The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

This isn't really a ghost story but maybe the answer to a fishing phenomenon that I've heard of before. See what you make of this;

I think it might have been here on this very forum that I heard about some carp anglers doing a night session, during the night there were the usual noises, rustlings etc. minds went into overdrive then in the morning when they've come to check their baits they've found that the lines had been severed, the cut being far down line in a place that would mean that the cut had happened out in the lake somewhere.

Well I once actually witnessed this phenomenon unfold before my very eyes;

Me and my mate were doing a couple of days pike fishing on a small Scottish loch in Galloway, the loch in question being stuffed with small pike. We were dead baiting under bubble floats, we had had a few fish during the day and spent a rather uneventful night on the bank, my mate under the bivvy and me in the back of my old Subaru Impreza estate. We were up and about early the next day, pottering in the misty half light of dawn, my friend had launched a bait out into the lake, the bubble float resting some 30 yards out next to a weed patch. I'd just got the fire going again and filled the kettle when my mate called me over "ere! Look at this!" Now try to picture this if you can chaps;

My friend pointed to the water in front of the rod tip. The line was taut and creeping very slowly to our right. We both presumed we must have a bite so looked to the float, 30 yards away and to the left of the rod tip, it remained stationary. The line continued to creep along, we could see it through the clear water, it would seem that there was something between us and the float moving slowly that had attached to the line. With the line now exiting the rod tip at a 45 degree angle my friend suggested that he strike, just as he went to take hold of the rod the line fell slack and slowly drifted back. My friend now picked up the rod and began to reel in only to find no resistance, the float stayed still and we found that the line had been cut!

Neither of us could make head nor tail of it. Surely a fish had swam by and caught on the line but why would the line sever so cleanly? Everything had happened so smoothly, strange eh? But surely the answer to what those carp anglers experienced.

Any thoughts chaps?

Scott

Pike? Mate of mine was fishing at extreme range when a pike swam into his line and shredded yards of line as it passed over its teeth. Your mate's line may have been bitten through on the side toward the float then released from the other side of its mouth as he prepared to strike.

Either that of aliens

I've had pike cut the mainline quite a lot. The Mangrove and Patshull Church Pool were particularly problematic in that respect. I guess bits of weed building on the line and dancing in the waves could cause a strike. Both waters mentioned were teeming with rudd. It's also possible the pike take a mouthful of line whilst attacking their prey. In each instance the visual indicator would smack against the rod then all would be slack with no terminal gear on the end. Most cut offs would occur 2 - 3 rod lengths from the bank which is rather frustrating when fishing 70 yards out.

It was quite a common problem at a syndicate I fished it only had Pike and Carp in residents. The Pikes only food source were waterfowl. small Carp or Pike which seem to make the Pike evolve to have especially big heads and mouths to match.

A similar thing happened to me on the Wye a few weeks ago. I was fishing on a crease with a big lump of meat. Picked up the rod and reeled in. There was no pressure save for the lead when, as I was reeling in, the line changed direction. Literally no pressure and then it just went slack - a perfect razor cut in the line.