Finally get the timing right

Ive been watching the river levels now for months and it always seems to shoot up just before i plan to fish then when i can't fish the levels drop and i miss out on good conditions.
Today I made the decision to lose some fishing time for more travel time, as for once the timing was right and the levels were looking good. I didn't want to miss the opportunity by staying local and getting more time on the water so instead chose to drive further away for better conditions.

I took the ultralight rod to chuck some small soft plastics about and also a drop shot set up to try for some perch. The river looked good but i wasn't that familiar with the area so had to do allot of walking to find the right kind of water that would have held fish. I was mainly looking for the right kind of slacks.
I started to get a few small jacks and missed a few too, the very first fish i had come in looked the better one maybe 5-7lb but i pulled the hooks out twice. I thought I'd have a chance at this fish again if i left it alone so went further up stream. Nothing was doing and by now I'd chosen to stick with the 10cm pearl white cannibal shad as that was producing more interest from pike than i was getting from anything on drop shot.
I made my way back to the area i had missed the better sized fish and after a few casts along the edge of the crease between the flow and the slack water, i saw a pike ghost up from the depths and take my lure. It was exactly the same spot as the first fish but this one was much bigger, it tore off down stream at a rate of knots. Ive never had a pike hold bottom like this fish then chose to do, it gave me the chance to get my net sorted and ready and i had to really apply some pressure to get it to even move. Then it woke up and tore off again, and again and again!
Finally in the net I got a quick photo then slipped it back after realising my scales were in my other bag. It wasn't going to make 20lb so i wasn't bothered, it did however feel really heavy for its length, its head size didn't kind of match its body length but it was fat as.

 

Another great result, I'm really happy with my fishing at the minute as i keep getting something from my sessions and i really can't remember many blanks at all this winter. I put allot of that down to my decision making and getting to know when its the right call to fish the rivers after they have been in flood.

 

By the way, I haven't sat on a pigeon, it was a buzzards kill, by the looks of the parts remaining it was a wood pigeon. I hadn't realised i had knelt in it for the photo!