Five days in the cold – Part 1

Pike can be funny creatures, most years they can be described as creatures of habit, in that they do the same or similar things each year, for example migration, feeding habits or periods. Then one year they do something really different seemingly to catch you out.

I’d not fished as much as I would like to this season for various reasons, but to hopefully make up for that I’d booked a week off at the back end of the season as it’s usually a reasonable time for me anyway. However, what I didn’t expect was for there to be an amalgamation of snow and rain to hit the day before I was due out.

Usually if this happens on a big lake you will have a bit of leeway before the effects of it impact the water, usually about a day or so unless it is really severe, so I wasn’t that worried about the first couple of days I had booked off. The issue was after the deluge, it was predicted to get cold, really cold, – 5 cold. Would this impact the fishing? Usually, I would say no, but with the combination of cold water going in, and surface cooling it could well do. But hay ho – you pick your time off and have to make do.

On the first day I turned up at the crack of dawn, and looked out over the water which had come up about 2 feet but was still quite clear. The ground was frozen solid and the hoarfrost clung to the trees. It was thankfully quite still with a gentle 5 – 7 mph wind.
I was quickly loaded up and out to an area that sometimes holds fish at this time of year and more or less straight away saw one on the sounder. I had bought both bait rods and lures because you never know and sometimes it’s nice to sit in the bottom of the boat with a couple of baits out when it’s cold.
Having seen one I quickly set my lure rod up and gave it a couple of casts, it’s not fun fishing like this when the cold water burns your hands, but it is effective if they are in a feeding mood.

This one, however, wasn’t, so it wasn’t long before I repositioned and moved slightly further along and saw another pike in a similar area. This one took straight away, which was a relief and felt really heavy.

After a slow but dogged fight I scooped up the first fist of the day, a really chunky 27lber. I think I had only been fishing for around 15 mins, so I was quite happy. After a couple of Photos and retying my trace. I was off along the same feature looking for something else.

An hour or so later and with cold hands I was getting a bit disheartened as I hadn’t seen anything else. Maybe I had just caught the back end of a feeding spell? Or maybe I had just been lucky? I was ready for 2nd breakfast and a cup of tea anyway, so I went back to where I had seen the first fish (which was no longer there by the way) and wacked a couple of deadbaits out. The rational being that that there could be other fish in the area that were tight on the bottom so its difficult to see them.

I was just pouring my tea when the clicker on the multiplier gave a couple of clicks, I looked up to see my float bolt upright and then skidding to the side as something pulled it along. Quickly picking up the rod I wound down as fast as possible and was straight into another good fish.
This one was shorter than the first, but twice as fat! It came to the boat with the smelt hanging out of its mouth looking for all intents and purpose like it was sticking its tongue out at me.

It rolled once, flicked its tail out of the water and then powered off under the boat, luckily, I was quick enough to manoeuvre the rod around the rear of the boat and catch up with it, and it wasn’t long before I had another good fish in the net. This one went just over 25lb a real fat fish that had obviously been on the feed.

For some reason, I was feeling a bit warmer now, even though there was still hoarfrost on the boat seats. I quickly rebaited and went back to my now cold cup of tea. It was obvious after the two fish that they were clearly in a feeding mood. After another hour sitting on my hands, I was debating if I was doing the right thing sitting it out with baits? My reasoning was that if they fish were feeding and moving around, yes, they might come up the scent trail to the bait, but would I cover more active fish with lures?

Usually if I’m in two minds about something, I like to think it’s because subconsciously something is telling me to try something else because I have caught in a similar way before. Who knows? I’m not a psychologist. I did however swap back to lures.

I covered roughly the same area where I had previously been bait fishing, simply because I thought that the scent from the deadbait may have pulled a fish in, but the action of the lure may induce an inactive fish to snap at it.

A few casts later and I had a lovely coloured 22lber in the boat! Which turned out to be the last fish of the day, but not a bad days fishing under any circumstances.

The next day, the water had come up another 6 inches with the snow met, and it was freezing cold, and foggy. The wind, what little there was of it was also freezing as it was drifting over frozen ground.
To be honest if I hadn’t had caught fish the day before I think I would have turned back, but I had a rough idea of where I hoped the fish were and I motored over to the spot I had fished the day before.

Again, I started on lures, hoping that I was right about the early morning feeding period, but after covering the area well for the first hour I was getting a bit uneasy. I hadn’t seen much on the finder either. This isn’t always a sign that there are no fish there however, they could just be really close to bottom, or they could turn up at some other point in the day as they run along the ridge.

My gut was this area was a transient area anyway and fish move through it rather than it being a holding spot for them. The trick is knowing where they are moving from and too. Judging by yesterday’s results they were moving shallower, which didn’t make sense to me. The fish on the deadbait ran to shallow water, and the last one was on a shallow area or the ridge. There were other boats out fishing deeper along the same feature and I didn’t see them get much.

So, I tired shallower. It didn’t do me much good though as other than a dropped run which I think was a trout I didn’t get anything else all day. A complete contrast to the day before and an example of the need to be there when they are feeding.

The following day started out nice, cold but nice. This time I decided to look around for some fish, but the sounder was showing a desert, no pike, no bait fish, nothing. I covered quite a lot of water but didn’t see a single “something” that would have made me look closer.

With nothing obvious seen, I decided to move to try an area where I had had fish before at this time of year and put some baits out and see if I could intercept any fish that might be moving around. A couple of hours later I had a half hated take on a rod baited with a bluey, which I convinced myself must have been a trout, then on winding down I quite expertly pulled the hooks out of a good fish! Bugger. The bait was really chewed up as well, so it was certainly a pike!

The wind was expected to pick up around mid-day and did it! It must have been blowing 20mph! and where I was, I was right in the teeth of it. I never find it any good when it is really windy. Yes, you can hold out using spot-lock, but your engine is whining all the time and the boat is banging up and down in the waves, making a lot of noise which I don’t think the pike like anyway.
On top of this your baits get dragged around, and its generally uncomfortable slamming around on the boat. I managed to hold out for an hour then moved off to somewhere more sheltered. Needless to say I didn’t have any more action, so it was another blank for me.

I still had a couple of days left that I needed to make the most of, but the weather was looking to get worse with overnight temperature heading to -5.