Fenland Pike Session

With
Mark Barrett

UKMA have been fortunate enough to spend a day on the bank with arguably the number one authority on predator angling on the Fenland drains Mark Barrett. After a bit of banter and offers of a hearty breakfast at the legendary “Green Welly”, we were able to charm Mark into giving up some of his valuable time to pass on some of the tactics and basic skills that have over the years made Mark a very highly respected member of the countries predation fraternities.

On a very cold yet bright late January winters morning, we headed off up the A141 to the Café for breakfast. Now for those of you who don’t know Mark he is far from being a small man, in fact he would be best described as being the “before” poster boy for Anorexia UK (he’s a real big un!!) So after the ritual sacrificing of half a pig to the Gods of Belly and a downing a cup of coffee or two we were on our way to a secret little spot on the Fenland Drains in the middle of nowhere.

Upon Arrival we set up our rods and set out our traps for the day’s session. Mark decided to fished three rods, he had two with dead baits that were cast to the far shelf and near margin using basic float ledger rigs. Mark then fished his third rod down the middle, using a simple helicopter rig with a small Skimmer Bream as live bait. I opted for a two rod approach using dead baits presented on basic float ledger rigs down the shelf about 4m from either margin, let the games commence.

With our traps in place this gave me an opportunity to have a proper chat with Mark and get to know the man as well as the angler. He first started out as a teenager over twenty years ago writing predator articles and features. After numerous rejections Mark finally got his break about twenty years ago when he had his first article published in the now gone Angling Times publication “Coarse Fishing Today” and this was only the start.

Over the past two decades Mark has written literally hundreds of articles and features that have appeared in virtually every respected publication to hit the shelves during that time, including Pike & Predator and more recently as a regular columnist in the Anglers Mail. During this time he has featured in numerous DVD’s and Books but the pinnacle of his career was the release of Fenland Pike in 2009 which was co-written with his long time angling companion and friend Denis Moules.

Mark has had to build his reputation based purely around hard work and dedication to the sport that he has loved for so many years. He has earned his stripes the hard way and deserves the credit that has been put on him. Rather than being a glory hunter and writing his own headlines by targeting the big fish venues, he has worked hard and reaped the rewards from his efforts, when about 2 years ago he was sponsored by Fox International and more recently Dynamite Baits.

Enough of the sloppy stuff, back to the pike, I now had to stop the interview as I noticed steady movement on my far bank float, after a steady movement the float disappeared and Mark shouted “Hit it then”. So I grabbed my rod and did what exactly what any good carp angler would do, I leaned into the fish as normal and lost it!! Now this is the point that Mark turned from Cringer to Battle Cat and found it appropriate to recite the Tourette’s dictionary to me, he was not impressed.

So I re-baited the rig and re-cast to the same spot, to return to Mark for some more of his playful abuse based upon my angling skills and lack of oomph on the strike. He went on to explain that when fishing for predators, they can have a habit of swimming towards you on the take. To eliminate anymore fish losses I should crank down until I feel the weight of the fish and then give it some teddy, which on my next take I forgot all about and deservedly took another load of abuse from the now irate Mark.

Call it beginners luck but lo and behold my near margin float started to drift into the middle at some speed and this time I got it right, I took Mark's advice and upon the strike the rod bent over and it was fish on!! A small but perfectly formed Jack pike about 5lb slid over the net and things were starting to happen, well for some of us anyway. To his dismay Mark's rods had shown as much life as a morgue on a Sunday and he was now really taking some abuse back from the pupil, Justice!!

Nearly 2 hours had passed and I had landed one fish and missed two others, I was now becoming very confident and really enjoying the session. Then like a Wildebeast being chased by a Lion, Mark flew towards his rods as his far margin float disappeared under the cold slivery surface. Now it was very lucky that Mark landed this fish as it could have potentially choked to death on his dead bait it was that small, still another fish on the bank with plenty of daylight left, things were looking good.

Over the next hour or so, over a few cups of coffee, we discussed all manner of things, everything from general fishing, tackle, baits and how the sport had changed over the years for both better and worse with solid opinions from both sides being considered. After sometime Mother Nature decided that I had to water the garden and I decided to be discrete and move away from the area that we were fishing in, which turned out to be a very big mistake and change Mark's luck dramatically.

No sooner had the flood gates opened when Mark screamed out “you’ve got a take on your far rod” . There was no stopping the flow so I had to concede and let Mark take the fish. I returned to the swim just in time to net what turned out to be a 16lb 9oz pristine Fenland pike for Mark, which he claimed as his fish even though it was on my tackle, a bit dodgy if you ask my opinion but to be totally honest, I would have done exactly the same if the shoe was on the other foot.

Now my luck was to take another couple of fortunate turns before the session was over. First off I had another run this time remembering the immortal word that had been drilled into me on my previous missed take “hit it you Twat” I took up the slack and banged into yet another small fish that weighed in at around 9lb.I baited up with another whole mackerel and recast and just before we were about to pack up, my far bank rod went again to produce a stunning 15lb 5oz beauty for the camera, job done!!

Final Thoughts

In just under 8 hours on the bank with Mark I learned more about pike fishing than I had in the previous 37 years as an angler from one of the most eloquent and down to earth blokes you could wish to meet. Marks ability to simplify the rigs and skills needed to capture these incredible predatory creatures, portrays the confidence he has in his own angling abilities. Although we didn’t catch any monsters, my time on the bank with Mark was both informative and very entertaining and hopefully he will grace our pages with more predatory features in the very near future.

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