Pike Fishing, Barden Lake, Tonbridge

It's the wiggle, and the glitteryness!!

Barden Lake, Tonbridge, Kent. TN9 1. UK

"I know your here!"

As it's coming to the end of the pike season, It was time to have a last session at my nemesis pike venue. I know that it's full of pike, I've seen 2 x 30lb+ caught with my own eyes, frustratingly listened  to stories of carp anglers catching dozens on lures to pass the time. And this is where I learnt to fish, my training/stomping ground. As a small boy I would use a small dart float casting into the natural holes in the weeds to catch roach, tench, rudd and perch, I know this water like the back of my hand. Or do I?? I've only caught maybe 7 pike over 20 years from this venue, the biggest was 19lb,and not one on lures, but considering that I've fished it at least 10 times per year, I cant help but wonder if my faith in this venue is ill placed.

Fresh oily herring

I set off early with my girlfriend Sarah, my new fishing partner. and arrived just before dawn, I had only done this a few times before here, but the thought, that maybe the pike would be more confident feeding closer to the bank in the morning before all the walkers, children, dogs, and bikes stampede the path that goes around the lake, and believe me, it can get very busy and noisy! I had just bought 2 x 9" Shakespere ugly stik lite spinning rods which Sarah was dying to try out, as she likes the more active huntsman type fishing, I decided to try two static dead bait rods and let her spin, covering a few options to increasing the chances of a fish or two.

Running ledger pike rig

We set up in the dark, I picked our first swim as I knew there was a very large deep hole about 10m out, the first thing I done was ground baited the front and back ledge of the hole with some predator ground bait, which I added lots of small pieces of chopped up herring and mackerel, this again was something I hadn't tried before, using groundbait for pike and committing myself to a swim, I normally fish mobile for pike, but this hadn't bought me much luck here before. Using my trusted Fox warrior 2.5lb carp rods and Shimano ST 6000RA bait runners with 15lb mono line, I set up two running ledger rods, with 18" homemade 20lb traces with size 6 barbless hooks, I used a syringe to put air into two 8" fresh herrings to pop the baits up in the water to keep them from being hidden on the bottom in the weeds. Again this was something new for me at this venue, but made perfect sense. The baits were in, and the sun started to rise, I watched for signs of shoal fish breaking on the surface but strangely didn't see any.

Spoon of the day!

Sarah started spinning with a mixed selection of lures, casting in and around my swim, and off my bite alarm sounded!! A run, and a big one!!! on the rod on the far ledge, I picked the rod up, felt the tension and struck, I always strike quite early with pike as I'd rather loose a few than deep hook them. The line went slack???? what? I reeled in, I could feel the small bomb bouncing through the weed as it headed straight at me, about 10m to my left and close to the bank. At first I thought Sarah had caught my line spinning but she was to my right. I kept reeling in, and at about 3m from the bank the bomb meet the trace and bait, but no fish!?! the fish had picked the bait up and swam straight to the bank! when I struck, I moved the bomb but just took up slack!, this was a time when my early strike policy worked against me. but it was action and 100% more than I had all season here. So I decided to stick with the ledgered deadbait plan. and joined Sarah in spinning to keep me busy.

Pike 1

Pike 2

The sun briefly came out for the first time, and bang Sarah was in! she hooked and landed a pike, only a jack, but a pike! it was taken on a 3" silver spoon. Whilst I opted for deep and medium diving plugs of around 6" looking for a bigger fish, in fact any fish. The sun went away as quickly as it appeared. The bite alarms were silent for the rest of the day, except for the few times I recast. The sun reappeared and bang again Sarah was into another jack pike on the same spoon, As I unhooked the fish she said to me, "You know its the wiggle and the glitteryness of the sun that does it!" And you know what! she's right of coarse. Because what worked for her in four hours, hadn't ever worked for me as I've never caught a pike in over 400 hours during 20 years of lure fishing this lake, But that's fishing!!! She done well, and I'm not to proud to admit that I had been watching and copying her wiggle technique. At least I know there are still pike here, because I was really beginning to doubt it! And no doubt I'll be back next season looking for that 30lber.

"Could this be why I don't catch to many pike?"