With me working away in the Falklands and Richard Farrow, who had arranged and offered the day in Cakeys’ Charity Auction, only being available for certain times it took some time for us both to be available to fish. We settled on Saturday 31st Oct and I looked forward to the day with anticipation of a new PB Pike, my target species, although Richard advised me to bring a float rod to try for the large Roach and Rudd present as well.
We had arranged to meet at 7am and make a full day of it, we were able to drive and park reasonably close to most swims and the waters looked very nice in the early morning light. I chose my swim and Richard moved a little further away and set up on next lake which was joined to the one I was on through a small channel. There were a couple of Carpers on the “spit” between the two lakes otherwise we appeared to be the only people on these particular lakes.
I set up my first rod with a ledgered dead, initially a mackerel tail, and banged it out close to reeds on the right of the swim. To keep active I had a second rod set up to wobble baits to cover more water. I had a selection of dead baits to try with this method by obtaining an excellent frozen Pike Pack from my local tackle shop containing Mackerel, Smelt, Roach and Rainbow Trout.
It wasn’t long before the rain arrived, being able to park close to the swim I stuck all my kit in back of car and erected brolly over my chair and “in-use” items. Richard came to visit to see how I was doing and check that I had got waterproofs with me! Up to then I had only had one “pull” on the wobbled bait resulting in typical Pike type teeth marks on the very rear of the bait well away from the hooks! At least I had some interest.
When the rain eased I tried my luck with the float rod, obviously retiring my wobbling rod as I only have the one licence, the water was quite deep and I had to use a sliding float and power-gum stop knot to fish effectively. I had bought sweet corn and bread for the Roach although I did have some rubber maggots to try if needed. Didn’t have to worry as Richard, being the very kind and thoughtful host that he is, paid me another visit and brought gifts of mini pellets and some maggots. He said he was finding some Roach by putting out pellets and fishing maggots over the top and suggested I tried it as well. He also pointed out the carpers had now de-camped and gone home, perhaps the spit would be a good place to move to because it provided the opportunity to ambush the fish as they patrolled from one lake to the other. Seemed reasonable so I set about shifting my position to the Spit, this was very rutted with tyre tracks which were full of water so did a couple of trips moving kit by hand and “testing” the firmness before taking the car down there. It proved to be OK and had no problems and did not get stuck. The move was carried out in persistent rain, on one trip I noticed a massive lob-worm making for drier ground so I grabbed a bait box and rushed back to collect my prize, yep he had already disappeared! That would have been a superb bait for a Perch or Bream but never mind I was here for the Pike I reminded myself.
Once set up at my new position I set a fresh dead bait, (that’s a fresh frozen one), on the far side of the channel and tried Richards pellet and maggot approach on the float rod. The water here was quite shallow by comparison and I removed the float and just added large shot to touch ledger for a while. This resulted in catching the smallest Perch that I have ever seen, so I left the pellet to attract something better and went back to wobbling along reed beds and other Pikey looking areas.
Towards the later part of the afternoon the sun put in an appearance and some bubbling activity started to appear close to where I had placed the pellets earlier. To avoid mini Perch I used bread on the hook and despite fishing it on the bottom I was still able to keep visual contact the water was that shallow. I plonked the bait in the middle of patch of bubbles but not interest was shown at all, I changed to maggot, then sweetcorn. Still nothing so experimented with cocktails of all my options, and even went looking for lobworms to give me another option but try as I may I could not tempt any redfins, Bream or Rudd to try my offerings. Casters and worms will be in my bait box next time!
Unfortunately I am not able to report a new PB or in fact anything on the pike rods at all! All I had to show for my efforts at the end of the day was a load of soaking gear, a mud covered car (inside and out) and a very tired but somehow immensely satisfied Angler. It’s so true that you don’t have to catch fish to enjoy your day out fishing.
Wildlife is abundant at Snetterton and I did spend some time watching a Kingfisher working in the shallows, nice to see them little fellows about. The day we were there a race meeting was being held at the race track close by and when the racing was in progress you could hear the screaming of tortured machinery in the background, as an aircraft engineer not too off putting for me!
The water is large and productive but not easy, Richard did say this before we started, however I was not there for easy. I would rather apply myself a little to catch a better size fish than bang out big bags of average size, may be the wrong approach but I find that’s what works for me. And with reports of 28lbers coming out from there I did have the opportunity to increase my meagre 18lb PB.
Richard had slightly different agenda and enjoyed himself with the Roach on the float although I do not think he had one of the monster 3lb ones. But as I was saying Cheerio he had two out which is more fish than I had seen all day!!
Would I go back? Too true I will, it’s on my doorstep really being based in Thetford when in UK , although being in the prestigious Nunnery syndicate I do not think I will be buying membership to Snetterton, but would definitely fish it on day ticket if available.
All that remains to say is thank-you to Richard for trying his best to put me on some fish and provide some other options for me to try. Thanks also to Cakey for the Auction that provided the opportunity to fish a new venue and, thanks to Nature Herself for the reality check. You can turn up in the Pikiest looking places with all the noted pike type baits and use proven tactics and still blank! I love fishing!!!!
Regards all,
Emmo.
