13/7/10 No Pike Here?

Paul Holden is a colleague and competent match angler with Pulborough A.S.He happened to be at the station last night and excitedly told me about some pike trouble he'd recently been getting at Washingham.He and a mate had raked and pre-baited a swim with a view to bagging up on bream.By all acounts they hadn't done bad-I think around a dozen or so good fish were caught but also a (nuisance)pike of 13lb was landed on sweetcorn and another 'monster' had snaffed Paul's feeder-twice.Paul doesn't like pike.What's the matter with you man!
This was all too much for me so I hit the venue today for about three hours armed with a spinning rod and spinnerbait to attempt to locate the beast.Paul had given me the exact location of the pike as I phoned him from the bank.'The two posts at the top end of the fenced off bit'
 Conditions were good.The tide was bottoming out and the weather was dull and overcast-I thought i'd be in with a chance.
Dave and I have had very little luck with summer pike on the Arun and today was no different.I fished hard covering the stretch from Paul's swim down to the bottom corner without a sniff.
IF the pike were there,they didn't want to know,but being a river I suspect that they could've just as easily moved on and be anywhere (miles away).The other option is to try in the evening sometime.I believe Paul's 'trouble' came at this time of day........or perhaps baits might work.I'd prefer to try lives as they'd probably be easy(ish) to catch but somehow it doesn't seem quite right watching a pike float in the middle of summer!