When you are stretched for time and only have an hour spare there is only one thing for it, hit a stretch of water and see if you can tempt a pike or perch out on the light lure tackle.

 

Sitting at home having just finished what I had set out to do for the day I had an hour spare until the rest of the family came back from their day out, would I just sit back and have some relaxing time? No chance, this was an hour that could be spent out on the bank hunting down a toothy predator from the local river. Grabbing my tackle out of the cupboard I was soon on my way, the stretch I had chosen was a narrow bit of river with some really overgrown parts, this was the perfect place to chuck some soft baits about and I was pretty  certain I would see a fish.

Pulling up in the car park I could see the river, the warm November sun was shining down upon it making it look extremely inviting indeed and it looked ripe for a fish or 2. The reeds and lilly’s on both the bank and in the water had started to die back but there was still a fair bit of growth to be seen creating lots of ambush points for the predators that inhabit this stretch. Now I was on the bank I had an hour to catch something, first cast was flicked out and the clock started counting down.

I was working each swim I came to with a few flicks working from left to right and then back again, paying more attention to any structure or plant life I could see, I had been at it around 15 minutes with no luck when I flicked out the shad over some dying lilly pads. The shad landed the other side of the pads and as I drew it over the top of the browning vegetation a pike launched itself at my lure, exploding out of the water and in a split second it was gone. I worked the swim for another couple of minutes  with no more joy before I headed up to another area. Time was ticking down now, I had about 20 minutes left and apart from one other miniscule jack pike following my shad to the bank I had seen no more action, that was until i flicked the lure out just past a set of reeds.

The shad landed sweetly literally just past a clump of rushes in the middle of the water, I could see the white rubber imitation fish working its magic under the water when in a flash a pike shot out and hit it. The 2-12g rod lurched over and it was fish on, after a fun little scrap under my feet I slid the net under a pristine little pike, the colours on these fish really are beautiful and I never tire of seeing them out of the water. After a very quick unhooking and picture session I slid this little cracker back home and watched it shoot off back across the river. I had another few casts but nothing else happened in the way of fish showing and one last check on my watch showed it was home time so I made my way back to the car and called it a day.

Although I only had an hour spare this just goes to show you can still get out and snatch a bite if you really want to, theres no point sitting at home when there are fish to be caught and I know where I would rather be, at home or on the bank? …. The bank wins hands down every time.