Chasing shadows

Well it's been a pretty poor season so far for me.  Been fishing the same old swims on one drain that's been kind to me in the past for a total of a 15lb 8oz Pike so far.  The fens are a 50 mile drive for me so going out on a limb and trying an off the beaten track obscure place always feels like a gamble, however after deciding enough was enough I visited such a place yesterday and I'm glad I did.  I managed 5 doubles in about 5 hours and whilst not huge (two 10lbers, two 11lbers and a 13lber) it was nice to get a half decent bend back in my rod.

Examining the photos I think the two 10lbers may be the same fish, and potentially the two 11lbers might be as well.  I've only ever come across repeats in the same session on one water previously (Denton Reservoir) at a time when they looked old, very thin and the place had been ravaged by cormorants so I assumed they were just so hungry they had no choice (I subsequently stopped fishing the place as I didn't think it was right), however the pike out of this drain weren't like that at all, they seemed fairly chunky as the below photo shows...  Maybe it was just one of those days when they were feeding so hard they didn't care.