1979 - Pikers Dawn on the South Drain

Evocative images, as we just waited for a run. The usual ledgered big mackeral deadbaits out over a box of chop.

Sitting and waiting.....

 

1979 - Peat Diggings on the Levels

This is what a drain looks inside like when its being cut through the peat. Photo taken near Burtle I think.

1979 - Sunset over Cheddar (or Axbridge) Reservoir

Cheddar (or Axbridge) Reservoir at dusk. An amazing sunset over the Mendips. Sitting it out on the "V" swim over a couple of mackeral deadbaits in the Autumn.

1979 - Dusk on the South Drain

Dusk on the South Drain in 1979. No idea what I caught, if anything! Taken on the South Drain on the Somerset Levels. Almost certainly was sitting it out with two large mackeral deadbaits over a chop carpet.

1979 - Pumped and Iced Up South Drain

Photo taken in 1979 when the South Drain was frozen and was then pumped cracking all the ice. An amazing sight!

1979 - The RIver Brue in Flood

Up over the banks. A long time ago!

1979 - Pikers Dawn on the South Drain

A long time ago. The water is a shadow of its former self now. Blame otters, nods and a decline in the bream shoals.

1979 - My First 20lb Pike was 28lb 4oz caught in February 1979.

This was the same fish as Steve Greens December 1978 28lb fish. Caught from a drain on the Somerset Levels in very cold weather.

This time it was caught 200 yards away on the entrance to a side drain. The pike was swimming into the cut out of the main flow. Cold weather and snow had meant the water had flooded and was being pumped. Roach and bream were at that time shoaled up in the cut.

It took a small joey whole mackeral. A little bit of history!

I had a set of two identical rods and Abu Cardinal 66x reels. My gear consisted of mono 15lb Maxima line, an SS6 fibreglass rod, no unhooking mat etc. Plus no way of taking photos easily! Lion D'Or size 6 treble hooks on 30lb Marlinsteel tracewire.

Bait was freelined below the rod tip. The only run of the day from memory. No buzzers then, just had home made drop-off bobbins. A good start to my piking career when I was 19 years old I think.

My bible was the Ray Webb and Barry Rickards "Fishing for Big Pike" book. Though I never found a permanent "hotspot" as they used to describe the Fenland ones.

1978 - 28lb to Steve Green. The first 20lb PIke I ever saw!

Arrived at the drain one day and saw a young guy struggling with a big pike he had just caught on a freelined sprat.

Helped him handle it and took some pictures. Primative camera with no flash. Photo was on negative film.

Steve Green lived locally and was in the Royal Engineers. What happened to him I wonder?

The fish proved to be the biggest in the water and was reputed to have reached 30lb. I caught it at 28-4 a few weeks later in February 1979.

Leeches on a Pike Deadbait

Retrieved deadbaits last Monday while fishing on the Somerset Levels.

They might be small horse leeches, Britain's largest leech species, which can grow to over 15 cm in length. They are not particularly uncommon, and despite their size and name, they do not suck mammalian blood, instead feeding on invertebrates and decomposing flesh. Or they could be one of a number of smaller leech species, which feed on invertebrates, fish, amphibians or waterbirds.

Interesting hey? What they are NOT are fish leeches that we frequently see on pike in UK waters.