February means the resumption of pike fishing ‘trials’ at Chew Reservoir and with the fish now approaching their heaviest this really is amongst the most exciting fishing imaginable.
News had been filtering back from various friends who had been fishing the lake earlier in the week that it was fishing incredibly well. The combination of warm weather after the freeze up seemed to have got the pike in feeding mode and the big girls were on the munch!
News like this can be a double-edged sword for anyone fishing later in the week, after all the fishing inevitably gets harder after a few days and expectations can be raised too high.
Friday saw me as the guest of my old mate Simon Morris from Pure Fishing and with a day afloat we were full of expectation. We decided to keep on the move, spending about 45 minutes to an hour in each spot hoping to drop on a fish or two. Certainly our first choice spot looked good as the boat next door landed a 26-pounder within half an hour of starting! It wasn’t to be our day though as we worked very hard for just one small pike for Simon and a trout for me! In retrospect our tactics had been clouded by my fishing on Blithfield the week before (where the fish had still mainly be in deep water), whereas at Chew we should of been fishing shallower.
Saturday morning and I made the two-hour drive once again, this time taking up the offer of a last-minute bank ticket with my regular boat partner Wayne Adcock. On the way home the previous night we had talked on the phone and discussed areas and tactics for the bank day. I certainly had my eye on a spot that had not been fished on Friday, but Wayne wanted to fish a different area and with his much greater knowledge of the lake I decided to go with his choice.
As the sky began to lighten we cast two baits out around sixty yards and bait-boated the other two out to beyond 100 metres into deeper water. We weren’t expecting a lot of action from the area, but Wayne had a strong feeling that a big fish or two might be in residence.
After only an hour my cast bait was away at a rate of knots. Winding down the line pulled tight really fast and I bent into a dead weight right out in the lake. Within a few seconds the fish began to take line from the tightly set clutch and began to slowly kite left. It was a big fish, perhaps a VERY big fish. With everything under control I began to dictate the fight and pumped back line, Wayne took up position with the net and we waited for the fish to break surface. Then with a head shake the line fell slack and she was gone. We never even got sight of the fish, but I knew it was a Chew monster and than my chance was gone.
Soon another Baitbox Sardine was launched back into position, the drop-off reset and the waiting resumed. There was nothing that could be done about the lost fish, it was just Chew paying me back for my November thirty.
An hour and a half later the same rod was away again, this time the take was much slower and with the line only very slowly tightening up I wound down fast and struck as hard as I could. This time the rod hooped over, but the weight on the end didn’t feel that substantial and I began to pump the fish in. Within a few seconds though the fight changed, the fish decided to stand her ground and began kiting left, just as the last fish had done. Perhaps she was a bit bigger than I had first thought….
She hit the surface about forty yards out into the lake and we could see that it was a good fish, perhaps a twenty pounder, and she put on quite a display thrashing the surface to a foam. I tried to apply more side pressure to keep her from thrashing, but it was obvious she wanted to fight on the surface.
As the fish neared the net she seemed to grow in size and by the time Wayne netted her at the first attempted we thought it could well be a mid-twenty. Only when he tried to lift the net did we realise just how big a fish it really was.
A ‘thirty’ for sure, but just how big? Holding the weigh bar as steady as I could Wayne read the weight as the needle settled on 33lb 6oz!
Later in the day I added a mid-double, so Wayne’s prediction of a slow day, but a big fish proved to be spot on!
Tackle consisted of a 12′ 3lb test curve rod, Shimano Baitrunner reel, 15lb Nash Bullet line, 30lb seven strand trace wire to size 4 trebles on a 3oz running lead.
Bait was a Baitbox sardine
Paul Garner is a consultant for Nash Peg One – www.pegone.co.uk
Paul Garner has his own website and regularly updated blog at www.drpaulgarner.co.uk
