Predators - the Old River

Each water has its own stories, some will be true, others not so, i have done a number of short sessions on this water of late and heard stories of huge pike, 6lb eels and 3lb plus perch.

This water could hold a truly massive pike or two, but i would doubt there are too many due to the high number of jacks, usually if there are many 20+ fish they would regulate the numbers of small jacks, and this water is overun with them.

It certainly has potential for big eels, land locked to a degree, deep, plenty of food, i look forward to having a go next year,

Big perch, an immediate target of mine, i have had 2 fish over 3lb from rivers and i can tell you they are truly stunning.

But big perch normally thrive when they are top of the food chain, but with all these jacks i was surprised when i heard these stories until i banked 2 over 1,5lb, but that does not mean there are many of them.

So my next attempt piking and perching, weather was glorious for Oct, but on this water my experience tells me silvers switch off on bright days, and when they do so do the pike.

That and the other 8 anglers on the water of which 5 were piking so added to me and dad that was 7 using about 10 rods, had they heard the stories too??

I lost a jack about 5lb in a snag in the first hour, i had it on surface but bent down to get my net when it pulled me into a snag juts under the water which i couldnt see,

So while the 2 pole anglers near me did get a few roach and perch it was not a good day, dad managed 2silvers and 2 also dropped off as he was bringing them in , me well,  i got a another decent perch on prawn at 1.5lb, i had 3 great bites in a row, the third and i was into this fish in the pic.

Overall, pike did not come out, 2 jacks caught between all these rods on the water all day plus the one i had on and lost not a good return....especially with the number of rods nearly every swim was fished at somepoint.

FAS - taking the "young en" piking

After missing the weekend session, i could not wait to take my gandson for a quick hour and half on Irlam old course

this will probably be my last session here until the weather really gets cold and takes a grip, action was a bit slower for dad on mags tonight 4 bites and 2 fish banked one a decent roach and the other the pike livebait,

My second rod had worms and prawn, baited over dead mags, hoping for the large perch to switch on, espcially as dusk would be approaching, but alas no action,

Well on the pike rod, we started with a dead perch, nothing, then within 20min of putting the roach livebait on we had a run, a definate jack bite...... we struck into the fish and my grandson with my support got it to the net with a tail walk or two,

A nice 3lber was his first ever pike, he was a bit scared on the handling thus the not so good pic, for me i enjoyed getting the hooks out without incident, but it wasnt easy

due to the size of the roach i had to lip hook and flank, now the lip was hooked with the single, so the fish would be deeper down the throat than a tail hook up, again i was surprised to see the single did not have a hook hold and the single had reversed out of its mouth, strange eh the back hook is in but the front hook is not, unless it was taken tail first???

i will keep my eye on this, the other theory is the single hook does not get hold on strike at all?,

Small Jacks in my view are more difficult to unhook if it is lower down the mouth/throat - holding under the gills and moving the mouth towards you does not open the mouth automatically,

Now i have used gags and will not again now i understand the danger to the pike, but to keep the mouth open i used small pliers reversed,just the keep it open without pressure - the gag puts far too much pressure on the jaw it doesnt hold open it forces it open, that is dangerous,

so i snipped the single hook off so it wasnt flying around, with a little help from the reversed pliers  the treble was removed and fish went back safely,

so far so good.