News - October 2007
After a quick get together the Pike Anglers of Cambourne sat down and had a chat about a possible new water that we could venture to this season and decided to opt for a couple of visits to a reservoir that is very much steeped in history, Ardleigh!.
This reservoir, in Colchester, Essex holds approximately 2,200 million litres of water and has a top water area of 136 acres. Ardleigh has also had quite a reputation of producing some very large Pike over the years with a record fish for a Mr M.Linton of 44lb 14ozs being caught back in 1987.
This would give us some very much-needed experience on how to begin to fish such big venues, and also give us some valuable boat craft. With our trip to Grafham Water fast approaching in October this experience is no bad thing…
Fishing reservoirs is a more daunting task and considerably different from just popping down to your local River or drain and casting a few lures. It’s more about trying to locate the fish in such great expanses of water and fishing depths of up to 30ft. There are, obviously, dangers connected with such sport and you are advised to fish in pairs. We had invested in bigger Lures like 6, 8 and 10” beasts, with stronger braids of 50lb breaking strains and more powerful rods which are much needed on such venues. A bit more money was needed to upgrade our tackle, but it was worth it as we had a very enjoyable first visit.
On our arrival we managed to get a quick run down on how it was fishing and, to our dismay, were told that it hadn’t been fishing that well. But still we felt optimistic. We were told of the likeliest areas where we could expect to find the fish. This was the deepest part of the reservoir, ie 30ft! We handed over our £25 for the day and in return were handed our life jackets. We were then directed to our boat feeling a mixture of excitement tinged with a little trepidation…
After a very slow start we were feeling a little dejected that things weren’t going as well as we had hoped for but a change of lure to an old favourite soon gave us our first fish. It wasn’t until lunch time that we had encountered our first reservoir pike. This fell to a 6” inch soft bait which has accounted for many of our captures elsewhere. A change in our tactics produced our second Pike of the day. ‘Trolling’ is the technique of dragging a lure behind the boat. Once we started to troll, we managed to bag our second pike. This plucky fella had attacked our 8” lure. A lucky fluke, indeed, as my wife had treated me to this lure and had selected it by colour alone, bright yellow!
The Piece de Resistance came along a few hours later…and into the final hour of our trip. We had decided to return and troll the deeper water. We had completed a couple of circuits when suddenly my rod arced over the side of the boat. With ferocious strength, a large pike had engulfed my lure. It soon broke the surface and began to tail-walk. The fight was swift, and the fish was soon on the boat, having succumbed to that lucky lure again (well done wifey). After a quick weigh and photo, the fish was returned to the depths. We had our first reservoir double of 13lbs, surely a sign of good times to come. Bring on the next trip.
The first round of the Predator Cup will commence on Sunday the 28th of October so if you are interested in joining us then do not hesitate to drop us a line.
Until Next time good fishing, Stuart