Winky and Myself had decided on a certain fenland venue to start the season at, and what a start it turned out to be! First cast produced a small jack for Wink, this being followed by him dropping a good fish that left his Mackerel deadbait looking a tad sorry for itself. I then had my first run of the session, this turned out to be my first fish on one of my new pair of Fox Predator XS rods and weighed in at just under 15lb; a good start to the season.

We both went on to land a few more fish to near double figures; but then my luck got even better as I received another run on my other new "virgin" rod. I struck into what I first expected to be a Jack, but the bend the new 3 1/4lb TC rod soon developed suggested otherwise! The fish stayed deep with just the odd kick of the rod, and as it neared the bank it stripped braid for a short distance off a very tightly set clutch. As the fish hit the surface I began to wonder; it was a decent fish and the possibility of a 20 was running through my mind. Wink did a grand job with the net and we were soon looking down at a pristine conditioned Pike; but would it make 20? The fish was relatively empty as I would have expected for this time of year; but it certainly looked healthy. On the scales, it weighed in at 20lb 8oz; my third 20 and my second biggest ever!

After this I sat back totally content; Smug probably being the correct word in fact. I had once again remembered just why I get out of bed in freezing cold conditions and go fishing. Hopefully I'll be able to make it a couple of 20's for this season; I'm certainly up for the challenge!

You'll notice that there aren't any pictures. This isn't because I didn't take any, but because they are species that do not tolerate over angling pressure. I personally feel that editing pictures to remove the background just ruins a perfectly good picture, so I will put the pictures up on my site at the end of the River season.