Lost Winters Blog

Apologies for some reason I had written this Blog at the back end of the 2023 season, and not posted it. So here it is a (bit late).

Well, what an end to effectively my pike season, (I don’t fish for them after February), it has been a really hard season for me, well maybe not only for me as most places seem to be fishing very poorly during the “traditional” pike fishing season. I usually start in earnest in September when the reservoirs open for “predator” fishing.

Is September too early? Maybe? Well, “yes” certainly would be a more accurate answer if you look over the last few seasons at least, the water temperatures have been shocking high at this time of year. I have previously written about the effects of high-water temperature on pike link here –> Temperature-sensitivity-in-pike

If you believe in Global Warming or Climate Change as its now rebranded, it is predicted to get worse. So, let’s hope its flawed science and we start to get cooler summers and autumns again.

I fished twice in September, both pre-booked days, on the first day the water temperature was 21 degrees! Now you can catch pike in that temperature, do they survive? Some will, some won’t. I must admit feeling hypocritical here as the water temperature was above by “19-16″ rule, and really I shouldn’t have fished, but you don’t know the temperature until you get out and turn the finder on, and packing up, after taking time off work, traveling all that way and paying to fish is hard to do. I suppose I fall in to the trap of being Human (some say otherwise) and fished my first day without success.

Now not to get “Namby Panmby” as an angler you have to except some mortality of fish. I don’t think we go out with the intention of killing fish, but does every fish that swims off survive? I would like to think so. In reasonable water temperatures they most likely do, if you factor in good handling.
However, when the water temperatures are this high, it makes things more dangerous, pike simply don’t like the stress of being caught in warm water. Compound this by forty anglers so of whom are less then competent and potentially you can have a pike massacre on your hands.

As I have said before, anglers often kill their catch by kindness – but what does that mean? It means too much messing around with the fish! Anglers like to retain pike in the net “to give them a rest”, or hold them by the tail until they recover? Really, do they recover like this? Or, do they loose the ability to right themselves, gass-up, because they are at the water surface and eventually go belly up?
Worse are the anglers who play the fish for protracted periods of time on inadequate tackle, then let them flip around in the bottom of the boat as they don’t posses a mat or a sladle, then measure them holding them down on nice sandpapered anti-slip boat seats.

To be frank, not that anyone listens these days, but both issues can be mitigated by good fisheries management. Here is a simple two step solution to help prevent pike deaths – 1. Don’t open for pike fishing until the water is a sensible temperature, and 2. Regulate your anglers.

Anyway, rant over, the next day after counting five dead 20+ fish floating around I packed up and didn’t go back until it was a lot colder and a lot less people around.

Fishing is harder when the temperature is cold, not only are the fish less active and less likely to feed. The cold really gets to the angler as well, even me! – Sometimes. Its not the cold per-say when you’re in the boat, it’s the lack of movement that gets to me and I cramp up and get fidgety, especially when dead baiting and watching motionless floats for several days on the bounce! Which is my general experience of dead baiting at the back end of the season. The thing is, even though it is boring as hell, every now and then I get one, and often it was a decent fish, so maybe it was worth it.

With several of the bait company going under this summer, getting the best bait became a lot harder then usual. Like most of us I have a freezer full of bait most of the time, but towards the back end I’m using the dregs! Now you don’t want to be using the dregs, ever, let alone while you’re fishing for single runs on hard waters, your confidence needs to be high.

I have also learnt that sometimes a change of bait works, last year I was doing ok on Bluey and Smelts, this year herrings were the go-to bait, but I didn’t have many left over by the new year. A fortunate trip to one of my local shops for sea fishing supplies found a supply of weird half beak fish in their freezer. So, I picked up a couple of packets to try for Blonde Ray fishing in the spring as they were meant to be a killer bait for them.

Out on the boat, I was surprised when I looked into my cool bag, and instead of herring, I’d put packs of half beaks in by accident. This is what happens when you get up at 4am! As nothing else was working I hooked one on and wacked it out, to be honest I wasn’t really expecting that much. As I sat in the bottom of the boat, wrapped up like a giant sasquatch in the -2 degree sunshine – sulking that the smelt I had were not “smelty” enough, the herring were back home, and the blueys were “dry” and every other excuse I could muster for not catching a pike. The float with half beak on bobbed up and down in the water catching me by surprise.

I think the pike I caught was more surprised than I was as I wound down and stuck and simply wound in a heavy lump!

Pike don’t do much when its supper cold, and this one was as good as gold in the sladle and I quickly unhooked it. A nice mid twenty on a new bait, suddenly I wasn’t feeling as cold. I had some renewed enthusiasm to re-bait the rods and re-position them, however it didn’t do any good as that was the only take of the day.

The next day I went to a similar area, this time there were a couple of other boats about, and it was slightly warmer, I felt quite confident after the previous fish, but I also knew that you are fishing for that one run so it can be a long day. Inevitably at this time of year nearly every take happens at last knockings. You have a rush to get out, to get the spot you want, then have a boring wait in the boat, until about 30mins before you have to get in when you have a chance of something. Well that is my experience of fishing at this time of year.

I was had been sat in one spot all day, which is quite unusual for me, I had caught one zander on a lure that I cast around the boat to warm myself up (it didn’t I just got wet hands). After checking my watch, thought I should start packing up, when the ratchet on the multiplier went off and the rod pulled around. I quickly grabbed the rod not needing to strike and was playing a big angry pike! This one was a lot longer than the one from yesterday but not as fat, and was quickly netted and photographed, another twenty so I couldn’t complain. It was then a rush to pack everything up and get back without getting told off.

I couldn’t get back until a few days later and the weather had really changed, everywhere was flooded, and it was hard to even get to the lake with the road closures. I was feeling beaten already, as I know that flood water can kill the fishing, The fact that it had been so cold as well, meant that any land run off would be freezing entering the lake, and to be honest, I was thinking that that was it until the end of season, as it seemed every river was also flooded. Surprisingly there were a few people already out when I got there, looking at where they were I felt a bit despondent. The three spots I fancied were already taken.

So I thought I would go an try somewhere completely different, so I motored over to a spot where I have had fish before this time of year, but its not a “good” spot, sometimes there is a fish there most of the time it’s as barren as everywhere else. Looking around I couldn’t see anything, and for some reason I couldn’t be bothered getting the bait rods out, so I chucked a lure out and turned the boat with the electric engine into the wind to slow the drift down. Looking down on at the sounder, I could see something to the right of the boat, was it a fish? I wasn’t sure, but I moved the boat a bit closer so I could cast near it, and bang I hooked a monster.