…In search of the Pike!

With what little bit of spare time we’ve had recently between jobs, Me and Gaz have been on a bit of a recce mission searching out a few fishing spots where we can chance an arm at a Pike or two.

We managed to get a look round Revesby Reservoir, Bardney Lock and Cromwell lock all in one afternoon.

Revesby Reservoir looked fantastic. A beautiful mature venue with a wide variety of good sized species and a ton of Pike up to and probably over 30lb. Bardney looked equally as inviting, a venue where I have seen BIG Pike emerge for myself. And finally Cromwell Lock Which is an alltogether more difficult prospect from a pike point of view, but I’d be willing to give it a go while Gaz goes in search of the fabulous Barbel on this popular stretch of the river Trent.

On another afternoon, while on the way back from a job, we dropped in to have a look at the much mooted Selby 3 Lakes. A well known Carp water with it’s fair share of reasonably sized Pike. The only problem with this venue is that you can only live / deadbait for Pike as no spinning or plug fishing is allowed. But what with such magnificent carp in the lake you can fully appreciate why they wouldn’t want large treble hooks being dragged through the water at high speed.

So our first port of call to cast a line was Revesby Reservoir. It started well, with me setting up my new baitcasting rod and reel in Gaz’s peg, having a practice flick, and then casting out for real and bringing in a new personal best pike of 8lb 2oz on my shiny new rapala lure. That happened to be the first cast and the best fish of the day. I had a walk round the 34 acre lake and landed a 2lb’er and lastly a 4lb’er to finish a really enjoyable day with 3 nice Pike. Gaz was feeder fishing but struggled in the shallow water. After an hour or so of depth finding we realised that even way out in the middle of this big lake it was only 3 feet deep. We found a stretch of deeper water near the pier at about 8 feet, but it didn’t produce any fish on the feeder rod. Tough coarse fishing in a lake teaming with thousands upon thousands of small fry and jack pike.

A few days later we loaded the fishing wagon up and headed for Bardney Lock. Arriving at first light, we got setup in the reeds just at the junction of the lock and the river Witham. Similar to what happened at Revesby, I set my small plug rig up and had a few casts in Gaz’s swim while he setup 2 dead bait rods and his quiver tip. Within minutes I’d landed the biggest fish of the day. It weighed 13lb 10oz’s in the wet net, and after weighing the net in at 1lb 10oz we settled on 12lb exactly for this new personal best Pike.

A great start, and the action continued soon after. It was only a matter of minutes later that Gaz had his first run on the dead bait. It was a good little fight, and a while before we saw the fish in the water for the first time. Incredibly, it wasn’t a Pike. Not even a Perch or Zander? So what took Gaz’s deadbait? Imagine our surprise when we saw this beautiful specimen Bream swirl at the surface! Obviously the slabby didn’t take the dead bait, but managed to get himself foul hooked on the bait. Even so, what a gorgeous fish to see on the bank. Gaz’s pb Bream weighed in just short of the 6 at 5lb 14oz. It would have been a very memorable fish to christen the prodigy feeder rod on, but that happened later on in the day with a wee Perch.

4 more Pike were banked at 7lb, 7lb 10oz, 6lb 8oz & 6lb 14oz. Along with numerous, we reckon over 30, missed runs, grabs and fish on but lost. One memorable missed take was a very fast pike that smashed into my 10 inch goldfish lure the instant it hit the surface of the lock. A great day’s action, and I’m really looking forward to a visit back to Bardney in order to up that 12lb pb Pike :0)