Having made a rough plan for the 2021/22 Pike campaign, however arbitrary it might be, I'd like to use the blog to provide a monthly summary of how my targets are progressing. I've managed twelve sessions this month, six of which were blanks! A familiar tale I fear? Looking back through my diaries, October has never been a particularly good month for Pike fishing so, with that as a base line, I have to be rather pleased with how this month has panned out.
Target No.1 - three "twenties" - none caught = 0%
Target No.2 - twenty "doubles" - five landed = 25%
Target No.3 - one hundred Pike - twelve landed = 12%
There have been a few fish lost, due to hook pulls, but I remain convinced that you won't pull hooks out of "big" fish. Small "jacks" lack the body mass to offer sufficient resistance to the strike, thus spin with the effort, open their mouths and eject the bait. I can only recall one time when a good Pike was lost in a similar manner. On the Thames, in the 1980's, my brother Sye did lose a very good Pike. Weed build up, resulted in slack line, allowing the fish to dislodge the hooks by using the weight of the bait and violent head shaking.
As I'm targeting rather intimate venues there is no requirement for silly test curve rods. My Duncan Kay's are perfectly suited to the task, all 26 oz t/c, as the furthest cast will still be less than 10 metres! Their beautiful through action enables me to savour every lunge, every surge, as a hooked fish battles for its' freedom yet I've never felt under-gunned in any situation that I use them. My rigs, rig mechanics and bait presentations are as good as I know how. One thing is for sure, at no time in the past have I ever been as confident in the techniques, now employed, when out Pike fishing. My choice of bait species, colours, flavours and buoyancy tweaks will remain a guarded subject, shared only with those whom I trust. However, I have started to manufacture my own "double" hooks using some very basic methodology. Knowing that the weather isn't much cop over the weekend, I'll try to put a post together, showing how I go about this task. Don't hold your breath, or expect to witness high tech engineering, they really are very simple to produce.
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