Canal pike bashing

Pike on the Trent Canal for £9.99

Now you dont get more down to earth fishing than smashing a spinner on the canal!! Well wess sugested we go piking this winter in search of these true wild preditors..
Wess loves the preditor fishing for any of the species and nothing gets the heart pounding more than a angry pike...
A few weeks ago i purchased a spinning outfit from a outdoor shop in stoke, a 8ft spining rod with a reel and line for £9.99!!! well more than a bargain and money well spend to fish for the pike...
I loaded it up with braid, a few spinners and was away...

Last night i called in to the trent canal in Trentaham for a quick hour to get my fishing fix, its suprising after a hard days work that even a hour on the banks on a dirty canal is good for the soul...
Its like being in a different world in the hollow of a canal with so much going on, kids throwing stones in, moutain bikers whipping past you, dog walkers, boats singing past you...you could get pissed off with all this but you just got to join in the madness any smash your spinner all over the place!!

between to overhanging trees i underarm cast my spinner between them, a short twitch and that electric feeling of a double yank on the braid...up to the surface and a angry pike shaking its head all ovethe place, heart in the mouth stuff i tell you!!
Its such a shame we fish with wire traces and 20lb line for these wild preds, presentation is not the key and using huge traces does not put these fish off....so getting broke is never going to be a problem, but playing these fish and actually landing them on barbless hooks is so some skill is involved..

Lying the fish on the bank you can see why the pike game is so big, these fish are superb looking and require as much care as any other fish in the system, gone are the days where pike are thrown up the banks...
My mother came down to see me and i even taught her how to cast which ended up with the spinner behind us in someones back garden!!!
 my dad passed away in april and it was 'Big Ivan'  who got me into fishing at the age of 6, now 30 years on it was quite fitting for my me to be teaching my mother how to fish the Cutt lol .....So the fishing on the canal is free, my rod was 9 quid, what more do you need for some great action..

Nice one
Glen