After catching one of the biggest carp in the country just a couple of weeks ago, Dr Paul Garner has now moved on to the predators. Here’s Dr Paul’s catch report:
Morning Geoff,
A nice wee kipper for you!
It was actually my third day in a row on the ressie. The first day had been really slow, with only one jack to me, but as my boat partner was legendary predator angler Mick Brown, who only had one pike and one zander I didn’t feel that I had done too bad, it was just a real grueller for everyone fishing.
Day two saw me out with a different boat partner, Stuart Morgan. Today was to be a little better for us, with four pike landed, the best a 20lb 4oz fish to me on a slimline soft shad jigged in about 24 feet of water. It was hard work and we covered a lot of ground, but eventually found an area that held some silver fish and the pike were laying low under the silvers.
Day three and I was now out in the boat with my good friend and St Ives Lakes boss Gordy Howes. We now had a fair idea of where to fish and after a slow morning we moved to the same area that i had fished the day before. This time though I put out a second rod with a float fished whole joey mackerel set at eighteen feet. On the first drift the float simply disappeared and after a solid fight Gordy netted a cracking zander of 12lb 8oz for me. In the water we thought it looked much bigger, it was certainly a very long fish.
We then managed an 18lb pike each on slimline soft shad jigs fished vertically, before I decided to switch tactics on the last couple of drifts. I had a hunch that there were more fish present than we were catching and that we hadn’t really got the method right. Switching to an 8 inch Replicant I let it sink to the bottom and then slowly inched it back close to the bottom. On about the third cast the lure was hit by something very solid and the battle began! All through the fight i could feel the fish shaking its head and it felt pretty big. Eventually she surfaced and Gordy expertly netted her first time. A new pb pike of 27lb 8oz. I nearly fell out of the boat jumping for joy!
I am off to Chew tomorrow and then Blithfield at the weekend ton continue my search for a thirty pounder this winter. Let’s hope this early success is just the start of things to come! – and yes indeed it was, but that is another story …..
Readers my be interested to follow my search for a ‘thirty’ on my blog at: www.drpaulgarner.co.uk.
