THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Dave and Paul went straight for the mackerel. But curious to see what might happen, I put on a whole
calamari, and amazingly that produced the first fish of the day.
So I quickly learned to expect the unexpected, such as those occasions when good double figure pike
are fairly hooked in the mouth by fly anglers fishing the smallest of imitative patterns, including tiny
nymphs.
Then there was the day I was trolling a very small spinner on Coniston for char. As we passed a ridge
of rock protruding out into the lake which obviously shallowed the water off and provided a very good
ambush point for predators, I hooked up a pike which must have been high teens to low twenties.
I even managed to get it up to the landing net, which considering I was fishing four pounds bs line and
no wire trace wasn't bad going.
The loss, when it finally did come, was at the net. Trying to bend such a big fish into such a small net
at the surface was the final straw. All that thrashing and crashing, then it was gone.
Perhaps the most unusual pike fishing I've ever come across, more of which in Part 2 looking at venues
outside the British Isles, was in the Baltic Sea.
Without giving too much away here or
repeating myself later, in the Baltic, the
less dense freshwater floats on top of
the more dense saltwater, which in the
shallower areas brings two very
different worlds closer together to the
point that on the same day within a very
short distance you can catch pike, cod,
garfish, salmon and sea trout. How
amazing is that.
Releasing Pike Coniston
different then to stimulate the appetite.
For us, not big pike unfortunately. But
some of the boats and guides who were
specifically targeting pike were seeing
fish which in anybody’s book were
truly monstrous. Something a little
And something a little different back on home soil was a recorded conversation I had with Somerset
pike enthusiast Danny Parkins, who talks in great detail about lure fishing for pike after dark, which in
his opinion is a better option than fishing the same marks during in daylight.
Similarly, a very detailed interview looking at tackle and tactics for big pike on the fly with pike guide
and multiple world fly fishing champion John Horsey.
Associated audio interview numbers: 48, 98 and 166.
SILVER EEL Anguilla anguilla
Bucket List status – result
Not a fish that is going to trouble freshwater anglers in terms of identification, though it might lead to
a bit of confusion with small conger eels at sea. Conger have a large eye, an upper jaw that is longer
than the lower, and a dorsal fin which starts pretty much level with the tip of the pectoral fin.
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