Pike Fishing at Bough Beech Reservoir

Last Saturday, we were blessed with perfect English Summer weather. Not a cloud in the sky and the air was still. Ideal for a day of Pike fishing.

I had set my alarm for 5am, allowing myself 3 hits of the snooze button before I had to get out of bed, which I gladly took. At 5.30 I crawled in to the shower to wake up, got dressed and slumped into the car which I had packed with my fishing tackle the previous night to avoid any delay in the morning.

It’s a 20 minute drive from my house to Bough Beech Reservoir and by the time I arrived at around 6.30 there were already a 3 or 4 anglers there which I could see perched on the bank waiting for the breakfast searching Pike. I set my chair up at a nice spot on the eastern bank, next to a patch of trees and started to tackle up.

I am not the most experienced Pike fisherman in the world, the majority of my fishing hours being spent fly fishing so my tackle set up would have to be a trial and error affair. I was using a 11’6" 2.75lb all round pike rod and a fixed spool. I had a number of different lures and spinners in my tackle box but opted for an Abu Atom spoon, mainly because of its attractive appearance to me. Who knows if the fish will like it as much as I do.

Once I was set up, I folded out my camp chair, put a bottle of Spitfire in the cup holder, cast out and sat down.

It only took 30 minutes of fishing before my float dropped. As soon as I was sure the fish had the lure in its jaws, I took one hard strike. I was slightly worries that I may have struck a little too soon. I’d rather miss than run the risk of the pike taking the bait too deep. This did the trick though and I could feel that I had him hooked.

I felt the pike make a dart toward the surface in an attempt to leap from the water to discard the hook. Reacting to this, I lowered the rod and tightened the line. This worked and 10 minutes later, the pike was in my net being landed.

I carefully placed the fish on the unhooking mat, put my fingers in its gills to open its mouth and removed the hook with my forceps. Weighing the pike, it came in at 25lb. Not bad for a beginner eh? I named him Peter.

I placed Peter back in the water, made sure he was OK and let him go back to his family.

I stayed fishing that spot until 8pm when it started to get dark without a bite. I suspect Peter had warned his little Pike friends to stay away from the master angler over on the east shore.

I miss you Peter.

I buy all my Pike fishing tackle from the Friendly Fisherman online shop.