Lazing In A Slack.

Frank the plasterer had often spoken of this swim and I knew it well too. On the Barrow south of Carlow town. A text book pike swim, medium to fast flowing water with plenty of adjoining deep slow water. A perfect scenario for the pike, they laze in the slack water keeping their heads down and run guerilla raids into the fast flow to abduct their prey at will. Great theory!
To say I was keen is an over statement, I'd just finished ten days on the trot at work and was not really pushed to spend the day somewhere thats never produced a big fish for me (I had other plans). A few jacks to deads and lures was about the best I could account to this swim over the last couple of years.
I decided to leave it to chance! Maybe something would happen... Thats pike fishing, very often when your luck is down, when you least expect it, something special can happen.
So at the very last minute I threw the gear in the boot. A few ledgered deads were strategically placed tight up against the crease and the coffee was made. A couple of hours in and after moving the baits around a few times the pike remained tight-lipped, literally! It was time to tweak the gameplay settings. I grabbed the lure rod and started to cover water, Frank set up a dead under a slider float, leaving it to drift slowly about the swim. About a mug of coffee later, the float dropped. The silhouette of a roach against the morning sky proved to be too much for one restless fish...

Frank gets his fish.