Trip #114 – Somerset River – First Blood: Pike Season 2024 Gets off the mark!

A quick morning session to mark the start of the 2024 pike season, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Early season pike fishing on unfamiliar river stretches is a bit of an unknown quantity – but everything I’d read suggested the same thing: cover ground, keep moving, and don’t get too comfortable in one spot.

With the air temperature still at a reasonable level, spinning felt like the obvious choice. I’d done my homework and had it on good authority that the Fox Replicant UX Roach lures were doing the damage, so I swung by TackleUK, grabbed a few, and gleaned what intel I could from the lads behind the counter. Always worth a visit.

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The Setup

• Rod 1: Savage Gear Parabellum Spin 15-34g paired with a Shimano 4000FG – 50lb braid
• Rod 2: Greys 7ft Jerkbait Rod paired with an Abu Garcia Max Pro Baitcaster – 50lb braid

Arriving at the river, I was surprised to find it considerably busier than expected. Not ideal when you’re targeting a predator that spooks easily. I moved away from the group of lads who’d set up nearby and found a bit of space to start working through the swim.

The first few casts were less about fishing and more about getting to grips with the baitcaster – a reel I’d never actually used before. I’ll be honest, there’s a bit of a learning curve with spool control, but once you’ve got your head around it, it clicks into place pretty quickly. (Standby for an easy-peasy how-to guide on that one.)

After half a dozen casts and one slightly embarrassing bird’s nest, I decided to move on.

Crossing to the opposite bank, the second cast – bang. A pike of around 5-6lbs engulfed the Replicant and gave a decent account of itself before sliding into the net. First session, first fish. I’ll take that.

The commotion of landing the fish, however, had the inevitable effect. Within minutes, the lads I’d walked away from earlier were making their way up the bank towards me. I packed up and wandered down to another four or five positions, but the weed growth was still heavy – every retrieve came back festooned with great clumps of eel grass, making any kind of presentation tricky.

I did have one interesting moment – a patch of silver fish being absolutely smashed on the surface by something unseen. Could have been a decent pike, could have been a perch. I gave it another thirty minutes to see if it would show itself, but whatever it was had other ideas.

Eventually I called it and headed back to the car. Not a bad start to the season at all – a fish on the first session, on a new venue, with a reel I’d never used before. Let’s hope it was a sign of things to come.