On a roll?

Not too sure if it's because I've trodden in something or simply that "The Pike Gods" are smiling down on me? Whatever the cause, I'm certainly bending a fishing rod on a regular basis of late. It was only a month ago (23rd Jan) when I blogged that I hoped that I wouldn't go through the entire Pike season without landing a double. Well a bloody lot's changed since then and the RMC has been very kind to me. I'm now on six Pike landed, all doubles, including two "twenties". Thank you very much Izaac. My trip, this morning, saw another single bite produce a nice fish of 14 lbs 15 oz.  I was about half a mile away from the area I'd fished last week; a direct result of the Cormorant action I had seen. It's called watercraft! Cormorants don't eat Pike, but do compete for the same sized food items, therefore, if the Cormorants are targeting an area there's a bloody good chance that Pike will also be in the vicinity. That I was using a 1/2 Rainbow Trout section, as bait, is altogether a more weird quirk of fate. I've sourced my dead baits from Tesco, Westwood Cross, for several years now but this will cease next week due to the wet fish counter closing. Good decision Tesco!  Fish in the human food chain are far superior, and much better value for money, than those frozen dead baits offered for sale in angling retail outlets. Fortunately, my freezer is full of decent dead baits and I'm not likely to run out before March 14th! Whenever Bev and I are in Tesco I always make an effort to see what's available at the fish counter. The two, regular, guys are very friendly and always happy to chat about my Pike fishing antics. We were in last Friday and they'd already sold out of Herrings (my preferred choice) but was told that they'd put some round in "isle seven" that they'd failed to sell the day previous. You know the score? Quickly scanning through these knock down, best before, items it was obvious that the Herrings had been purchased yet I did stumble upon a couple of Rainbow Trout (1.7 kg) for the princely sum of £3.42.  See how that compares with five skinny Smelt in a freezer pack weighing in under 400 grms. Today was the first time I'd ever cast a trout into the RMC - so any action has to be a positive. 

Because of my desire to catch a very large Pike from the RMC I must, at times, appear quite blasé about fish which, to others (dog walkers, joggers, etc), are physically big fish. I was certainly guilty of this today when speaking with a couple of ramblers. A fifteen pound fish is way beyond the experience of the average Tesco shopper, so my glib dismissal of this Pike was rather disrespectful to both the ramblers and the fish! If I catch a fish like this every time I go fishing, what's to moan about? I drove home with a smile on my face and that warm feeling of success. Not a monster, but certainly better than a blank! 

Just as an aside, the self-take photo gizmo has been an absolute god send. I am hoping to produce a post relating to the methodology used very shortly. Don't worry it's not expensive and certainly doesn't require an "A" level in IT.