A Lucky Catch?

[SteveO]

Nik and I were fishing at one of our favourite spots on the Bure.  My float slid off to one side and went under. It felt like a small perch, but suddenly the weight on the line felt much, much heavier. My little perch had been siezed by a sizeable pike. The water was very clear and I could see the larger predator quite clearly. Suddenly the perch broke free and shot off. The pike lunged after it but manage to get my size 14 hook on a 3lb line caught in the scissors of it's jaw. I played it for a few minutes until I thought it might come to the net, then asked Nik to officiate. As soon as it saw the net it went crazy. I don't think it realised it had been hooked up to that point.  I played it a little longer with much use of the slipping clutch on my little Shimano reel and then we "gentled" it into the net. Out of the water, but still in the net,  I found the hook and cut it off the line, which released the fish. I put the net back in the water and let the pike rest for a few minutes, before it ejected itself with a flick of its tail and swam off back into the depths. 20 minutes later, Nik caught a small perch and it too was followed to the net by the very same pike, which was quite distinctively marked.  Nik took a photo of my catch, but they don't give an accurate impression of the size of the fish, which I estimated at 8-10lb. I didn't weigh it or photograph it properly because my main concern was getting it back into the water as quickly as possible.  I didn't set out to catch a pike and would not fish for pike deliberately until much later in the year, but hopefully the fish was no worse for its misadventure.

 

[Wussername]

Thanks for a wonderful fishing story. Thank goodness the priest and gaff have been consigned to history.

Andrew

[BroadAmbition]

Well done.  Especially for respecting Percy Pike  

Griff

[SteveO]

On 26/06/2021 at 00:32, Wussername said:

Thanks for a wonderful fishing story. Thank goodness the priest and gaff have been consigned to history.

Andrew

In less enlightened times, pike caught in the Northern lakes and dams where I grew up fishing, were often left on the bank to die. The consequence of removing the "top predator" was the proliferation of runty little silver fish up to the capacity of the water to support them.  We rarely saw "specimen" fish of any type. I am glad that thinking has moved on.

[Wussername]

52 minutes ago, SteveO said:

In less enlightened times, pike caught in the Northern lakes and dams where I grew up fishing, were often left on the bank to die. The consequence of removing the "top predator" was the proliferation of runty little silver fish up to the capacity of the water to support them.  We rarely saw "specimen" fish of any type. I am glad that thinking has moved on.

Great to be able to see a fishing post. How many times do you see a person on a boat fishing? I'll tell you.  Everywhere. All over the broads. Wild moorings, BA moorings, everywhere. On rhe bank, match fisherman, on a hire boat a holiday maker trying to capture a memory. A grandad and his grandson the old boy trying to demonstrate that there is more to understand and appreciate than a screen.

And yet we find ourselves on this forum going off piste I think sometimes. Nothing wrong with that but let us not forget our true values. That which decided us to arrive here in the first place.

[Gracie]

I remember sitting on the back of a boat fishing when I caught a roach, as I reeled it in a Pike jumped out of the water after the fish. It was like a ruddy scene out of Jaws  It frightened me half to death but it didn't get my little fish though 

Not all children are glued to screens, my boys have been raised camping, fishing, boating, anything to do with the great outdoors really. Their screen time is limited too, they probably don't like me very much for it sometimes though  x

[Norfolkangler]

That's great to hear Gracie. We have our grandchildren every other weekend and we do the same, limit screen time etc. To be honest, its not difficult with them as they would rather be outside. They love helping in the garden and getting out with our dogs. 

I have started taking the eldest one fishing for a couple of hours now and then, and am now getting badgered by the youngest to take him as well. As I have explained to them both, its not about what you catch, its all about just being there.

How many kids nowadays have seen a kingfisher, or can  you what sort of duck it is.

  

[Gracie]

Lovely post Norfolkangler. We first took our eldest 'proper' fishing. I say proper because he had messed about on boats with a little starter kit fishing before he was 5. So we got him a proper rod and on his second session he landed a 14 pound carp, beating all our personal bests at the time. He became known as the family Carp King  I had to hold him around his waist with one hand whilst helping with the rod with the other otherwise he would have been pulled in 

We have been lucky in that we are able to take them out regularly boating, camping etc but unfortunately some families are not able to do this. There are some families who think it is so much easier just to stick their children in front of a screen, I don't know which is more heart wrenching x

[Norfolkangler]

My wife and I have always been outdoors type people. We love nature and have brought both our children up with this.

Years ago, (and I am talking 30+ here) when deer were a bit of a rare sight, we would get up early with our children to get out to places like Thetford or Dunwich forests, for first light, just for the chance of seeing what was about (hopefully Deer). The kids never objected, and that philosophy has now shown through with the Grand children. 

