Jack's Facebook

I have finally made a Jack’s Pike Facebook page! I will be putting up new stuff, the stuff that didn’t make the books / blog, spin-off comic strips, some ‘classic’ strips, and a bunch of other Jack’s Pike stuff.

I’m trying to spread the word of Jack and I need a bit of help, so please like, share and follow (my first target is 50 likes). Thank you.

www.facebook.com/jackspikecomic

Jack’s Pike #217

Fat Gudgeon Slim

After the glamour of chasing grayling on the pin last weekend, this weekend I went back out searching for gudgeon. My quest for a 3oz fish continued and armed with the kitchen scales and a ruler I was ready to begin my length to weight graph.

And this time they were feeding, all be it periodically - 10 gudgeon in total, four of them over 2oz. All were weighed and measured, oops I didn't write one of their lengths down.

Length	Weight	Length	Weight
171mm	2.1oz	155mm	1.5oz
170mm	2.1oz	152mm	1.5oz
168mm	1.9oz	145mm	1.3oz
162mm	2.1oz	110mm	0.8oz
160mm	2.0oz

A pretty good start, but it is already obvious that some fat gudgeon and some slim ones are going to mix up a nice clean line. I'll keep collecting stats and see where I get to, probably need about 100 gudgeon before I attempt to draw the graph.


I pleasant way to spend a cold afternoon, and I was joined for a while by fellow Gudgeon Society member Mark. Mark is also chasing a 3oz fish and is also armed with kitchen scales so we'll know when one of us finds a genuine three - good luck tomorrow Mark - swim is baited up and ready for you.


I also managed to catch a roach, 2 minnows (couldn't resist weighing them) and a barbel crashed the gudgeon party - but I'd swapped my 3lb hooklink for five...


Quick roll on the way to the gudgeon spot, 4lb 14oz barbel.


The barbel that crashed the party, 5lb 0oz.


And a quick roll on the way home, 7lb 1oz.

Which takes my barbel tally up to my target 60 fish! - get in!! Now I really want to break the 300lb mark - 288lb 4oz in the bag - 11lb 12oz to go...

Jack's Pike #218

50 Days left of the season!

Frosty Ladies

On Saturday I headed for the River Test in search of my first grayling accompanied by James who has had some recent successful trips to the river. A 4.30 am start and a long journey saw us on the riverbank at eight, just in time to watch the sun rise.

And reveal the murky water - it seems I'd brought my grayling luck along with me, and as we soon discovered it was going to be difficult.


After chucking a few lures about for pike we set up the trotting gear and headed off in search of a grayling. And I got one pretty early on - mission accomplished, my first grayling of about 6oz was in the net - plenty of time to find a pounder.

The early success wasn't the story of the day, we both worked really hard to find them and getting them to stay on the hook, especially the bigger ones proved nearly impossible - made even more frustrating because they came straight to the surface before twisting back into the depths shedding the hook. Giving a tantalising glimpse of what you would have won.


We covered a lot of water, meeting back up occasionally - each hoping that the other had found the secret - no it was just tough going. Eventually I stopped moving about and opted to build a swim, which proved a good call in the end.

If I had landed everything I hooked I would have bagged up, probably loosing 2 grayling for every one I landed (and I managed to loose what felt like a good pike on a plug).

My hard work resulted in 15 grayling to about 10oz and half a dozen or so trout thrown in for good measure. A tough day but a beautiful place and a the result I was after - my first grayling.

I will be back...

Jack's Pike #216

Website | Comic Books | T-Shirts

Fickle Gudgeon

I headed back to the river armed with my kitchen scales and a ruler, time to find a 3oz gudgeon. But first I had a few rolls on route to my chosen gudgeon spot. 8lb 4oz barbel above - cracking start.


Next up was a 7lb 0oz fish.


Followed a few minutes later with a 6lb 9oz before the main event...

I chucked in a couple of handfuls of maggots and quickly set up a light quivertip, cast out and waited... And waited... They did not want to play today. At all.

I gave it nearly four hours, the only hook ups were both from barbel, the first one led me on a dance right around the swim until inevitability caught up with my 3lb line and it escaped unseen. And the second one again went nuts on the light gear but I coaxed it gently over the net - 4lb 14oz below.

No gudgeon at all, even small fish can switch off when they aren't in the mood.


I had a few rolls as I headed back down the river, but no more fish. I make that 57 barbel for 271lb 5oz - I wonder if I can crack 300lb this season?

Edit 14 January: LIDL are selling nutrition scales today at £7.99 which will weigh in 1g or 0.05oz divisions, incase any gudgeon fans are interested.

Jack's Pike #215

Website | Comic Books | T-Shirts

Spike Milligan

There are holes in the sky,
Where the rain gets in,
But they're ever so small,
That's why the rain is thin.

It would take an absolute madman to go out into the pouring rain to fish in the floods today... 4lb 15oz!

Monster Gudgeon

We've all done it; caught a record shaking gudgeon, mostly while fishing for something else. The weight is either guessed 'it was easily 4oz' or weighed on scales that are massively over-gunned and no real use whatsoever... Time to put some weights to these mini monsters.

I headed to my gudgeon spot armed with a pint of maggots, an ultra fine quivertip and most importantly a set of digital kitchen scales.

I was soon into a good stamp of fish, and it did include the odd monster, the biggest ones are shown below. The best weighed 2.7oz, 2.3oz, 2.2oz, 2.2oz, 2.1oz and 2.0oz, all of which I would have guessed to be much heavier.




Now, armed with my accurate scales, my target is a real monster - a genuine, bonafido 3oz gudgeon!


Oh yeah, I couldn't resist a very quick roll on my way to the gudgeon spot resulting in this 6lb 1oz barbel - that beard is getting out of control...

Jack's Pike #214

Website | Comic Books | T-Shirts