Friday 24 October 2008

Gutted like a fish....

What no pike? Grrrrrrr!

I decided to sneak a couple of hours this morning before the world got going... and knowing that the weather is going to be very wet tomorrow I decided on an early start.

All tackled up I decided to use THAT pattern again! and had a few casts across the reeds... nothing, so on to the next peg and cast into the corner. What happened next is truly amazing... I did a half roll cast to get some line out onto the water and in the time it took me to strip a couple of times from the reel my fly was in the centre of a seething, writhing mass of pike... I played the pike for what must have been 30 seconds perhaps more but not longer than a minute. I saw the pike twist and writhe on the end of the line and I was captivated by this leviathan from the deep.

I made one fatal error and one that I have beaten myself up about all day... I had too much clutch on the reel... the result is sickening... the leader failed at the knot between the mono and the supratress. I lost my fish... size? Unimportant... but much larger than last week's 10lber - maybe sneaking up to 16/17lb mark... perhaps larger. Who knows?

I now have a wet Saturday lined up in front of the vice to make up clones of THAT fly and a few wire traces as well... whilst I lick my wounds!


3 comments:

JayMorr said...

Man I am jealous! Nice read for sure.

Have a great weekend! I will be hitting big lake trout shortly!

All about the grab said...

Am sure though if you go back to that same spot soon it will be somewhere in the same vacinity.
I know how you feel though.
Have a top weekend anyway

Chester Predators said...

Unlucky Dave! Our angling memories and excitememt are fuelled by experiences such as this; not just the fish we catch but the fish we see and never manage to tempt or fool and the ones that evade capture. A little tip regarding Fly-fishing for Esox. Don't use mono my friend. Attaching mono leaders to canelle superstress wire is a bad idea. I know superstress has plenty of braid in it to protect the mono but the wire will eventually damage the mono. You can use tiny rig rings but again i wouldn't. Try using some braid preferably a sinking braid like the types barbel anglers use if you are using sinking flies.
Go back and get that big girl!