Tengisgol & Pavlov’s pike

‘As you are reading this, the weather will be warming with spring soon upon us. The first swallows may have arrived and our attention will be turning to cunning plans and a bit of ‘fish conditioning’ of our own.’

It is all a matter of conditioning. I’m musing on fishes’ behaviour and the relationship with us fishers, having spent so much of this March afternoon in the company of a single pike. Despite the fact he remained in his (or her?) watery element and me in mine, we were so close it felt like we should be on first name terms. Perhaps I should be taking him to ‘The Fox’ for a pint this evening?

Pavlov’s Pike

As you can already tell, I didn’t catch him, although I can describe his physical characteristics as if I had. For example, he had a slightly damaged right ‘scissor’, no doubt following a run-in with a less than careful angler. You see, he literally spent the whole day at my feet. Imagine if you will, a child sat on the carpet beside the storyteller, or a collie at the legs of his master with beady eyes transfixed upwards in anticipation. That was ‘my’ pike, except he was on a gravel run, in twelve inches of chalk stream water and not on fine Axminster or the porch tiles.

Pike aren’t supposed to be the most intelligent of creatures but he utterly knew what he was up to. He knew, if I were lucky enough to hook a dace or a roach, I’d have to bring it right past his snarly, evil, teeth-ridden chops. A very easy meal, minimum effort for maximum gain, a predator’s nirvana. A sort of home delivery service; ‘Just Eat’ for pike perhaps! I’m certain there was also an element of mischief in the game, such was the look on his face (albeit that was possibly his misshapen grin…).

“Go on!” he seemed to be saying, “go on, Mr…, bring one past here and see what happens…!”

So, I did, several in fact, but I was up to his game and skimmed big dace and roach over his back, too fast for that one, but I had an advantage as I could see which way he was facing. In the end I had him quite dizzy.

Mostly, when faced with this conundrum, I will ‘up sticks’ and move elsewhere but at the back-end of the season it seems that pike are doing this in almost every spot. Perhaps something to do with an aggressiveness linked to spawning? I moved once due to a troublesome pike when fishing the Hampshire Avon and Izaak rewarded me with a monster redfin, so that is always in my mind. Izaak does reward good behaviour in my experience.

Symbiotic relationships are fascinating. Many years ago, a friend and I were staying with Leo in Amsterdam and between fishing trips we had a wander around his district, canals in all directions of course. We came across an angler fishing for roach, rudd, or possibly both. Leo called them ‘wheat’. Anyhow, stood beside the seated angler was a heron and every second or third fish the angler caught was dropped in the edge as a feathery meal. It had to be a regular thing, or how else would the heron know when to arrive, where to sit, and what was going to happen? Perhaps it was their ‘Thursday club’.

“Same time and place next week, Guv?” (In Dutch of course).

I wish I could find the photograph, after searching everywhere it hasn’t surfaced. ‘Pavlov the Pike’ reminded me of that heron.

Now the season has ended and we move into the spring months; many of us will begin to think about summer angling. Some, being serious and dedicated to their pursuit, will start a fish conditioning ‘campaign’ of their own, the idea being to bait some well-chosen spots and condition the fish to finding free food. Lured into a sense of false security before the new season begins, they will have a surprise when a baited hook is added to the mix on June 16th.

This isn’t a new concept and Falkus and Buller report the pre-baiting for barbel with thousands of worms over a century ago. Richard Walker was not averse to ‘fish conditioning’ either, by way of pre-baiting in the closed season. I have a letter here from February 1964 where he lays out his thoughts in contemplation of a June 16th start. Dick and Fred J. Taylor were concerned about the ‘grave disadvantages’ of which they often found themselves, being so far from Redmire, as to make it impossible to keep a few spots clear of weed and well baited for the opening day. The answer was to find someone more local to do the work for them (the recipient of the letter!). The prize would be four days fishing as Dick’s guest, in pre-baited swims, on the opening day at Redmire Pool. Well, who is ever going to turn that one down?

“Meanwhile, keep it all quiet” said Walker.

All part of the fun of course, because we like to have our little spots and plans to ourselves, don’t we? Their baiting campaign consisted of thirty-six loaves of bread, over six visits, and a quantity of ‘B. Beans’ (Heinz perhaps?). I often wonder how they got on but all I can say for certain is that they didn’t break the record that week. I think we’d have heard of it.

As you are reading this, the weather will be warming with spring soon upon us. The first swallows may have arrived and our attention will be turning to cunning plans and a bit of ‘fish conditioning’ of our own. For myself, I have my eye on some swims on a local river; summer tench perhaps, maybe a bream or two, or even a carp. Effort equals reward although, to be honest, it will just be pleasant enough to sit out on a summer’s riverbank, with the sun on my face. If I have managed to tempt a few fish to my pre-baited spot, well that will be a bonus.

Ripe For Prebaiting

‘Pavlov the Pike’ however, well he will have wondered where everyone has gone for the last three months but he need not worry too much. I will be back in the stream soon enough and if he comes and sits at my feet again, I’ll have a bag of sprats at the ready when he rings the bell.

Writing & Images Tengisgol, April 2023