40lb pike on the fly... can the year get any better!

You know the feeling… busy week and everyone knows that you’ve earmarked a day for fishing? Well, Saturday was the day… 50% of a full moon and high pressure growing in the morning to tail off and drop in the afternoon. All planned and tackled up the evening before, made some stainless wire locks whilst watching TV and enjoying a glass of wine.

I woke to a fine and largely cloudless day with storms forecast for later in the afternoon and evening. Boil kettle, make tea and toast… ready for the off, and the phone rings! My heart sinks as my services are required elsewhere… but family first!

By the time I’ve finished running around it is lunchtime… so I stopped off at home and had a bite to eat… NOW, I am free to go!

Arriving at the lake I had a chat with one of the bailiffs to see what activity there had been over the last week. A good size carp had come out of the water a good size roach were being caught. Mmmm… promising. It is now 2pm and I’m running against time with a shortening day and a steady increase in the wind (and no doubt a falling barometer). I decided to stay with the intermediate line and the baitfish pattern I tied 10 days ago… Fan casting around the first mark and I was getting used to the fly line… gradually increasing the distance.

Then bang! A snag… nope it is moving. Terrific! First pike of the year and the Harrison fly rod is christened. Not a huge pike by any stretch of the imagination BUT a pike all the same! Rod, reel, line and fly all performing in perfect harmony to produce a 2-3lb jack… what a lovely fish. I can’t fault the Harrison Advanced Rods fly rod, it just feels like part of me when I cast!

I changed fly to a bucktail mohican in orange and yellow and worked my way along the bank. Ooh! Think I have a bite… not a snag and it is heavy… it is dark and this thing is moving… a carp alarm rings in the distance and I can see a carper playing a fish… I think it dawned on me just as I was retrieving his rig that we were playing each other. He had cheekily decided to fish the swims on the other side of the lake using his distance carp rods to drop a bait just off the peg in front of me… blimey it could have easily been a 40lb fish! I went round to his bivvy and shared a few laughs as his mate was doing a bit of leg pulling!

So I am off the blocks and fishing… and a fish on the fly as well… slight change of hook as well; I used a Varivas Big Mouth Xtra to tie the last few flies on.

So a new year, a new pattern and a pike on a new rod.

I feel marvellous!