Blogs About Angling

This is a sure sign, that yet another summer has been and gone..

For the many youngsters, who have only just discovered the joys of such a terrific past time, they hang on for just one more hour. Now its dark at night and the days are drawing shorter.

What shall we do now they sigh...

Welcome To My World.

 Hard, fast takes, sheere raw power, a species that can seem very daunting to the unfamiliar. but never the less they have been around for as long as angling itself.

The Four Letter Word

PIKE

A fish that inhabits most waters, canals, rivers, lakes and ponds.

Ask many anglers to give you their description of a Pike.

The majority is not pleasant.

A big fish with ultra sharp teeth.

Its enough to send the weak hearted, onto the canal. With their size 24 hooks and packets of bloodworm. I remember it well. But with the eyesight not as good as it once was, I think I'll give it a miss.

Autumn / Winter Piking, what a joy.

The duckling eater, the eater of poor defenseless fish. Even stories of them eating small dogs, or grabbing feeding birds by the head as they forage under water for food, such eventful tales have not done the pikes popularity any good over the years. I remember in the 80's huge pike culls taking place, to rid popular fisheries of these fish. But yet they survived, this alone must stand as testiment for such a magnificient fish.

Pike Fishing equipment varies from place to place. I have seen people using sea fishing tackle to catch pike, ok each to his own. But its not for me. A good carp rod, or a good all through action rod, like a stalking rod or an eight to ten foot spinning rod.

Whenever I take anybody piking for the first time I always insist on using the old bobber type set up, not my method of choice, because I prefer to ledger a deadbait, its basically the same as carping but the terminal tackle is different. The hair rig is replaced by a wire trace with a pair of treble hooks to hook into your choice of deadbait, but the run priciples are the same as carping. Almost!!

But newbies, I usually set up a pike float, with a drilled ball lead before the trace just to take the bait  down to the bottom.

Choice of bait, Tail end of a mackrel or a whole sardine. But there is now a whole array of frozen deadbaits available from tackle shops.

Now my choice of tackle for canals small slow flowing rivers and medium sized ponds and lakes. Is chosen purely for newcomer to get the feel of things. Because if you start using expensive, lures, plugs and spinners and a lot of public waters do tend to be full of the obvious car wheels, shopping trolleys and whole array of other potential snags. Then spinning, snagging and then snapping does tend to get the newcomer, disheartened and they probably won't attempt it again, after remembering their last attempt cost £20 in lost tackle.

A nice action rod, a decent reel, baitrunner is fine or if not just leave the bale arm over so the pike has the opportunity to grab the bait, run and then turn it.

But I love to see their faces, as they shout excitedly as their bobber starts to run and then starts to sink, strike to early the chances are the pike will just spit it. It soon comes with practice.

But once they lock the spool, reel in to take up the slack line and then strike, bamm, the pike sets off on its initial run, the importance of a good action rod is now evident. You can feel every pull, every turn. You can feel the sheer raw power of your fish. Its a good sight to see, a newcomer bringing in their first pike, many start shouting to net it. But I always hold off slightly, because unknown to them its not over yet, the famous tail walk. Then into the net. Bingo...

A memory that will linger with them forever. Once the fish is in the net and then on the bank, they suddenly remember, this baby has teeth. The sheer look of terror on their face when you instruct them to unhook it.

7 times out of 10 they refuse. The ones who try are generally the ones who will continue to pike fish. A pike gagg is not a tool I enjoy using, but is useful for the beginners. I usually prefer a good strong pair of large forceps or even a large cylindrical disgorger if its gone right down. But generally, it will be hooked in the corner of the mouth or sometimes in the roof of the mouth where the gripping teeth are.

The Fun has only just begun....