PB Pike, Warks Avon

A three week stint of DIY and decorating meant that I finally got a few hours on the bank today and I was feeling confident due to a recent slight rise in temperature. The Landy still had a frozen windscreen though when I got up so I decided not to bother with Barbel and to take the safe option and go for Pike. I was not surprised to find I was the only fool/angler down by my chosen stretch.
The first peg I tried was unproductive for a good two hours so I moved to the next peg down all of 10 yards away. Sometimes that can make all the difference and within 10 minutes I had a fish on. Sadly the hook pulled at the net.
In my opinion Pike are a pretty stupid fish lacking in survival instinct or just possibly complacent due to being the top of their food chain because the same fish(90% sure) picked up the same bait from the same spot within minutes. This time I landed him and he weighed in at 9lb.

The next run ended in disaster as an unseen adversary took me into the snags and the line parted. Not a case of the big one that got away as I always manage to persuade myself that it was a tiddler. 

A couple of hours of inactivity followed and I decided to chuck a bait out towards the middle instead of the margins. A kind of chuck and chance it effort. It worked. 20 minutes later and I was away again.  A slow, sluggish fight ensued with a harrowing moment with another snag (pictured), the branches were moving and silt was being disturbed but steady pressured ensured I won and a large crocodile like head broke the surface. The size of the head made me nervous as I knew I had a possible new pb but she slipped into the net easy. On the scales she weighed 18lb 3oz and I went home a happy and lucky angler.