Tag Archives: pike fishing

Firstly, I have to say it was great to just get a few days out on the bank at last!  For me, 4 full days fishing out of 14 is quite rare (if only it wasn’t!), and I managed to actually relax into the fishing; not so-much-so that I wasn’t thinking about what I could do to improve my chances (which, incidentally, I mainly concluded was very little!), but enough to actually enjoy just being there. So, on to what I actually did…  I had two days fishing for perch on the rivers before they closed which – I suppose due to a combination of the size prospects at this time of year, the fact that most of my winter fishing revolves around toothier predators and also because perch are one of my favourite species – has become a bit of a tradition for me over the last few years. So far an unsuccesful tradition, but this year had to be different. For starters, last season I baited up a swim to return to later only to find upon my return that another angler had taken that peg (which there is nothing wrong with, it was only through satisfying my …

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Well, the end of the traditional close season is almost upon us. I had the rare chance to go fishing twice last week and for the first trip I decided to follow my own yearning for a return to the Lincs drains (they can be frustrating at times and I hear many reports of fish thefts and that they’re not what they once were, but I just love fishing them!) for a final try for a pike before the rivers & drains close on the 14th. I made the 70 mile trip East and checked a few of my favourite places out, before settling on a very shallow drain, carrying only 18 inches of water down the centre. The weather had turned and was much sunnier than we’ve experienced for months. This wasn’t ideal because bright weather can put fish off the feed. On the other hand, the water was in need of warming up, so surely the sun couldn’t do too much harm for my day fishing. Plus, there were clouds dotted around and I have noticed pike and perch launch attacks on sunny days, just seconds after the sun goes behind a cloud – as if they have been patiently poised, …

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Well, I finally got myself out fishing last Thursday! After hearing of a few pike starting to be caught around the country, I gave into my urges and decided I’d target them.  After speaking to the bailiff on a stretch of the tidal Trent, I opted to try there. I haven’t really done much fishing in general on the tidal, let alone pike fishing, but I made my decision based on the water clarity being better than the non-tidal stretches, and the changing tides forcing fish to alter their positions, which would hopefully result in them spotting my bait in the process. With such cold conditions being set in for so long this winter, every species of fish will be lethargic – even those more associated with winter – so the fish will need a reason to move, be it hunger or the changing tide.  By doubling the possibilities, I’d double my chances… I thought! S..   L..   O..   W..  was the general pace of the day. I arrived, just after dawn (Hit the “snooze” button a couple of times too many!), to find I had the entire stretch to myself. Awesome; a whole stretch of prime-condition river filled with undisturbed specimen pike just …

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Happy 2010 everyone.  Let’s hope that this year’s a productive one, whatever we’re fishing for. As I write, the snow is falling and we already have at least 4 inches piled up outside that has fallen today on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. This really has been an exceptional cold snap and while short cold spells can mean good fishing for some species, prolonged cold weather such as this tends to slow down pretty much everything that swims. With all of the snow falling into our rivers and lakes and the continued cold temperatures (with many parts of the UK struggling to break above 0°C, even in daytime!) the water temperature will be extremely low and lower than most species require to enable them to feed and digest what they eat. When we eventually do get a thaw, be prepared to head out and fish as you could be in for a red letter day. There will be some very hungry pike, chub, roach, grayling and perch out there just waiting for a warm spell to trigger a feeding frenzy. Location will be paramount to a good day’s sport, but get this right and these species will be crawling up your line to get to your bait …

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Best wishes to everyone for the festive period.  Here’s to bulging landing nets for the New Year! With the snow-melt predicted over the next couple of days it’s seriously going to cool the waters down, making most species difficult to catch.  I’m hoping to fit in a grayling session and a chub session, but if it gets ever so slightly milder and the rivers don’t colour up too much I might contemplate a pike session.  It’s over a month now since I wet a line and I’m getting very itchy to do so!  I’ll be paying close attention to the weather forecasts and EA rivercall messages to help me decide what I should target when.  …Although I’ll probably still get it wrong! Before I can fit in any fishing, I’ll be potentially risking life & limb for no good reason other than for a laugh, by entering the MATLOCK RAFT RACE on the River Derwent! Had I thought about it earlier, I could have got sponspored for charity but as it stands I’m doing it for no-one’s benefit, not even my own! With the snow melting into the river it’ll be a wee bit chilly on the extremeties, to put it politely. Finally, …

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Guess who’s on the cover of this month’s Angling Star magazine…! Available in all good (mainly Northern!) newsagents now!

