Location:
Castle Howard House, Nr Malton, N. Yorkshire.
website: www.castlehoward.co.uk/fishing.shtml
80+ pegs,
We descended once more onto the Castle Howard's great lake in search of old Essox.
Stu had been there the previous week and had caught one Pike out of six runs so we thought we'd return and give it another try. The wind was howling across the lake and down the bank with the threat of rain looming.
Shortly after 8.30am Stu was tackling up whilst I went for a walk to see a nearby angler's catch - a nice Pike of 15lbs that had fallen to legered herring. I heard the frantic screams coming against the wind to see Stu battling with a large Pike that refused to be pulled into the landing net, hastily I made my way down the footpath just as the fish made one last lunge for freedom and found it.
Several minutes later and all four rods in the water, small mackerel, 20lb wire traces and 12lb BS line, we sat and waited. We didn't have to wait for long as we both had a run within seconds of each other. The pike were certainly feeding well right under the rod tips in what was a gully around 8feet deep.
A couple more missed runs and Stu connected with a 141/2lb pike which
seemed lethargic until it saw the net and then decided to put up a true fight.
Once landed onto the un-hooking mat it went and after a swift removal of the hooks, a photo shoot and a bite of my thumb, back into the water it went.
(Click the Photos to enlarge them)
Shortly after my left buzzer started to scream as another pike ran off with the bait. Striking was almost instantaneous as we didn't want to let the fish gorge the mackerel and another pike came in, this time at 101/2lbs. Shortly before it gave in though it gave a fine display of tail walking but to no avail, a quick dip of the rod tip into the water meant that it stayed on.
No sooner had I put it back in the water then my other alarm rang out and once more another pike was heading off with the mackerel. This time a 71/2lb fish. Once landed it gave us an insight into the size of the pike that this water holds, across it's flanks was a fresh bite that had a gape of at least 10 inches. Somewhere out there this pike had been on another's menu!
We had never known a morning like this, in the space of four hours we had twenty-eight takes/runs between us an seven fish:
Stu - 12 runs/takes and one more pike on the bank - 14.5lb
Me - 16 runs/takes and five pike landed - 4lb, 7.5lb, 10.5lb, 6lb, 7.5lb
The missed bites could be put down to the cautious nature of the fish or maybe smaller jacks, who knows?
Dave