" I Do Like Mondays "

Martin Unwin

“ I don’t like Mondays “ , unlike a young Mr Geldof and his Boomtown Rats I absolutely loved the last two Mondays of a season a while back.

After months of my river breaking it’s banks, dropping out, up and down and looking messy it finally took some balance, I had fished off the bank and sneaked out a few good fish along the way but it was tough. With the river finally looking good, I persuaded my fishing buddy Steve to get his boat out for a session on what was to be the second last Monday of the river season. What a trip I was about to enjoy!

Arriving at the river we found it’s condition to be spot on. Eighteen inches above normal level with that lovely “fill your boots” green tinge to it. With great anticipation we set sail into the early morning darkness on a journey never to be forgotten!

 The cold morning started slowly with just a single dropped run to Steve. However after a move to a new spot the change of scenery was met with the sun starting to break through and brightening up the morning. A roach trotted at 12ft depth close to some bushes resulted in my first take of the day, with a cracking looking and beautifully marked pike of 22.06. Twenty minutes later from the same spot my float stopped in the current, lay flat and the bait broke the surface followed by a giant set of jaws!. I could not believe what I was witnessing, the take was brutal !!   

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With the rod bend double in my hands, everything went solid with the fish snagged into something. Panic set in with Steve frantically pulling up the anchor for us to move the boat to get another angle on the fish to hopefully remove it from the snag. Luckily before the anchor reached the side of the boat the fish freed itself and after a great scrap she was safely in the net and weighed 23.06. Wow !, two fab looking 20lb river pike in half an hour and my first brace to boot !. Looking over at my buddie Steve at the other end of the boat  the water was not the only thing looking green !

A while later with only a couple of hours of light left we decided to move again and change tactics as it would be coming up to prime time for Zander. Roach baits and running ledgers were cast around the boat.

It was not long before Steve’s natural colour returned to his face as he netted a cracking looking zander of 12.06. The next couple of hours were madness with fifteen good fish between us with my biggest Zed going 11.11!. We fished on well into darkness until the takes stopped. Upping anchor we headed back to base, reminiscing on a truly special day that had seen 2 x 20lb pike and a brace of double figure zander on the boat with a good stamp of back up fish too !

A midweek phone call to Steve agreed a return the following Monday, the last Monday of the season. As we launched the boat in the dark I thought two Red Letter Days on the bounce might be a bit much to ask for. We arrived at the same spot we had ended in the previous Monday just as it was getting light. My trusted trotted roach was the first bait in the water and the float disappeared instantly followed with braid tearing off the spool. Pike I thought. Stop , strike ,fight ,land and Wow! An enormous looking zander lay in the net and a new pb for me at 15.06.

“ Might as well pack up now! “ Steve joked. That day we did not move once and enjoyed at least 25 runs with three double figure zander landed and some good pike too !. The next  winter with cold and crazy low water conditions it became tough for us. But Hey Ho ! it will come good again and there are plenty of Mondays remaining. Sorry Sir Bob.