|The rivers in Devon had been flooded for over a month so there was no chance of grayling from the Tamar or chub from the Culm, or bream from the Exe. So Lee and I decided it was time to travel further afield for our fishing as stillwaters don't have the same appeal to me as the river or the sea, so we rang our friend Gary to ask if he could fix us up, and as reliable as ever, he sorted a couple of days. One on a lake and the other on the "Lamb Stream" in the Kennet basin.
It is quite a trek so we arrived latish morning on day one. Lee got the piking gear out and I opted for float tackle to fish the small carriers which I find a delight, and you never quite know what is in them.
Lee set up and caught the first decent fish of the day, a 10lbs 8oz pike. As he played it towards the bank it was attacked by another pike. We couldn't see the size of it, just the explosion of water. The picture shows one piece of damage by the tail, but the other side showed the other side of the bite.
By this time I was catching fish regularly when Lee shouted that he had another one, 11lbs 4oz, on mackerel deadbait just as the other.
I was happily trotting catching roach, dace, bream and perch but then a dace was attacked by a pike as I landed it. I shouted Lee to come and get it out of my swim. He set up a small spinning rig with his favourite Ondex lure. I told him where to cast and I would shout when he was in the take zone, and he was amazed - just as I said now, and at that exact millisecond, his lure was attacked. He commented if anyone was watching they might think I knew what I was doing!
This was a small pike of around 3lbs. The day ended with Lee catching 6 pike - but all the deadbait captures were on mackerel, not one on sardine.
My catch was more prolific with three perch over 1lbs 8oz and a bream of similar size, and a mass of smaller fish. It was just as we both had hoped it would turn out.
