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Tag Archives: pike

Pike on the Lure

Lure fishing for pike

For the past five years I’ve really enjoyed lure fishing for pike, but this season I have had unprecedented success with lures. I don’t know if my lure-fishing ability has improved or I’ve simply had great luck but, either way, the lure has been my ‘fall-back’ method when my success is dwindling using other approaches. So, when I started blanking fishing for barbel, I decided to have an evening exploring a new stretch of river with the lure rod, to save my sanity. I arrived on the river with only an hour and a half of daylight remaining, so I moved from swim to swim quickly, without spending too much time in any one place. I happened upon a very picturesque weir and decided to have a few casts into the fast water. After trying crankbaits for a while, I clipped on a fairly universal fast-water spinner – a Mepps Aglia Long no.3. On this I had the chance of Pike, Perch or Chub and the lure is quite stable and easy to fish, even in a fast current. As always, I used a long wire trace, because there was a chance of hopefully hooking a pike. After a few …

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Norfolk Broads Pike Fishing Trip

Pike fishing in the Norfolk Broads

Fishing for pike on the Norfolk Broads Since writing my last article, I have only had chance to fish twice. The latter session was the Norfolk Broads trip which I mentioned last time. Both trips were extremely fulfilling; but for contrasting reasons. One resulted in my biggest pike catch ever. The other was a full-on experience, with hardly any fish action at all! Due to the Norfolk session being a pike-oriented trip, my friend Matt and I decided we would have a confidence-building pike session first, on a venue we both knew well. It ended up being an exceptional day in terms of the number of pike caught. I took a dozen fish on lures, from a 100-yard stretch of water and Matt took the largest pike of the day – 14lb 4oz, on a deadbait; along with a few perch and some lost pike on a jig. We had found a huge concentration of pike, which only seemed to be interested in slow-moving baits, so I spent most of my time lure fishing. I caught the majority of my fish on a large Mepps spinner, with two fish caught on a Salmo crankbait. Both retrieved very slowly, close to …

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A Warm Welcome to Andrew – my first article for Anglers Today

Andrew's First Fish

This article was first published on the now-defunct “AnglersToday” website, in 2005 Warm welcome to Andrew By Andrew Kennedy Since this is my first article for AnglersToday.co.uk, I thought I’d better introduce myself – I’m Andrew Kennedy, I’ve lived in Derbyshire for the majority of my life, except for a year in Australia and another in Sheffield.  I have fished for the past 18 years of my life (as of 2005), considering myself to be a bit of an ‘all-rounder.’ Specimen angling in freshwater is my main interest, but I regularly fish a variety of methods for an array of species and my captures in Britain alone include species as diverse as pike, salmon, ruffe, grayling, golden orfe, carp, zander and bleak, to name but a few.  I am by no means an expert on catching huge fish, but at the moment that’s what I’m working on.  My personal best list is very varied, with many fish I’m proud of – but there are no real “monsters” on there ….yet!  I’m still young though, at 23 – so hopefully the next few seasons will see some vast improvements in my catches. What fishing means to me Most of the fishing …

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PIKE Care – Don’t Catch ’em – Until You Know how to Handle ’em!

pike on unhooking mat

(Pike care article kindly provided by Colin Goodge of Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain.) It happens all too often when a parent buys a son or a daughter a cheap rod and reel with a couple of plugs or spinners, and sometimes a small landing net for the school holiday, just sometimes to give them something to do. The thinking is ‘Well I don’t suppose they’ll catch much, only a few tiddlers’, but this can be fatal, because Mr big fish can turn up at any time, and suddenly these youngsters can be thrown into a frenzied sense of excitement crossed with panic, and poor old Mr big fish lies thrown up the bank and will no more give any pleasure to boy, girl or anyone. I feel that sometimes a visit by an experienced angler to one of the local schools before the summer holidays could save a lot of fish lives and teach a lot of youngsters how to get more pleasure from their fishing. Fishing is a great pastime and helps us appreciate the wonderful gifts of nature, and lets face it, would probably keep a lot of youngsters from mischief. Please before you buy or …

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