Happy Birthday Mick

'Spring is defiantly in the air' I foolishly suggested in my last post. What I meant to say is that winter is here to stay. Forever. Well, that's how it felt at 6am this morning as I struggled along an untreated road on the way to pick up my wing-man. Funny, if I'd looked out of the window and seen snow like that a few months ago I'd have been on the phone to Mick to cancel our trip straight away. Tenacity, it would seem, is one of our better human qualities.

Arriving at our destination nice and early was quite a nice feeling, even if the blizzard falling on our heads wasn't. We established camp at one of our favorite spots and set about offering the pike our deadbaits. Little did they know, but we had booby trapped them with size 6 trebles! How cunning.

The river was in fair condition considering the weather. It was a little coloured but the level wasn't too bad. All in all, and considering the time of day, we felt confident of some action. Now is the time of year that the pike start to put on weight, ready for spawning, so a fish that was 17lb 8oz a few weeks ago might be... bigger now.

The snow lasted all morning and it was quite cold to go with it. The river was obviously asleep as hardly anything stirred. Despite this, Mick did have a couple of runs that unfortunatly came to nothing. Small jacks again me thinks.

The weather cheered up by lunch time and, almost as soon as the sun began to break through the ever-present clouds, Micks float began to indicate some real interest. This time the float bobbed properly and moved off steadily to the right. This fish meant business.

Micks strike instantly forced his 2.5lb test curve rod into a healthy bend. The fish held on and stayed deep. For a moment we wondered what could be, niether of us having the nerve to suggest what we hoped might be on the end. The fish finally came to the surface. Clearly not a high double, but a double all the same!

I did the honours with the net and soon Micks personal best of exactly 10lb was posing for the camera.

A cup of tea was in order to celebrate Mick's triumph. It was one of those moments for me where it didn't matter which one of us had caught the fish. I was as happy for Mick with his PB as I would have been with my own. This is what fishing is all about - moments like these.

Spring had finally won its battle with the snow as the weather changed dramatically from snowy and cold to... well, er, not so cold and sunny. The contrast between the weather in the morning and the afternoon could not be more stark.

With this warmer weather came the spinning rods. But after thrashing the water to a foam for an hour or so, we gave in to the fact that it was probably too cold for the fish to be chasing bits of metal about. It kept Mick quiet for a bit though (hehe!) We bought the spinning outfits a while ago now and we've been itching for a chance to take the celophane off of them!

A well earned pint on the way home was a fitting end to the day. Happy Birthday Mick and well done with that PB.