Dan and Darren are both away this weekend so the planned trip to Penton Hook was postponed until next weekend... But with the threat of a big freeze looming, and just enough bait in my freezer I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to head there on my own.
Tackle was stripped down to the bare minimum; one rod, net, unhooking gear, a few ledgers and traces. Bait was leftovers; a choice of sprats, sardines or little roach.

After a far more leisurely bike ride than when I'm trying to keep up with Dan & Darren's ultra light bikes with working gears, I arrived at the island at 9.20am and was fishing ten minutes later.
There was a good frost last night and it was still pretty cold, even so I opted to fish the shallow fast water where we've found pike before. I was soon rewarded with a run on ledgered sardine and a
8lb 5oz pike.

Fortunately a friendly passer by took a photo for me.
'Move the fish back, I can't get it all in.' That's NOT how fishermen do it!
I recast and fished for about another hour without a touch, so I decided to explore some nearby swims. But they weren't playing in the shallow water...
I went in search of some deeper water and found a couple of nice holes off the main current, but the pike weren't playing here either. I've made a mental note of where they are, I'm sure they will produce fish later in the season.
I'm not sure if the bait fish have moved or the pike just weren't feeding today. I ended up with the one run for one fish, still a fish banked is always a good trip!
I left the island just after 3pm, I didn't want to - but a broken bike light meant I had to leave before dark. Hopefully the three of us will fit another trip in before Christmas... Next week, fingers crossed!

So after seven trips my Penton Hook scorecard looks like this:
Total | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | 15 |
Doubles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | 5 |
Twenties | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | 0 |
Total weight: 123lb 1oz, Biggest: 17lb 12oz
Edit: I've just noticed this is a recapture, it's the one that bit me two weeks ago! Nine ounces heavier this time, perhaps they have been feeding like mad for 2 weeks which would explain why they aren't hungry today. Or I could have messed up weighing it - does look fatter in the photo though.