The Fishing Coach

Last week I received a wonderful email from James Halton, a student from one of my autumn pike handling courses. James has kindly agreed to let me share his email here.

Dear Martin

This weekend I finally had enough time to go for a proper pike fishing session. Rupert was away so a friend of mine, Matt asked if he could tag along. We went to a section of the Aylesbury Arm Canal, near a turning bay near Aston Clinton. On Friday night at the tackle shop I was told that numerous pike come regularly out of that stretch, and the reeds on the nearside bank are always a good bet. On arriving at the canal it was extremely cold and we struggled to catch many livebaits, but luckily there were just enough for the day. So I set up two livebait paternoster rigs just as you had shown me, one for Matt and one for myself. However I found the helicopter rigs a tad fiddly, so I settled for a John Roberts paternoster boom. And a “Pike System” egg bob float to finish the rig off. I used a rubber band which worked very well as a floatstop.

After about an hour and a half one of the skimmers became increasingly agitated, the float bobbed under and slid strongly to the right. Seeing this I picked up the rod and gave it a hefty whack (with my new Greys Prodigy Deadbait which I got for Christmas), I connected into a fine 5 or 6lb jack pike that fought well. Matt landed it and I removed the hooks like you showed me. It weighed in at 5lb 8oz. Matt had the next pike on a medium size roach, he played it well on his new “Monterra carp” rod. I netted it and took out the hooks, a fine fish at 3lb 6oz. I struck into the next pike, but as I soon found out it was much larger than expected. It jumped spectacularly and looked well over 12lb. However unfortunately the hooks flew out at the net and the elusive predator sulked back to the depths of the canal.

The next pike came on a large skimmer and resulted immediately after the cast. It fought hardly and weighed in at 5lb 2oz. Just as our day was going so well, a barge ploughed through the swim ruining it. We then decided to head for home.

Just before Christmas I also had the pleasure of catching a 12lb ghost carp, the biggest fish of my local venue. It took a cocktail of maggot and sweetcorn. But I did not intend to catch it, I was going for roach at the time. It was on my Abu enticer match rod and 2lb line, it looked as if it was going to snap in two! Anyhow some kids helped me net it and photograph it, but they failed to actually press down on the button!

He also sent some fine photographs.

Another young angler set on a path that will provide him with rewards for the rest of his life and he is already sharing his knowledge.

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