Piking... 19th February 2011, First blank (just)

My fishing mate, Mark called me and said that we should go Piking, especially with all the cold weather...

So I couldn't refuse.  We picked a weekend and decided to tackle one of the many drains in the Fens around Cambridgshire.

Chosen methods were dead baiting and spinning.  Having never caught a Pike I was a little apprehensive about landind one, but we went armed with a glove and long forceps just incase... when you see the pictures of the Pike, you'll wonder why I was nervous!!!

We needed dead bait, so off to Peterborough market and a small Spanish fish stall... half a dozen sprats later and 70p lighter we set off for Ramsey Drain.

Plan of attack was to spin and cover as much as of the drain as possible.

Mark scored first with this little jack pike.  You can see that the weather wasn't the best, but hey, we were out fishing, thats what counts!

Walking a bit further down the drain I switch lures to a small S and I'm loosing confidence, mainly as I've never spun / plugged before and didn't know what to look out for bite wise...

Next thing I get a knock on the road and a Pike a little larger than Mark's first one comes tall walking along towards me....

I'm excited to have finally caught a Pike, but if it's not in the net it doesn't count!  Just as Mark was heading to me with the net I thought I could hand land the fish, well how wrong was I?  Next thing the plug and the triple hooks pull from the Pike and it escape it's temporary capture... ;-(

Mark ended up catching another small Jack Pike on the walk back to the car and I didn't get another knock...

Our next spot was one that Mark had heard about from a mate, another drain, it was picturesque, unfortunately I didn't take a photograph, but we will be back as it looked perfect pole to far band stuff and a real tench haven, well thats what is looked like.

We opted to fire out our bargain dead bait and spin at the same time.  No sooner had Mark cast his deadbait out, it was taken and the pike bung went walk about... he hooked into the fish but not enough and it got away.

Ended up no more fish or takes, but it was a great days experience, I will be back for a pike to break that blank!

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