A well proportioned lady. Lovely

      Finally a chance to escape the house and get out on the fen to try and catch some perch and pike. I decided to return to the farm because I felt sure that the icy weather that we've enjoyed so far this year will have laid some of the weed low and cleared the drain a little. The added bonus is that the high winds had stirred up a little colour and the wind today had put a nice ripple on the water too.
      I decided to fish with two rods, one for pike using a dried frozen roach about five inches long drifted under the float; the beauty of the ripple is that imparts a little life into the dead bait and it's a method that has worked well for me taking some good pike. On the other rod a lobworm for the perch, lobworms so big I reckoned they would arm wrestle the smaller perch out of the swim, clearing the way the way for the big ones. Needless to say that theory didn't work and remained, well, a disproved theory.

      I caught fifteen or sixteen perch on those giant worms on a size four barbless hook and in all probability missed as many bites, but it is impossible to dismiss small perch that are as beautiful as these fish. No wonder small boys love them so much and I quite like them too. Bigger perch were swirling and chasing bait fish but they remained elusive and I have to say I didn't care.
      The drifted frozen roach did pay dividends with a lovely pike that comfortably weighed into double figures, you know it's a good fish when it just stays deep and you don't see it for five minutes or so, the lady of the drain brought a smile to my face even though she drew blood from my finger. After unhooking and photographing she went straight back into the water soaking me with a contemptuous slap of the tail, I think I can forgive her that.
      I thought I may have caught some of the smaller males following her around but that was it, one bite and one beautiful pike.
     It worked for me.