SCHOOL OF CROC!

As you may have gathered by the ridiculously cheesy headline of this blog, this weeks angling adventure is again in pursuit of pike. A grey but very mild Sunday saw me making an early start to gather a good amount of live bait for an afternoon's croc fishing on the Exeter canal.

I was joined by my like minded skate and angling pal Ad Wallace, thankfully we were able to grab some decent sized baits fairly quickly which left us a good window of time to try and tempt Ads first pike. I was hoping we would hook a few over the course of the session so I could teach Ad about handling and unhooking; a practice that is essential for the well being of the pike. They may look tough and mean but the reality is they are a very delicate and fragile species that don't take well to being ponced around with on the bank.

We decided to travel light, dropping into each swim for no longer than half an hour in a bid to cover a decent amount of water, with a rod each and all the necessary tools (unhooking mat, forceps etc...) we made our way up the tow path. Rig wise I opted for the ultra effective sub-float paternoster.

This presentation may sound very complicated and technical but it is very simple to set up.

With a pike each during the first half hour we were onto a flyer! A small jack pour moi and a lean eight pounder for Ads; who was very happy to capture his first pike! Onwards forth to our next spot where we bumped into Ty and Neil who had caught bugger-all fishing dead-baits all morning.

After a bit of a chat and a brew with the lads, me and Ads made our way to another swim. We passed 2 more pike anglers who were also finding dead-baiting to be very slow with one jack on the bank between them all day.

I'll try not to sound like to much of a smug git now but we dropped into a swim about 50 yards up from them and banked 3 pike in quick succession! 2 more for Ads and the greediest little pike I have ever caught.
What a  beauty!

I was very pleased with the days outcome; a hatrick for Ads which is a good result on a day where others had struggled. With 5 pike banked Ads had gained some good experience and was very confident with handling and caring for the pike during the unhooking process. I'm sure he will go on to do alot more pike fishing this winter.

This week I also attended my first PAC meeting where local angling writer Dominic Garnet provided interesting musings and photographs focusing on alternative methods such as fly fishing and wobbling naturals,(A method I will be trying soon) Check out Doms website http://www.dgfishing.co.uk/

                                     Here's a dusty old picture of my live bait pb for ol' times sake.

                                                      Caught from a secret location.

                                                                           Til next time

                                                                              Be lucky