Fisherman's Tales

Pete's Pike

One weekend i decided to have carp fishing session at a lake near my home in Sweden.
I asked my friend if he would like to come with me.

He is a non fisherman and decided to come along, as the "camping" side of the trip appealed to him.
After i had set the carp gear up and all the baits were in place, i began to explain to a bewildered friend what all this "space age" tackle was, and what its purpose in life was.
I also told him the prices of individual items and i got the "Your joking" and "How MUCH?" response. After a few hours of the "Silent alarm syndrome", i got out a couple of quiver tip rods so that Pete (my friend) didn't get bored with the waiting game.

I baited up a couple of swims with bread and corn and started the task of showing Peter how to fish the open-end feeder. He quickly got the hang of it and was soon into the Bream and roach. Again his rod tip bent round and he informed me that "I've got another" for the 50th time.

After a 3 minute battle i put the landing net under a 6lb 4oz (3kg) Bream, much to the joy of Peter, who could say nothing but "Look at the size of that mate" "look at the size of that"!!

The smile on his face said it all, but i didn't feel the need to tell him that he had just broken my personal best Bream by 4oz on his first fishing trip!!!

An hour or so later he bent in to another fish, a small roach.

As he was winding in the Roach, all of a sudden it got heavier and the reel clutch began to sing. Completly bewildered to what was going on, Peter played the fish to the surface, where i saw "old Esox Lucious" on the end of the line. I put the landing net under the pike as it didn't want to let go of his dinner. The Pike was not hooked, it just didnt want to let go.
I explained to Peter what had happened, and that he had caught a roach initially and then the pike had taken it while he was reeling it in. He was completley amazed and i knew that i was never going to hear the end of this story!!!

We ended up with a nice bag of Roach and Bream of about 30lbs (14kg) and one 2lb Pike
I had visions of huge carp next for Peter, just to put the cherry on the cake!! But it wasn't to be!

Peter now comes fishing regulary with me, and this story always crops up in the conversation at sometime, especially after a few beers..
TALK ABOUT BEGINNERS LUCK!!

 

Chris Thornhill