Leighton
In 1999 a
mate of mine asked me if I fancied a day pike fishing and to be honest I was not overly
keen about it as I had never been before, and at that time i was well into my carp
fishing, anyhow I decided to take up his offer and have a day out with him on a
local reservoir which was very low and crystal clear.
I remember getting up early on a Saturday morning and meeting him at the venue, we decided on a swim to fish and he helped me to set up my rods with the appropriate gear as I did not have a clue regarding tackle or tactics. In actual fact I had never even seen a pike in the flesh before that day.
Both rods were set up, one with Launce and the other with mackerel and out they went,rods were put on rests and alarms set, and we sat there talking for an hour or two with nothing happening, i was itching to see my first pike but as a Carp angler i knew what the waiting game was all about, suddenly my alarm came to life and “buzzing” I ran to the rod very excited with my mate standing beside me explaining what to do next!.on his instruction I wound down and struck into the fish which gave me a hell of a fight with a few good short bursts of power.I was amazed and quite literally shaking, eventually she hit the mesh of the net, and I have got to say I was quite frightened when I saw the size of the fish! My mate was even amazed as he had not seen a pike this big either, so we unhooked it and weighed her at 18.08. I could not believe it,after all it was only my first pike, from that day on my carp fishing went on the slow back burner.
My first Pike at 18lb8oz
I remember getting up early on a Saturday morning and meeting him at the venue, we decided on a swim to fish and he helped me to set up my rods with the appropriate gear as I did not have a clue regarding tackle or tactics. In actual fact I had never even seen a pike in the flesh before that day.
Both rods were set up, one with Launce and the other with mackerel and out they went,rods were put on rests and alarms set, and we sat there talking for an hour or two with nothing happening, i was itching to see my first pike but as a Carp angler i knew what the waiting game was all about, suddenly my alarm came to life and “buzzing” I ran to the rod very excited with my mate standing beside me explaining what to do next!.on his instruction I wound down and struck into the fish which gave me a hell of a fight with a few good short bursts of power.I was amazed and quite literally shaking, eventually she hit the mesh of the net, and I have got to say I was quite frightened when I saw the size of the fish! My mate was even amazed as he had not seen a pike this big either, so we unhooked it and weighed her at 18.08. I could not believe it,after all it was only my first pike, from that day on my carp fishing went on the slow back burner.
My first Pike at 18lb8oz
and another at 19lb4oz
Deep in the
heart of (some) Welsh mountains I continued my quest in pursuit of these fine predators which I had personally only recently discovered, this certain water was superb, producing some
fine specemins for me and I spent a lot of my time fishing this glacial water and
really put some effort in with pre baiting and getting up at stupid o’clock on
my days off to get to the lake before anyone could drop on my chosen spots. It
paid off for me with lot’s of Queen’s to still my pb today of
26.10.
A truly amazing fish that went on to weigh 30.12 a few months later when my
mate caught her. A glacial 30,what a fish and what a dream it would be to actually catch
one myself.
A few months before I caught my 26 I caught an absolute corker of a fish
at 25lb,it was just a shame that I had caught them at the wrong time
of the year but I was happy, particularly now over a decade later, as now looking back these fish were probably the biggest two in the
water during that particular time, and catching them was still an excellent achievement in my books.
This water seemed to decline very quickly as after 2005 myself and my fellow fisherman could not catch anything above 17lb despite putting in lots of effort, it was quite sad really as this water had thrown out 20’s with lots of 19’s and 18’s on a regular basis
I just stared at her in the net and was chuffed to bit’s as it had been a long time and a big effort to capture another fish of this calibre from this water. At 23.4 she was a superb specimen and probably gave me the finest fight I have ever had from a pike.
I rang Lewis and asked him to come and take pics for me,he could not believe that I had caught a 20 after saying I would have one(neither could I believe it).That was the last 20 I had from this special place and It gave me hope that maybe it was returning to it’s former glory, but after subsequently spending quite some time and effort it did not.It just became a New Jack City.
Hopefully
it will return to it’s former self one day.