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As we are now well into the Winter months and the pike season is in full swing, the pike at your favourite venue will – like it or not – have received a bit of angling pressure by now and may also be a bit lethargic in cold winter conditions. So it’s time to think about giving yourself an edge over fellow anglers and give the pike just a little more persuasion to be interested in your deadbaits. Over the years I’ve experimented with various ways of enticing pike into the swim and pricking up the senses of any fish already in the vicinity. Pike, as with all underwater predators, have an extremely complex range of senses and it’s these we need to appeal to. There are various ways of improving the looks of your deadbaits nowadays, with things such as bait flags and “paint-on” additives, which are great in clearer water, but the senses a pike must rely on in all conditions are smell and taste. Whether the water is clear or murky, whether it’s sunny or dark, a pike always has these senses as means of locating food; these two senses are also – very conveniently – closely …

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There are two main, commonly practised methods of making wire traces for pike fishing. The first is a method called “twisting” or “twiddling“. Whilst some anglers swear by this technique, I find it to be unnecessarily fiddly, untidy and unreliable. The other common method is called “crimping“, which is the method I shall describe here. Whilst no hooklength can ever be 100% reliable, I have refined my crimping techniques over the years and nowadays it is very, very rare that one of my home-made pike traces lets me down. Remember, if you’re unsure about tying your own traces, or you don’t have the time or patience, many of the big manufacturers sell ready-tied traces which are good value. The bonus with making your own is that you can customise them to suit your bait size, hook size, rigs, conditions, etc. Plus, if one of your traces becomes unusable through kinking or other damage, you can re-use expensive components such as hooks and swivels. Remember – whether you buy traces or make your own, never fish with a damaged wire trace. A kinked trace will snap under far less pressure than a perfect trace will. Always carry spares ready-tied in a …

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Since catching my first pike eight years ago on a tiny gravel pit, I have become more and more fascinated with this species and their ability to thrive in a variety of contrasting habitats. The versatility pike show has led me to constantly evolve my own pike fishing, in both technique and venue type. Along the way I have tackled rivers, drains, large & small lakes and canals in search of pike, and although I haven’t exactly mastered all of these waters, I can approach the majority of smaller venues, confident that I can make the most of the conditions I’m faced with. One type of venue I had not yet attempted was one of our many large trout reservoirs. When you look at the statistics of large pike caught in the UK from the past 20 years, an astounding proportion of 35lb-plus fish have been captured from trout reservoirs. These immense, deep, mysterious waters – constantly re-stocked with protein-rich, naïve, farmed trout – provide any resident pike with a near-perfect environment for attaining huge weights. In fact, with the sheer volume of water in these reservoirs, you’d be forgiven for getting carried away, when trying to quantify their pike …

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I’m sure that if I told another angler that I knew of 2,000 miles of mature, hardly-fished water; much of it with specimen potential – they would either think I was lying or be eager to hear more! Well it’s true. Right here in Britain we have a huge network of unexploited angling waters, which aside from a few matches, rarely see any angling pressure at all. They are easily accessible, with comfortable banks suitable for disabled anglers and chances are that wherever you live in this country – even in the centre of a city, you live just a matter of minutes away from one of these waters. If you’re still wondering where on earth I could be describing, I’ll spell it out to you… CANALS. Whilst canals have long been regarded by many as sparsely populated, infertile waters, where you might be lucky to catch on a pinkie and size 24 hook; there are a number of species which have managed to thrive on neglect and grow in both size and numbers, virtually unnoticed. I’m talking about species such as carp, tench, chub, bream, perch, pike and even zander. You only need to read a few canal match …

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