish and leant into it with a sweeping strike, very professionally done I have to say. A short struggle followed and Peters first pike was nestling in the landing net. A quick photograph but no need to weigh it (I'm sure he'll be catching bigger ones soon) and 5lb-ish pike was released back into the lake. All over too quickly but worth it



Peter poses with his chair




Peter with his pike





Peter returns his first ever pike



We later moved to a different area of the lake for a final hour but failed to catch.

Weather:- a short dry spell after a week of heavy rain, light wind changing direction frequently.

Temperature:- 7 degrees rising to 9 degrees

Wow, excellent report Ste, thanks for that. And great photos too!

Nice pike pete i hope if i get to go i catch at least 1