This water seemed to decline very quickly as after 2005 myself and my fellow fisherman could not catch anything above 17lb despite putting in lots of effort, it was quite sad really as this water had thrown out 20’s with lots of 19’s and 18’s on a regular basis
During January 2009 the lake had just lost it’s lid and had a strong easterly
wind blowing, I tried a few of the known hot spots with no success, I was realy scratching around for a
run. Then on one trip I noticed a nice flat spot in the corner of the lake hidden from the days nasty
breeze, i decided to up the anchor’s and try this area thinking that maybe
the prey fish could be there hiding as it was bloody freezing elsewhere. Anchors were
dropped at the bottom of the slope in 23 ft of water,almost instantly I had a
run on each rod resulting in a Jack and a 14lb pug, "happy was an understatement” as it was not the nicest
day to be out. My mate Lewis Barry pulled alongside my boat and had a little
chat, I told him I had just had two fish and was going to pull anchors up and move
forward up the slope to 17ft where I had the two runs. He decided he was going to
try a shallow area so before he moved off I said "I’ll give you a shout when I
get a 20",he laughed and I was only taking the mickey any way. Rods were re-cast in each corner
of the boat and i sat down for a coffee and a cigarette, Half an hour or so later I
noticed a float shoot under at an incredible speed. My first thought was Jack. I let
the fish run a bit and wound down and hit it.”Snagged” i said to myself as it all felt solid, then it
started kiting with super speed and unbelievable power giving me a right old
merry dance.I thought this must be a serious as my legs felt like jelly and were
shaking like Elvis on the stage in Vegas,lol.
The Pikes head came up and it looked huge, finally after a few more blistering runs she went
into the net at the first attempt.I just stared at her in the net and was chuffed to bit’s as it had been a long time and a big effort to capture another fish of this calibre from this water. At 23.4 she was a superb specimen and probably gave me the finest fight I have ever had from a pike.
I rang Lewis and asked him to come and take pics for me,he could not believe that I had caught a 20 after saying I would have one(neither could I believe it).That was the last 20 I had from this special place and It gave me hope that maybe it was returning to it’s former glory, but after subsequently spending quite some time and effort it did not.It just became a New Jack City.
CHEW
What a
water and such a nice place to fish,i have been fishing there for a few years now
taking whatever days I can get(not many lol),i have had some nice fish from there
including several 20’s to 25.12 and loads of 19’s "arrrghh".
I took a mate out in a
boat with me in November 2009,from the off we went straight into one of the bays
for the first hour,no success so we decided to move to a spot where myself and a mate had 2 20’s to 25 a week before. The boat was positioned,anchors dropped, and
rods re-cast,an hour or so passed and my mates float slid away ,as he picked the rod
up the float popped back up,gutted, "its dropped it" he said,I told him to give
the float a twitch(this usually works for me if its sitting there)instantly the float
started to twist and move about as
if it were dancing,I said to him "that’s probably a big fish bud",he wound down
hit it and it hit back in style and gave him quite a good run for his money, then she stuck
her head out of the water about 2 rod lengths out, I said to my mate "it’s a 30 get it
in the net quick",And a fine 30 it was too at 31.6 with a proper build,big head and all the
characteristics of the fish from where I spent
a lot of time chasing “Wild Welshies”,i was really happy for him (honest).
I recently had the pleasure of netting another 2 of these magical girls,one to a very close friend in January of this year,he had struggled on chew in the past whilst being on the boat with me but I always told him it will happen for him one day,it did and at 30.2,this was another mint fish,chew seems to be a magnificent water and a dream maker to many a people,for me I’m still chasing the dream.Be Lucky.
Here are a couple more Chew Fatties.
I recently had the pleasure of netting another 2 of these magical girls,one to a very close friend in January of this year,he had struggled on chew in the past whilst being on the boat with me but I always told him it will happen for him one day,it did and at 30.2,this was another mint fish,chew seems to be a magnificent water and a dream maker to many a people,for me I’m still chasing the dream.Be Lucky.
Here are a couple more Chew Fatties.
All the
best
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