This feels right for pike

At last, in our little corner of the UK, we are experiencing some, more typical, seasonal temperatures. The forecast snow failed to materialise, but the thermometer has registered night-time figures around 0C. What with clear skies and a blasting wind; the wind-chill factor has it feeling like -7C; so proper pike fishing weather. I have an idea to fish a very intimate drain, out on The Ash Levels, where I have seen a couple of small pike whilst I've been eel chasing. There are a few isolated reed patches which grow in the margins and look, for all the world, to be classic holding features. The depths don't exceed four feet, the vast majority of the system being under three feet deep. In its' favour is the fact that it is neglected and overgrown - to quote Jim Gibbinson "Pike thrive on neglect!"
It will be proper Marco Polo stuff - but if you don't try you'll never learn, so that's my motivation. There's also a chance of a few new birds, for the 2016 year list, the adjacent farmland habitat being different from that where I've spent the majority of my time recently. My plan is to use the classic "leap frogging" approach which was so successful, when employed, up on the Cambridgeshire Fens during the 1980's. A bait in a swim for 45 mins before moving along the drain and dropping in on another spot. This has a two fold benefit. Firstly I am covering the maximum amount of water, in my given time slot, and secondly, I always have something to do, so should be actively combating the cold.

I'm not expecting to catch anything like this from the local drains.
Any old excuse to use an image from that box of delights!

I am not expecting to encounter any large pike, a double would be a right result. However, in these untapped venues, anything is possible. I should, perhaps, give the Mk IV an outing? Yet have got it in my head that I want to catch a carp first, because that is why Dick designed the rod, before I take that particular project forward.
A pike, tomorrow, will be a result. Whatever the outcome, you can bet you'll see it here first!