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Cracking The Fens

Ian Hewett 

As I have grown up I have often seen pictures of anglers in the fishing press holding very impressive pike and zander on the bank's of an often unnamed drain. So at the age of thirty five I decided to get up there and get myself in the frame. 

I had the good fortune of taking an eighteen pound Pike in late September in Southern Ireland a wonderful clean and wild fish this put me on the path of the Pike in a not so far off venue.  The Fens a flat and fertile land crisscrossed by hundreds of drains, first stop was the Cambridge Fish Preservation and Angling Society. I had a good surf around their web site (the best club site I have come across). As soon as I read the words thirty miles of river, four pits and 3 lakes for eighteen pounds I could not get the cheque book out quick enough!!. 

I come from Essex a place not blessed with much rivers so the Fens seems like an anglers playground. In the site was an article for predator anglers and the place that drew my interest is the hundred foot river, a man made tidal drainage channel that stretches for 15 miles and sometimes has the odd flatfish, seatrout and seal in it. It also said a challenge for the pioneering piker so I puffed my chest out and thought that sounds like me. On my first sight of the river, you cannot see the water as you drive by as the banks are above the line of sight, I thought were on earth do I start.

After a mile or so I came to a bend with some room for a car so thought sod it lets get on with it. As I was setting up my third rod I had a run, stood there staring as line peeled off the spool not expecting anything so quick, when I came round I grabbed the rod put the bail arm over and pulled into a snag which eventually revealed it self as a ugly root thing. The only other action was a nibble during the night, which melted away. The rain set in on the Saturday night and stayed with me into Sunday but I fished hard leapfrogging the rods covering water as best I could but the time came for me to go as the light faded. 

On the second session I moved down stream and had a fish round Sutton Gault bridge with little success and with the light going I decided on a "Yomp".  I put in provisions for the night and next day and removed things I could do without, I put my jacket in my rucksack to avoid getting sweated up on the move, then moved at speed a mile or so upstream and settled in for the night. I had two Lamprey sections and a mackerel out on running ledgers.  I noticed this side of river has a high growth of reeds, which make the margins soggy and tricky to land a fish from a point to remember next time as the other side has very clean fishable margins. At 6.00pm I had a twitchy type take on the mackerel rod.  Not wanting a deep hooked fish I pulled into the fish which came to the margin easily.  I could see the jack in front of me raising its head out of the water and I was thinking of getting the net to it when it decided to wake up and thrash the water and leave me with a bare treble!!!. What a shame not a big fish but would of made the difference between an ok session and good one. 

Third session saw me go down stream from Sutton Gault, I put in a good hike as I enjoyed the long walk for the exercise and looked at the wildlife as I went.  As the weather was on my side for the moment I started leapfrogging the rods, which must be beneficial as you cover so much ground.  On the forth leapfrog I had a bite on a Mackerel pumped up with winterised sardine oil again a twitchy bite.  I picked the rod up and pulled in to the fish which came to the margin.  I could make out the size of the fish around the ten pound mark.  As I grabbed the net and got myself into position, she simply let go of the fish as if to say "I've gone off your smelly seafish". 

She was just holding the bait and not hooked the air turned slightly blue!!!. At least I learned a couple points, pumping up with oil seems to help as a plain bait was fished for a couple hours then a bite comes directly after the oil was injected. The other point is smaller baits or cut down fish would help. Jumbo mackerel may look good but it seems too much flesh so they can miss the hooks. Never mind its come to the fourth session and the Hundred Foot is in flood so a pit was called for. 

On arriving I used my Carp locating senses to find a good swim. A strong warm, well warm for winter South Westerly was blowing into the far bank with sunshine, the best weather so far on my Fen trips. So I proceeded to set up facing the wind hoping that any food would be brought here and draw in the prey, which the pike would follow. Having got my rods out with three different baits at 12.30pm I went on to change/move the bait every hour. Then at 3.30 pm, whilst my back was turned baiting another rod I had a very positive snatch off the Gardner clip. I grabbed the rod put the bail arm over and watched as line pulled tight, what a wonderful sight after so much effort.  I pulled into the fish and winched the pike from the pit one little tail walk and she was mine safely in the net.  She pulled the scales round to a modest 8lb but made me a very happy angler!.  Later that night a single bleep on the Delkim had my eyes wide open as I was slumped on the bedchair then another snatch pulled the line from the clip and my homemade bite indicator rattled against the bank stick as it fell back, sheer joy!!. I had my boots in position and headlamp in one boot so I swing and plop into the boots. 

I grabbed the rod bale arm over shining my headlamp on to the limp line my total concentration on a couple foot of mono like nothing else mattered in the world. This time there was no tightening up so I wound up the slack and relished feeling the weight of a good fish in mid water. After years of catching fish you get inbuilt sense of the size of a fish. Not much fuss from this critter, healthy pumps brought an angry pike towards the net a bit of flaring up and showing off and she was mine.  What a delight! All 10 lb 8oz of her, again not a huge fish but when you have hit few blanks you become very grateful. The bait that did the trick on both fish was headless Joey pumped up with a good shot of sardine oil. Any Lunatics out there ? (People who follow Moon Phases!) might like to know I caught the second pike at 21.00 and the Moon Rise for that night was 20.56 Spooky stuff !!!. 

After spending some time with Alastair Rawlings in Co Roscommon, Ireland who is a huge believer in Moon Theory and feeding triggers so I decided to study the moon and its effect on our fishing.  I find it absolutely fascinating that we could predict when a fish will feed. My research is in the early stages but I hope to come to some conclusions on this theory during next year. I like to keep an open mind on anything that helps me catch more pike, any extra help is welcome as I believe catching large pike is no easy task. As my strenuous exertion on the Hundred Foot shows.