Fossdyke Canal | Pike Fishing

Anyone For a Pikelet?

Last updated: Thursday, January 22, 2009

Over the festive period, myself and angling companion, Tom Scholey, had planned something totally different from our usual intense match fishing, in the way of a session pike fishing. It was Christmas Eve, and all the family were getting a bit irate with the pressures of Christmas, so off we went at 6am in the morning, heading for the flan drain lands around Lincolnshire. It’s an area where we both learned to fish on lots of little spots on the River Till and Foss Dyke Canal. We both carried a single short rod and reel, with a small bag of dead baits and items of terminal tackle, planning on driving around until we found a likely looking spot where we could have a walk and wobble a few deadbaits to see if any snappers were ready for some action. It seemed the perfect day for it, freezing cold, and the ground crisp with frost, and not a breath of wind, with the low winter sun heating up our backs as we creeped along the drains.

Me with my first pike of the day

Our first destination was Broxholme Bridge, on a tiny Lincolnshire lane, where the river is around 8 metres wide, lined with thick reeds and meanders through farmland. With the sun just coming up, and mist coming of the water, I couldn’t wait to have a cast. Tom and I had identical set ups, with 10lb line, tied straight to a wire trace comprised of size8 barbless trebles….simple! we had both pike fished before, but were by no means experts. We had roach and smelt deadbaits, which were mounted head first on the trace. We cast out with a gentle lob and slowly twitched them back through water, trying to put some life into the baits imitating a dying or injured fish, hopefully past a hungry pike!

I have got to admit, I was out of the car and fishing before poor old Tom had even taken put his hand break on, it looked that nice! I got down next to the bridge, while Tom ventured down to the first bend where there was some weed cover. It wasn’t long before Tom had latched onto the first pike of the day, as he interrupted the stillness with ‘This is how you do it!’

After a short tussle, a small jack of around 3lb shed the hooks as he reached out to land it, but at least they were having a chew! As Tom was getting out another bait, my twitching suddenly went solid, and after giving it a couple of seconds to take the bait properly, I wound into a similar sized jack that had a good little thrash around and gave us a small tail walking display before it was landed. It was only half past seven and we had a pike each! They might only be small, but on a light spinning rod you get some great sport, and you can really admire them. Even the smallest are designed perfectly, with loads of tiny sensors on their heads to pick up vibrations from pray fish, and hundreds of needle sharp teeth all sloping backwards, not a nice sight if you’re a roach of bream but pike have to eat just like any other fish! Loads of match anglers hate pike, but pike definitely do a job, cleaning up dying and dead fish. If they weren’t meant to be there, Mother Nature would get rid of them!

Smelt was our choice of bait

Some minor competitiveness came through from our match fishing, as Tom called the score as 1-1, before trundling off to the next meander. I fancied another quick cast before a change of spot, and twitched back a newly mounted dead roach along the side of the reed beds on my bank. I felt a small pluck which I though was weed, before the rod was nearly snatched out of my hands by another feisty little snapper. I don’t even think he was hooked, and just held on to the deadbait, spitting it out while thrashing around in the margins! Tom recommended a change to the opposite side of the bridge, where there was a fence going into the drain, and some more weed. First cast I had a small pike follow my bait right up to the rod end, and then turn away at the last second! Arghhhhh! I tried dangling my bait around in the edge but it just wasn’t having it! it was coming up to 10 o’clock, and the smell of bacon was coming from the nearby farm houses, but before I could suggest a breakfast to sir Tom, he was leaning into what looked like a bigger fish. ‘I’m not after the small stuff!’ he cockily turned round and smiled as a pike of 7lb slowly rose to the surface grinning at us both with a smelt clamped across its jaws. Just as I reached for the net, it shook its head vigorously and Tom was left with a mangled up smelt dangling from his rod with a grumpy look on his face. It was rather funny for me. ‘Bad angling….’ I told him, just to rub salt in the wound. I had a walk a hundred yards or so further down for one last cast before breakfast, and this time tried a smelt

The Fossdyke

after Tom’s success. No sooner had it hit the water, and another small jack had snaffled it! This one gave me a right merry dance! We unhooked it using forceps before a quick photo and gently slipping it back into the clear water. The colours of pike amaze me; everything about them is designed to be a predator, their green and yellow mottled spots make them almost invisible amongst weed.
After a really enjoyable morning, breakfast was calling, and we found a small café in the nearby village of Saxilby, where we filled up with two large breakfasts and decided on out next destination, the Foss Dyke. The canal is always coloured and fishes well for all species of fish all year round. It is actually the oldest canal in the UK, built by the Romans. We started opposite some boats, which looked really pikey, where I was into a small jack again straight away, which took the bait right at the end of the retrieve with a right old thump! I then heard Tom shout me, and watched the most skilful bit of pike fishing I have ever seen. He had seen a small pike in the margins, and dangled his roach in front of it, tempting it to grab it! I couldn’t believe it! The score was now 4-3 to me, including the ones we had lost at the net.
With the last hour of Christmas Eve daylight slowly fading away, we agreed on one last move back to the River till for some last gasp action. It was nearly dark when we pulled up at Sturton by Stow Bridge, where a small dyke swiftly flows under a bridge. I honestly didn’t think the river was deep or wide enough to catch a

Tom with our final pike of the day

fish, but Tom must have had a second instinct of something with this river! I trundled a few hundred yards down river, and before I had wet a line, the splashing of an angry pike echoed the silence from Tom’s direction. Not only was it a bigger fish of around 5lb, but he had caught it on a plug, adding to the novelty! The river must have been a metre and a half wide, and two feet deep. It just goes to show how all these small dykes and rivers you drive over offer a really nice change of sport, and are probably virgin waters that nobody ever fishes! That was the last fish of the day. As we took off our boots and packed away our gear in the dark, we both said what a fantastic day it had been, catching 4 pike each. Match fishing is brilliant and we both love competing, but sometimes its good to take a step back and do something a bit different. I enjoyed the pike fishing as much as anything else, and we will definitely be going again before the winter is out!

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