Spectacular last day of the season aboard 'The Fury'

I always like to end the River Season on the Dee but as you might have read below it has been obvious to everyone that the Pike have moved off to spawn early. So Steve and I decided to switch to a large Stillwater we believed has another 2 weeks before spawning and it paid off. Friday night we discussed possible areas the fish might be in and made a plan. 5.45am Steve arrived with his trusty boat aptly named 'Unleash the Fury' and we headed off full of expectation. Soon as we arrived and launched we headed to our planned first area. The weather already looked like it would test the batteries for Steve's electric motor but heading down the lake with the wind we covered the ground fast. On the way down we trolled a couple of roach off the back and i hooked and lost a nice looking small double which came to the side of the boat and it was clearly not hooked and let go of the bait. Disappointed we carried on and Steve picked up a long lean fish just short of a double. We arrived at our destination; a known spawning area but sadly this produced just one small jack to a jerkbait. We realised quickly the Pike weren't there and made a move. The wind was now blowing a gale and the first battery soon died and we switched to battery No.2. After a short intermission in proceedings for some attention to the motor because we grounded it trying to get into a shallow bay we moved to our next planned location and it was a good decision to move. Not long after we arived Steve landed a very lean long fish not quite a double but he quickly added 2 superb looking fat doubles and i managed to a lose another fish. This fish took a big bait and felt very big indeed. I was gutted. Time went by and we couldn't troll now due to the lack of battery power in the horrendous wind. We moved when the wind died and anchored up again when it blew; fished for a while then moved again creeping up the lake hoping to get back to the launch site on the last remaining battery. It seemed each time we moved the fish would hit the baits but wouldn't hit them when they were static. Steve kindly handed me a fish on his rod to make up for the disappointment of the lost big one. It was getting late and we were beginning to think we might not get back when the wind died enough to head back and as we did so we trolled two lives off the back and 2 replicants down the sides. I was still gutted thinking about my 2 lost fish when my jerk bait rod whacked round and i was into a proper fish at last. No danger of this one coming off; it had engulfed the replicant. I had just been saying to Steve all the fish seemed to be down one end of the lake when the Pike struck. It was another nice double to add to the 2 that Steve had caught. We motored off again and within minutes my replicant was nailed again and a fish of 18lb 2oz graced the net. The day started with disappointment and frustration and Steve battled all day with the wind but what a days fishing! We both realised if the wind had been slightly kinder we could have doubled the number of fish caught, if not more. But we will be back.....................(Photos above)