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Thorpe Park 'Pike In' - In Search of Big Snappers !

Paul Garner

Blimey, the journey down the M6 from Lakeland to the South never seems to get any easier. Its late on a Friday evening and I'm going as fast as my little old car will go down the motorway, destination Thorpe Park, home of monster snappers and our stamping ground for the next two days. How things have changed, at our first fish in, barely six months ago we had about fifteen people present. Since then the list has really taken off and what with Jim Hickey of Second Chance coming 'on line', we now have a good cause to support, as well as just having a good laugh. Where was I, oh yeah, back to the motorway, zzzzz.

The alarm clock wakes me far too early, I reach for the rod but it isn't there - bugger, foiled again. I was having one of those recurring dreams, you know the ones all carp anglers suffer from every now and then, especially after a night on the ginger ale. The glow of the evening sun on your back, crouched behind a bush. Watching a monster carp feeding in the margins. Willing it to pick up the hook bait. When all of a sudden the bloody alarm clock goes off. Always happens, just as she's about to make a mistake .... These last few nights the dream had changed. Now I was sitting astride a ferocious looking creature, half pike, half eel, trying to get the hooks out before it toppled us both into the lake. Strange indeed - I suspect the amateur psychiatrists out there could explain that one !

By 6.30 we had managed to negotiate the M25 and after a quick tour of Staines found Thorpe. That we got there so early was a result in itself. I was being chauffeured around by big Gordy, my zander fishing svengali. Now, the only reason Gordon fishes for zeds is that they feed in the evenings, meaning he can spend far more hours studying the inside of his eyelids than is healthy for a man of his age. So, it had taken an extreme act of self motivation for him to leave his pit so early. Blimey, there were already a dozen blokes in the car park, including the Dorset boys, Stu and Richard. Far too keen these boys for my liking ! We dragged the gear out of the car and found Geoff, who looked like we felt. After rounding up his various bits of paper that were blowing around the car park, we paid our raffle money and set off into the gloom. Where do you start when faced with four hundred acres of water ? Normally my answer is the first swim I come to, or the swim closest to the toilet / sweet shop but alas the bridge swim was taken and the toilet shut for the duration. What next, well we followed the edge of the lake until we reached the Thorpe Park Belle. This is a large Mississippi paddle steamer moored in one of the bays. Now, we had been told that this was a hot spot but rightly or wrongly we decided to apply a bit of reverse psychology and keep on walking. The reason being that pike are fickle creatures and as the lake had been open the previous two weekends the pressure on the 'Belle' may have driven them off to pastures new.

We reached the railway and found our progress blocked by a large St Bernard dressed in a Policeman's uniform - strange place Thorpe Park ! So we'd been walking for half an hour and were now lost in the middle of an amusement park, suddenly Stu spotted a glint of blue through the dodgems and was off, the rest of us in tow. We dropped the gear on a spit of land jutting out into what appeared to be the North Sea and surveyed the back half of the pit, known as the 'Manor'. The wind was blowing across over a hundred acres of water straight at us. Bugger it, I can't be bothered to walk any further, this'll do for me. The only minor problem was the half dozen or so power cables stretched out across the bay - now if they're plugged in this could be a stimulating experience ! The left had rod was cast towards a sunken Viking long boat (!) and the right hand rod placed on a drop off next to a line of yellow buoys, looking like giant apples bobbing in a bucket.

By ten we'd seriously depleted our reserves of blueberry doughnuts and almost as importantly failed to stir a single indication from the pike. Time for us to search out an unsuspecting victim for our food raids ! We moved 50 yards to the front lake but because of the shape of the lake we were fishing perhaps a quarter of a mile (in fishy terms) from where we had begun. The wind was now behind us, time to get out the drifters and let 'em have it. This was more like it, there was a large drop - off about forty yards out that the resident Grebe was working along, looks like we'd found the bait fish atleast. Gordy wandered off and returned with news that four twenties had been landed already. That sinking feeling started to set in, we had made a big mistake somewhere along the line ....

