A day out with Mark Barrett.

Today was a day I was looking forward to for a long long time, a day out guided with Mark Barrett Pike fishing on the Fenland drains.

I was up at 5am to do the 130 mile, 2.5hr trip to the Fens which flew by and I arrived at a café 10 minutes from where we was fishing to meet Mark. After putting my bits in his truck we set off for a drain known as the 16 footer.

Mark was a brilliant guide and talked me through all the aspects of the set up, baiting and indication, don't get me wrong, I've done some Pike fishing in the past and had a few but wanted to know more on the species and how to catch them more effectively.

The drains seem to fish better past 11am so Mark was saying and just past 11 I had my first run, but I missed it, first lesson I learnt was that I was striking them far to light, “you're not Roach fishing” said Mark, luckily not long after I had another run and this time I hit it harder and it stayed on, this was also the first time I had used braid and really enjoyed it. At 6lb was not my biggest Pike but good fun. Not long after that another was on and once in weighed about the same.

After those fish all went quiet so a move was in order, only a few hundred yards up where there was an inlet.

The great thing about fishing these drains is you drive up the bank, set-up and you can literally fish out of your car/truck, but its best in a 4x4 as my car would have been far to low.

Whilst waiting for bite fenland legend and co-author with Mark of the Fenland Pike book Dennis Moules stopped for a chat, he had one pike earlier but apart from that all seemed quiet.

The day was coming to an end and although the fishing has been a bit slow Mark was a great host, I learnt a shed load about Pike fishing amongst other stuff and the sunset over the Fens was pure quality.

I look forward to another a trip later in the year hopefully for some Zander.