I rarely do full days fishing these days, preferring to fish early mornings in the summer and afternoons in the winter, but an eagerly anticipated trip to The Hook is a different matter - I set aside a full day. An early start, arriving on the island for sunrise.
And it looked perfect; low, slow and clear. It wasn’t too warm or too cold and armed with a variety of bait, I mentioned to Richard my prediction “ten to fifteen pike between us“. Kiss of death! Deadbaits, livebaits and lures went untouched - we didn’t even spot a pike.
My last real successful campaign on the island was back in the winter of 2011/12, since then it has been diminishing returns. The stories of the
5 minute livebait and getting through the jacks and doubles to find a really big pike are over 30 years old now.
More recent stories have been of poaching, and current stories are of nothing. The pegs are overgrown and the island has been abandoned except for a few dog walkers and the odd optimistic angler - but pike thrive on neglect - perhaps I’ll find a forgotten monster...
Neglect indeed
ReplyDeleteI could be clutching at straws, but I think I’ll give it a few more trips over the winter...
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