Tuesday 11th December and 6 pike

The forecast was for temperatures to plunge to -5c overnight, and sure enough it did. I was driving to the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon and the gauge said -4.5c, foggy too.

The river had been steadily dropping in level. The colour had gone too. I was shocked and surprised to see the river had changed with the floods over the last week or so. Huge beds of gravel had appeared where rushes had been before. Golden gravel that I had not seen for quite sometime shone through even with the fog laid-en sky. There was even some ranunculus swaying in the flow.

My thoughts were to dead bait for pike by wobbling. I had a few roach and dace that would be sufficient for the day.

I had thought about fishing the commercials today but with the temperature drop I didn’t fancy just sitting around. At least with the piking you fish a swim for 10 minutes or so and then move on.

-4.5c and still they fed.

This way you tend to cover plenty of water and importantly keep warm. Sure enough in the swims where I thought there might be a pike or two they showed plenty of interest.

The takes were savage as per normal and on a shallow river you normally see what happens and it’s a great sight to see a big swirl followed by the line peeling away off the reel.

I was soon into plenty of pike but none of them large ones. Still it was good fun.

The business end !

No big ones came along the largest being about 7lbs. One fish came to the bait 4 times in one swim and I hooked it twice but I still didn’t land it. For the pike’s sake I tend not to leave the time too long between the take and striking.

As the day wore on the temperature did increase above zero at about noon, however by 1.45pm the landing net froze again.

Ice crystals

The ice crystals forming on the plants around me looked beautiful, long and very slender and protruded off like hairs.

Soon the fog came in and dusk came all to early. Still plenty of pike and a good walk.