The 'Fat Lady sings', well almost

      Saturday evening and that's it. It's all over for another season. No more pike fishing until October, and no sneaking out on Sunday for a real last day cast because somebody made Mothering Sunday coincide with the last day of the coarse fishing season. That's a lack of planning and foresight if ever I've seen it.
      Just to rub it in the weather was rubbish too with bright sunlight and the return of a cold wind too, not quite the lazy wind, but damned close and still chilling your bones if you were fishing from bank areas that were not sheltered.

      I fished off the disused and increasingly rickety old landing stage and the bank on either side of it, I rather think that the little landing stage will be gone by next winter; absorbed by the Fenland drain to be a home and safe haven for small fish. Four pike landed but not one of them was the proverbial 'fat lady'. One pike was a jack of about 3.5lb, two in the 8lb to 9lb zone and one of 11lb. The pike in the photograph below had a bite mark on both sides of its body just forward of the dorsal fin, so something bigger was cruising around hunting in the depths of the drain.
      One thing is for certain, I've had worse afternoons than that, and to round off an enjoyable afternoon Boro beat Ipswich 4 - 1. Marvellous.
      Time to strangle a couple of Old Speckled Hens I think.
      Cheers.