With the Pike season open it was time to head up to a secluded Welsh lake for a spot of lure fishing. Armed with a TFG journey man and Force 8 reel loaded with 30 lb Grunt braid and an ample selection of lures, I headed out into the lilly shore lined lake in a small rowing boat. My fishing partner and fellow TFG colleague Simon hooked and landed a feisty Jack within a few minutes, which of course always boosts the confidence. I let my soft plastic Roach imitation hit the bottom in 20 foot of water and reeled in with great anticipation. Within a period of 30 minutes I had several hits, and lost two in quick succession that thrashed off right next to the boat. A quiet spell of several hours followed, broken up only by a tiny Pike of about a foot long on a surface lure. I decided to hunt the deep marginal drop off by row trolling with two rods, the inside rod set higher up in the water to cover the deep margin contour in about 10 foot of water, the other on a long line set to run at about 18 feet. This soon paid off with a scrappy Jack. A few minutes later a thumping take on the outside rod indicated something of a better stamp - this very welcome double figure fish tail walked right next to the boat several times and gave an excellent account of itself. Another 8 or 9 fell to the technique over the next 2 hours, some of them absolutely slamming the soft plastic lures and almost ripping the rods out of the boat. Several times both rods got nailed at practically the same moment! The sport cooled off with the rain that poured down and cut the session short.
