A few weeks ago I had taken Andrew on an introduction course at Twynersh and during the lesson he had expressed an interest in pike fishing. I’d promised him a day on the predator lake on the Wasing Estate and we had booked the 1st of November. As I had already got a guest ticket for him I was determined to fulfill my obligation and as my fever had broken and my digestive system had become a little less disorderly, I picked him up from his home as arranged (he lives quite close to me).
We drove to Padworth and went into Max’s cafe but I was unable to face a cooked breakfast and so just settled for a cup of tea (to those of you who know me that will be a measure of just how ill I had been.)
The plan for the day was to introduce Andrew to pike fishing by demonstrating and explaining the principle of both dead baiting and lure fishing. Once a pike was caught I would then cover safe handling and unhooking. The previous few nights had been the coldest of the autumn and despite both our efforts the pike were uninterested in lures. Andrew learned the basics of fishing with lures, improved his casting techniques and kept warm with the exercise until the autumn sun melted the ground frost.
After we had been lure fishing for about an hour a pike found one of our legered dead baits and Andrew landed his first pike.
He ended the day with four fish, the biggest weighing just under fourteen pounds and I was able to demonstrate how to unhook a pike safely, several times.
Although he enjoyed his day Andrew was not too impressed with the fight of still water pike and found the sport less than fast and furious.
The photo below will demonstrate how fast winter is approaching, I was fortunate to be able to share a little of the last few hours of the life of this beautiful creature, once an agile, fast moving, flying predator now become sluggish due to lack of food.
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