After boxing off a load of chores on Saturday I had Sunday free to do as I pleased which meant I could go fishing for the first time in ages. Stu wanted to have a crack at the pike in Walton Hall which wasn’t entirely what I was in the mood for but it would do! We got there for just after 9 am expecting to fish until dusk if necessary but if I’d bothered to read the fishery rules in advance I would have realised the fishery closes at 4pm! Bear that in mind if you are gonna hit Walton, arrive early if you want maximum fishing time.
The boats are now configured for 2 people although it’s a bit of a squeeze when you carry a mountain of shit like us – pike gear, trout gear, enormous packed lunches, kegs of tea etc. We whirred our way out to the pikey bay and spent some time in there but nothing was doing apart from a follow to one of Stu’s flies.
The water seemed unusually shallow but I’m not sure if that was an optical illusion or something else but it did not fill me with confidence. We fished back out in the main lake also to no avail. I actually got bored with flyfishing for pike and switched to my trout rod to target a solitary rising fish off our bow. After about 5 minutes I was bored of this as well! I reckon today was not meant to be a fishing day for me, I should probably have been doing some last minute training for the Fellsman or even some gardening!
We fished a goodly amount of the lake before returning to pikey bay for another crack. This time I saw a couple of better size pike cruising around (6, maybe 7 pound). It’s always ace to actually see pike in the water you are fishing (polaroids are a must) but at the same time my heart sank as it was pretty clear they were not going to chase a fly. Perhaps we were too close to the end of spawning? We dragged our flies literally past their noses and they backed away in contempt. These fish were in the middle of the bay, the only interest we got was from jacks in the margins. It was one of these that finally took Stu’s fly.
A quick scrap ensued (Stu and the pike, not me and Stu..) and we had a handsome little jack pike in the boat!
This was our only fish of the day although we did get a couple more follows off cheeky little pike. A ‘meh’ day for me if I’m honest but I needed to get out and get some more blog content so at least that’s one box ticked!
