Second strike first pike

      This is the first pike fishing expedition of the new season and quite a few weeks earlier than normal too for me. I feel that the pike fishing season really starts in October, like the autumn game shooting season, but an opportunity to escape household duties arose and the boss said go, so I departed for the fen at great speed.
      First sight of the chosen location wasn't good; bright sun, the drain very, very clear with a good breeze blowing and gusting from right to left and just for good measure, the drainage board had been cutting marginal rush and weed in some areas. Not the best of conditions to put it mildly.
      Around the floating rafts of reeds, weeds and lily pads, the rudd and roach were visible in the clear water never straying far from the cover that the floating vegetation provided, even they must know what a black pheasant and its shadow looks like by now. The black pheasant is actually a cormorant and they are like a plague, sometimes arriving in squadrons of six, seven or more.
      Then there is that underwater predator, the pike.

      What of the pike? Well, one fish was lost right in front of me as it contemptuously spat out the dead roach that it had taken and another hungry pike was landed and returned safely to the drain.
      He, or she, had a truly handsome set of teeth and I was able to unhook the fish without using the landing net. A simple flick of the forceps removed the hook easily and away the pike went into the deeper water in the drain.

      I look forward to meeting that fish again when it fattens up a little.

       A lovely sunny and peaceful early autumn afternoon on the empty fen and I only saw one other person, the farmer who allows me to fish there. Just me and the waving and rustling reeds, not forgetting the occasional low flying RAF Chinooks clattering away to somewhere important.
      Meanwhile the autumn definitely begins here.