Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Three Hours.... Double Figures.

I got a text yesteday from a good friend inviting me to fish another venue today. It was somewhere we had discussed on a number of occasions and would involve a full day. Due to time constraints, it was not to be and I had to decline - maybe next time.
However I did have a few hours available to fish locally on the Barrow so I met up with Frank the plasterer after the school run for a morning session. We headed to what over the last number of months has become my favourite swim, its by no means a "hotspot" or even a "dead cert" but it has quite a number of different characteristics which means that you can employ any number of methods in an attempt to achive a result. I suppose you could almost say its three swims in one! Besides all that, its a great part of the river to spend time.


We decended into the morning mist which in truth was more like a freezing fog. It was laying heavy in the Barrow valley this morning, the sun fought to light the sky from behind the endless veils of moisture. In short, the whole place looked like something from a ninteeen fifties B horror movie.
I decided on two static deads, a Roach (popped up) and an Eel section hard on the bottom. Frank dropped a half Mackerel in the swim and proceeded to set up his feeder rod.
Just over an hour in Frank got a very gentle pick up, a fish took the bait and moved very slowly downstream towards the near bank, He struck and was hooked up well. The fish took some time to realise what was going on but then it put the boot in, giving Frank a serious run for his money! It never ceases to amaze me how agile and powerful river pike are, to see a double figure fish tail walking on a misty January morning is a sight to behold!



For Frank this is a special day, his first double figure Pike and a new PB all in one. Congrats and may it lead to many more. The fish came in on the scales just under 13lb.



ps. Needless to say my almost endless run of blanks continues, think I'm up to five in a row, almost lost count at this stage. The law of probability must soon say things will change, so I'll fish on!

 

6 comments:

  1. nice start to new year double figure always nice.meself and friend of mine had a 6lb and 8.4lb saturday from the same swim up river it was the best days fishing in a while and we are looking forward to an early start next saturday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Stephen, thanks for the comment. Always good to hear of other fish been caught it bolsters the enthusiasm and keeps you going. Two fish in one session is good going, though doubles are proving hard to find! (we live in hope) maybe things will pick up as we get a bit closer to spawning time. Good luck for Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes well hopefully the canals will produce a few doubles come february if we are lucky enough ha.I see you have done a lot of lough fishing and was wondering do you no much about lough Ramor,is it a hard water to fish as i am thinking about doing an over nighter there next month but i no very little about it??? Any info would be very much appriceated.

      Delete
  3. Sorry Stephen' I've nothing much on Ramor, not fished it for over twenty years. When we did it was all boat fishing. Most of my time was on Mask, Corrib, Ennell and the likes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah no problem at all cheers anyways.. If I have any luck saturday i shall post a pic or 2!!!

    ReplyDelete