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My First 30 – Piking Friendships Having recently returned from Blithfield Reservoir with my first
thirty I have been pike fishing seriously for some ten years now, mostly with my long suffering piking partner Richard. Personally I feel that having a reliable fishing buddy is the most important part of my fishing, I find it very difficult to get motivated to go on my own especially when the fishing is slow. Having a close fishing friend is also important as they know all your worst faults, Richard tends to know which pieces of important equipment I may have forgotten (sometimes too late!) and we both know when it is best to say nothing and let your mate stew at the other end of the boat! The Road to Blithfield for Richard and I started at Ely PAC meeting in 1998, here we listened to a talk on fishing in Co. Westmeath in Ireland and made our mind up there and then that we should have our first Piking Holiday in Ireland sooner rather than later. In September of that year we made the crossing to Ireland to fish Lough Derevarah. As soon as we pulled into the holiday park at Multifarnham, we saw that there were Pikers in the Chalet next to ours. First thoughts being fenland boys were, "Oh No, there is someone Piking on the same Lough as us, Competitors! However, a night in the local pub soon brought it home to us that you can learn a lot from fellow pikers and a good friendship was struck up with the lads from the North West next door. By the end of the holiday we had had a couple of upper doubles and a twenty to our names, not to mention a couple of new friendships. Later that winter we invited Ivan and Phil down from the North West to give them a taste of the Fens, it was here that we hatched the plan to fish Lomond the following spring. The resulting trip north of the border resulted in a couple of uppers and a twenty, again through team work and communication. This knowledge was then used on a subsequent trip to Lomond that yielded Richard and I another twenty each and a 27.08 for a friend on his fist trip to the venue. Anyway to cut along story short one trip to Ireland introduced us to a number of new fishing friends and has culminated in Ivan inviting us through the Staffordshire Predatory Angling Group to fish the infamous Blithfield Reservoir in the autumn of 2001. What piker in their right mind would say no! Especially as the previous seasons fishing on the reservoir had given Phil his first two thirties and three twenties! Richard and I along with Mark made our first trip to Blithfield in October 2001, arriving the afternoon before the first day. Even a few pints at the bar failed to help us get good nights sleep, the excitement was too much to take! The first day started off at 7am with one of those Formula 1 grid starts with most people heading to Watery Lane, we however, decided to follow the advice of Phil (you can’t argue with last season’s results). On with the Shad Raps and off we go. We had not been trolling for long when Richard’s rod wrapped round. His legs were Jelly, "these Blithers beasts are easy to catch", a couple of minutes later we had both been humbled by a Blithfield jack! We went on to catch a number of jacks that first weekend, interspersed with the odd low double. It was nice to be catching a few pike each day, but frustrating to find out that some people were only having one hit per session for a thirty. What were we doing wrong to select out the smaller pike? Nothing we were assured, "it’s a numbers game". The following three sessions that season followed the same pattern. We continued to catch fish with the highlights being a 16.10 to Richard and a 15.04 to myself, which I was positive was a monster until it came to the surface. Mark however did crack it and managed a 31 (on a Shad Rap!). A number of other thirties were caught along with Eric Edwards Giant brace. It was at this point that Richard and I began to doubt our ability, but we kept being told, "there’s not a bad angler on this place, your turn will come". What would the next season bring? The first session in November 2002 was hampered by Gales and although a couple of nice fish came off, the fishing was slow. We were not even able to take pride in being the top jack catchers! "Your turn will come", was the comment from our friends in the pub in the evening. It was it this stage that we realized that we were the only two in the pub who had not caught a decent fish. Richard said, "We only want a twenty in the boat, is it not too much too ask?" To which Eric replied, "You should only be here for thirties". That made us feel better! The first session of 2003 was a three day event, as we had been given an extra day for the one we lost in the autumn due to the weather. The going was tough on the first day with only a few pike showing. I managed an 8.12 Brownie and Richard took three pike to 19lb. But the thirties were still coming with Eric and his boat partner Gary both taking low thirties on the first two days, and Phil getting a new pb of 38lbs. In the pub on the second evening Gray and Eric commented that all these large fish were coming form 25 feet plus of water, which is unusual for Blithfield as a lot of the fish to date had been taken from 15 feet (shad rap depth!). That was to be our plan for the final day, troll deep. By lunch time not much was happening and I was considering a lure change, at this point I spotted a fire tiger depth raider in Richard’s bucket, which he duly loaned me. I had only had it on for a few minutes when the rod wanged round. It felt like a good fish and I played all the way to the boat, but still it kept low. It had been under the boat for a while and I made the comment that this felt like a big lump, at which point the hooks pulled. As the lure came into vision on the surface I made the obvious comment that the fish was off. All I got back was a rather large pike scale. That was it, I had missed my chance! This is where good friendship came in again, Richard said, "keep the lure on and keep trolling over the same area". This was then followed by one of those quiet moments in the boat. Half an hour later I missed another hit on the same troll as before, the expletives flowed. At this point I thought Richard must want his lure back, but being the good friend he is he let me carry on. A few minutes later almost on the same spot again it was third time lucky as the braid was stripped off my reel by a ferocious take. "Come on play this one steady", was the comment from Richard. I heeded his advice and after a few minutes what felt like a huge lump was residing under the boat. Then came a tricky moment when the breeze picked up and started to drift us over the fish, fortunately at this point the fish made a lunge into the wind and I was able to manouver the braid underneath the boat and continue to play the fish out the back. A minute or so later the fish came gently to the top and went into the net first time. "Good God, look at it", was the comment as the lure came out in the net. We were only a couple of hundred yards from the bank and made the decision to go to the shore, this would give me a welcome chance to regain my composure. Once on the bank the enormity of what I had done began to sink in, especially when the scales went round to 36.08, obliterating my previous pb by some 12lbs! Photographs were taken as quickly as possible and she was returned alive and well. Apart from the capture for me the most pleasing thing was that good friends were there to see it, Ivan who gained us access to the water, Eric and Gary who’s advice we had followed, and last but not least Richard who was a rock while I was jelly. I only hope I am able to return the favours. Any way enjoy the pictures, and make the most of piking friendships, I did! Finally, in case any of you are wondering being a good friend I did return the lure to Richard straight away! |
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© Colin Brett 2002/3