Deadbaiting can be a slow business when its not happening- but it's certainly the sensible option when waters are murky and cold. Myself and Rob Darby dragged ourselves to the canal basin early to find the cormorants already at work in the half light. A good sign? Rob was keen to test out some ingenious leger booms incorporating feeders packed with fishmeal groundbait, which surely can only help when conditions are less than ideal.
Four hours later and in a different spot we were still biteless, the only form of entertainment watching a bizarre breed of rather masochistic canoeing involving a sort of outrigger on one side and demented paddling on the other. At last, we agreed- a sport more pointless than fishing!
The only alternative was another move, this time to the not-so-pretty City stretch of the River Exe. Again, it was a waiting game. The water was so muddy I decided to pinch some of Rob's groundbait to hopefully draw some interest. Finally, my mackerel was grabbed and some solid resistance followed: a proper townie pike just into double figures, with mean looks and a missing fin to boot.
Ten minutes later in the exact same spot, the float sneaked off again and another pike, bigger still, bolted off.
Talk about hazardous fishing. On the concrete here it is definitely a two man job and I was also grateful to be using my new 5 metre pike rod to steer the fish to safety with walls and railings to bargain with. An unhooking mat is also absolutely vital here for obvious reasons! So, one very relieved angler, the day turning from a blank into a good brace in a short burst of action. Persistence repaid, I guess.
3 comments:
nice river pike, were the cormorants catching fish in the basin?
The cormorants didn't seem to be getting much- unless they were catching small fish that were instantly swallowed!
Nice pike. It does seem the pike fishing is slow every where at the moment. I fished all day in the rain on Friday and had 1 bite which I managed to bag thankfully.
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