North Wales Pike Fishing

Hello Again,

If I was to report in strictly chronological order, I should now be talking about the three days we had at the coast but to be honest it was again more of a social event ( that got a bit messy at times) and the fishing was again taken less than seriously. What was in fact a great trip away with mates was not very memorable on the fishing front, it was hard work each day with fishy action hard to come by. Tales of late night drinking sessions are not really appropriate for the blog and alas no pictures were taken of the fish we caught. So instead of a full report I will just list the species that were caught over the three days. Pollock, Wrasse, Mackerel, Cod and Bass were taken on lures and a few doggies caught one evening whilst bait fishing from the beach.

So moving swiftly on to things that I can remember and have a few pictures of.

After the trip away with the boys, I was back on family duty. We had a few weeks away on a family holiday, again in Wales. Now even though this was a family holiday, and the beer intake subsided, there was still chance to pop out for a few fishing sessions when the opportunity arose.

The first of these sessions was a day on the boat lure fishing for pike. My little lad does not often want to come fishing (much more interested in playing football, computer games etc) but as I had been missing for a few days with my friends he was keen to catch up and spend some time with me. A leisurely start saw us on the water by mid day. The idea was to fish with lures and cover as much water as possible.
The lake has not been fishing "easy" this year, with numbers of fish well down on last year. Despite this we started off with surface lures, daiwa DOA and Cisco kid toppers for those interested, last year these two lures caught me a lot of fish and as most lure anglers know, when  things are tough you find yourself reverting back to the banker lures that have done well for you in the past. I also wanted to use lures that had worked well as I was keen for the boy to catch a few, to hopefully spike his interest in fishing a little more.

Well we didnt have to wait long for his first fish it was only a small jack, but it was a start and it certainly put a smile on our faces.

After a couple of fruitless hours, another fish hit his lure ( again the Daiwa DOA). The hits on these surface lures can be awesome, this fish left the water and seemed to do a cartwheel with its nose touching the surface of the lake and its tail arcing over the top. A suitably shocked young man began to play the fish, he used to just wind and hope for the best but now it looked like he was playing the fish properly. The fish was a little bigger but not worth weighing, so after I unhooked the pike he wanted a quick picture before the pike was slipped back to his watery home

After a quick snack break on the bank, it was back on the boat and we carried on casting lures, as of yet I had not had any interest. I was reminded of this on a fairly regular basis. Things had slowed down even further and the little fella was starting to get a bit fed up....I sometimes forget hes only 8 and maybe expect him to stay out a little too long. I asked if he'd had enough but to my surprise he said he wanted to carry on fishing. To be fair he carried on chucking the lures like a good un. Whenever I asked if he wanted to change lures he declined the offer preferring to stick with the DOA. I was sure he could do a little better if he went subsurface....but there was no changing his mind.

As he was bringing the lure across a shallow bay, a much more substantial BAADDOOOSSHHH was heard and his rod looped over. I didnt see the take but the fish had left a pretty good swirl on the surface and was taking line from his fairly tight set clutch. "Its a biggun dad....." he said with a touch of panic in his voice. Again, I think I sometimes take for granted the gear that he is using when compared to his age and size. He was attached to a fairly sizeable pike, whilst stood up on a boat, with a heavy jerkbait rod, and 100lb braid so it probably felt like it was pulling back a bit. At one stage he wanted me to take the rod but I told him to carry on and gave him some much needed encouragement to hang on as he was doing well. As the pike got nearer to the boat/surface it decided it was going to give a final surge and dove down deep. At this point I heard " Icant hold it ....Im going to let go of the rod"  I grabbed the back of his life jacket to give him some confidence that he wouldnt be pulled overboard and told him to hold onto the rod at all costs. The next time the pike surfaced it was begining to see our side of the argument so I quickly netted it. 

Until this point he had never had a double figure pike by himself ( when he was about 5 he somehow managed to hook one about 11-12lb on a 1-5 gram ultralite rod, but after a minute or two it was evident that I would need to play that one in.). This was different however, he had done all of the work himself and when I looked at the fish in the net it was going to be 10lb or there abouts. I unhooked the fish for him in the boat but as we were close to the bank anyway we got out of the boat with the fish in the net for weighing and photographs. When he saw the fish lay on the unhooking mat ready to go in the sling he said "WWWOOOAAHHH I cant believe iv caught That!!" The scales went round to just a little over 10lb and I got a few pics of his new PB 10lb 2 oz. 

It was quite funny as there was a family walking past and I couldnt get them out of the way to take the picture so fascinated were they with what must have looked a bit of a beast to a non angler. So thats who the strangers are in the background.

He still needs a bit of practice holding the fish properly but that will come with experience.

After the fish was returned and swam away strongly, to the dismay of the onlookers ( are you not going to eat it?) a high five and a big hug was called for by a proud dad. We got back on the boat and decided to call it a day and end on a high note. On the way back to the launch He couldn't understand why he was shaking like a leaf even though the weather was fine. After a brief conversation about adrenaline rushes and then about a dozen what / why? questions about adrenaline we arrived back to shore. 

Just before we got off the boat I heard "Dad....."     "yes son!" I replied expecting something along the lines of "that was awesome" or "thanks for taking me out Dad" I was shocked to say the least when with a grin he simply said " three nil".  With a chuckle and shake of the head I had to give him that one...