We never have an issue with an early start and we are rewarded with a running commentary on what is about. Even on a long  journey in the car, they are constantly telling us where there is a Hare, Deer or things like Buzzards and Kites in the sky.

 

Malcolm. 

 

[MauriceMynah]

I fully recognise that there is an age where children see fishing as a game they soon tire of, then start to see it as a valid sport. Also I have long held the belief that if rewarded with the smallest of victories,  they develop a liking that lasts a lifetime. 

What I have more difficulty recognising is at what age that switch over happens. For me it was 11 years old.

Nowadays if I see a youngster seriously angling,  I am delighted and will happily chat to him/her. This is way out of character for me as generally I'm a "seen but not heard" one when it comes to kids, actually,  not seen either !!.

Now I've typed all that, I've forgotten what I was about to say!!! ? 

[Norfolkangler]

3 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

I fully recognise that there is an age where children see fishing as a game they soon tire of, then start to see it as a valid sport. Also I have long held the belief that if rewarded with the smallest of victories,  they develop a liking that lasts a lifetime. 

What I have more difficulty recognising is at what age that switch over happens. For me it was 11 years old.

Nowadays if I see a youngster seriously angling,  I am delighted and will happily chat to him/her. This is way out of character for me as generally I'm a "seen but not heard" one when it comes to kids, actually,  not seen either !!.

Now I've typed all that, I've forgotten what I was about to say!!! ? 

For me, as a child around 8 or 9 I used to stay with my Aunt, Uncle and 2 cousens for a week each summer holiday at Old Lakenham on the outskirts of Norwich. There was a lovely bit of old river running through referred to as the cock. It was a popular picnic area for the locals. The water was shallow and clear with a gravel bottom. This was covered with gudgeon and you could see them all with their heads into the flow. I had a handline with a size 16 hook that I would put a ball of bread paste on. A couple of shot got it down through the water to the gravel, less than a foot. No float or anything. I would wade out and stand in the water downstream of the fish (they never seemed to get spooked) throw my baited hook a few feet in front of me and watch as the gudgeon took the bait. A quick jerk of the line and the fish was on. If I was really lucky, every now and then, a dace or even a small roach would come along and then I would try my best to get a bait to it. Very occasionally I was successful and a dace or roach was caught. All proudly kept in a bucket of water to show off to whoever asked. 

That was me hooked (pardon the pun) and my first rod was a 5 ft Milbro fibreglass jobby. My gran got it for me out of her cigarette coupons (remember them!!!) I was made up. I bought an intrepid Black Prince reel out of my pocket money and a few bits and bobs and I was away. I used to cycle from my home in Gorleston to my local river (Waveny) and I remember my first real bream, around 3Lbs. This was from Somerleyton. Before the staithe was put in. Wild moorings then with eroded banks. Bread was all I used for bait at the time as I had no money for fancy maggots. Darent put a worm on from the garden as the place was alive with bootlace eels and almost certainly, they would swallow your hook never to be seen again. I also fished the cut at Haddiscoe leaving my bike under the bridge, but I preferred to walk up to the point where the cut met the river. (there was no St Olaves Marina in them days) Again wild riverbank which you had to make your own swim in the reeds. Well worth it though as I could catch Roach/Bream hybrids.

I began to venture out taking my gear on the Bus to Martham or getting the train to Brundel. I would ask nicely a chap at Broomes shed if I could fish the river from their land and was never refused. (it pays to ask nicely). I would bike to Fisher Row (Oulton Dyke) on a Friday after school and join the many others for a night session. The place was alive with anglers back in the early 70s with Tilley lights in every swim, and the large shoals of bream would oblige. Sometimes you could hardly lift your net out.

I began to spend all my money on tackle and get the latest gear. By now I had a motorbike so this opened up the system to me (all be it cold in the winter months). Every Sunday was spent fishing. 

Arghhh the good ole days, life seemed so simple then. 

I have never lost the bug. Obviously when the family came along, with money being tight etc it took a back seat but I would still try and get out now and again. I work away now, and when I am home me and my neighbor try to get out one day (or night) a week but with all the storms etc we have had this winter it has been difficult to say the least. My days of sitting in a howling gale or torrential rain are behind me now, and experience has taught me that rivers in flood (which they have been most of this winter) are not the best for catching fish.  

  

Wow, I have rambled on long enough. Hope I have not bored you all. Tight lines.

[Wussername]

I have given your post a "like". It deserves more than that. I lived in Thorpe St Andrew as a teenager

A bike, a fishing rod, the Intrepid reel, a landing net and a keepnet. 

Just me. I told no one. A very happy private period of my life.