After an hour, I can't settle in the new swim and the doughnut level is getting critical, so its off for a wander to find out the latest news and relieve big Jim of a few porcine baps (sausage rolls to you mate !). Unbelievably, there have now been five twenties out along with a couple of nineteen's and a few smaller fish. We've made a cock-up good and proper ! Time for another move and after refuelling on Jim's goodies we're off again. This time we end up fishing the 'pontoon' outside the booking office. For some reason, this is the only bit of available bank on this bit of the lake - perhaps the fact that there have been twenties from either side of it has something to do with it ! Confident that the we were now in the right spot its was out with the baits and sit back and await events.

And wait, and wait, and wait. After the first couple of hours the lake died completely, the only fish to be seen were the tiddlers under the Belle and a few unfortunates caught by the resident Grebes. I entertained Paul Freeman with my drifter fishing prowess - I've got 300 yards of braid on this baitrunner and I'm gonna use it ! There can be few nicer ways of pike fishing than with the drifters - imagine pike fishing and model boating combined and you get the idea ! After watching me for a couple of hours Stevie Hill decided he wanted to have a go and borrowed my last drifter float, on pain of death if he lost it. Now, Steve might be alright at catching carp but he ain't got much idea about pike and on his second cast he lobbed the drifter fifty yards out into the lake where upon my expensive float spontaneously exploded into a dozen pieces. Dick, Pete Deckett and Andy Grantham fell about in fits of laughter, accompanied by much cursing from Mr Hill. With no more drifter floats forthcoming, for Steve to sacrifice to the pike, he resorted to making his own. All those years watching Blue Peter seem to be to no avail as his hook packet and polyball creation looks rather Heath Robinson ! We start a book on how long it will last, Pete reckoned it wouldn't even float, but we are all proven wrong as it seemed to work OK. If only the vane was a bit bigger it might actually drift ! I returned to my rods and chucked the drifter float in the margins - watch this Steve, bet my one goes faster and further than yours ! Half an hour later my vane is virtually out of sight, while Steve's livebait has decided to have a rest and stop towing the float about. Becalmed about twenty yards out Steve admited defeat and swears that he prefers 'stalking 'em in the margins' anyway !

Sunday dawned much the same as Saturday. We were all eager to get back down to Thorpe and make the most of the dawn start. Many plans had been hatched over a pint in the local pub the previous night and we all had our own idea of where we wanted to be. I made a be-line for the Thorpe Park Belle as it had produced some good fish the previous day and the bay was absolutely heaving with fry. I found a nice spot about halfway along the spit opposite the Belle and fished a couple of paternostered trout tight to the boat. Using the line clip on my baitrunners I could position the baits within a few feet of the side of the boat. With the previous days action coming at dawn, it appeared that low light levels were crucial and by fishing almost under the boat we would have good conditions all day long.

The conditions were perfect and we were convinced that more big fish were on the cards. The pike had other ideas and although there were around 60 anglers fishing on the Sunday, only seven pike were caught, the largest of which was a 13 pounder. I fared a little better and managed three fish from three runs, although the largest was only about 7 pounds and the others were little bigger than the baits ! Just my luck ! Atleast I was nice and close to Jim Hickey's butty emporium so we were kept well fed and in stitches all day. Interestingly, the fish caught on the Sunday came later in the day and the fish we caught from the Belle swims were giving drop backs, indicating that the fish were swimming away from the boat. Perhaps only the big fish were feeding under the low light conditions ?

I reckon we witnessed something a little bit special on the first morning. The first two hours produced five twenty pound plus fish, including a 24.8 pound fish for Simon Lintott (his first ever) - Simon never stopped grinning the whole weekend ! Other notables were a 25 pounder, the biggest of the weekend to Bob Hamblin, and a 20.14 to Stuart Turner. The fishing couldn't continue like this though and after the initial two hours we were made to struggle. The rest of the first day resulted in only a handfull of fish with one more biggy, a 24 pounder caught by Steve Scrutton, tight to the Belle, at last knockings.

At the end of the two days we had raised over £800 for Second Chance, caught some fabulous fish and most importantly of all had a good laugh. I even managed to win a prize in the raffle (jammy Garner wins again ...). Most consistent angler was young Joe Edwards who managed a pike each day, along with some bullheads caught from the margins. Well done Joe ! Thanks to Geoff, Steve and Jim for organising the event, Leisure Sport for giving us the use of the lake, to Grays, Relum, John Roberts, Harris Angling and Ryobi for donating prizes and to everyone who gave money to this deserving charity - roll on the next one !