oneillbox

probably because the tackle you were using, did not give the fish any chance to fight, perch seem to be headshakers anyway and not runners. hard to shake your head with half a lamprey in your mouth !!

was livebaiting for pike, steel trace with double size 8 trebles on my snap tackle, and up popped a 2lb 9oz perch, my personal best. but felt a bit guilty bringing it in on 15lb line and a 2.75lb TC carp 12 ft rod. was still chuffed though, most unexpected.

get yourself along to the basingstoke canal that runs near pirbright and woking and aldershot... loads of pike in there, caught 32 in a session once, all from the same swim, all on livebait. had a couple of 20's from there between 2000 and 2002 aswell

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/6f2/6f29d7...7ec142324d4.jpg just one of the pike ive had this season, well, beginning of december to be exact, this was 22lb7oz, on live roach with a fixed float fished at 4ft depth in about 6 ft of water at 2pm. its from what was formerlly a trout fly fishing lake near my home town, the trout are long gone, the rudd, roach, tench, eels, perch and pike remain !!

most of the pike ive been catching over the last month or so (any over 4lb anyway) have had multiple 'leeches' attached to them, all over. up to 10-15 per fish in some cases. are these things leeches? and are they on the pike only in winter because the pike seem to 'lay up' a lot more than they do in the summer? why do small 'jack' pike not have these leeches, is it because the smaller pike tend to be a bit more mobile in the winter months than the larger ones are?

looks fantastic mate. where in lincoln are you 'old novice'

ive had LMB to 8lbs from some of the dams in cyprus, good head of LMB in those dams over there if anyone goes on holiday and fancies a day away from the wife !!

ill be interested to know about these lakes as im in lincolnshire and probably less than an hour from this venue !!

they cant be dangerous, the water in them fills up and therefore its no different to wearing clothes in the water, more difficult to swim of course, but killers...absolutely not !!

thanks ferg, ill make sure my dad gets the info. in fact. thanks to everyone, you have been a great help.

yes. you should hand out the lithium for the 'bi polar brigade' on here and if people really fall out of line then resort to the ECT machine as a first port of call.

ive had a decent year, only really fished locally to my lincolnshire home, had 50 tench totalling over 200lb on corn and worm one fantastic july night. had 2 pike over the 20lb mark since october too. so all in all im delighted, lots of roach, rudd, bream and perch too. perhaps one day ill go somewhere and catch a barbel..... ive never been barbel fishing !!

just off topic slightly, and this might just be a massive coincidence, but you are not the alan roe who used to be in the RAF are you (Cyprus Akrotiri 1976 ish and then cranwell College a few years later?)

thanks newt, come on guys, help my old man out, there must be someone from near blackpool on here...

just posting this for my dad, he is keen to start angling again in the blackpool area but his mobility is impaired, hopefully you guys will be able to give him some inclination as to some venues

as already stated, and particularly at this time of year, just loose feed maggots while fishing, only about 6 at a time, and fish either a piece of corn or a couple of casters on a size 16 hook. i find maggots useless as a hook bait for big roach, but casters are excellent. single corn is ok too.

thanks, ill sort something out with it, cheers for the help lads

im spending time with my kids today, but im off piking tomorrow......tight lines fellas.

i know sweet fanny adams about 'elasticating' etc, i only use the 4 and 3m whips for livebait catching. not sure what you mean by a 2 inch loop of 15lb mono either..

basically, i understand the reasoning behind the collar arrangement etc, but for catching live bait, i just tie the line to the end....so are the end rings strong enough for this purpose and how do they stay in place

i like to use 3 or 4m whips for thrashing out some livebait prior to going piking. the shop bought whips have a small eye on the end, i was told to remove this and fix/glue a small sliding plastic device on the end to attach the line too. is that correct, are the small eyes on the end of whips unreliable ??

the smell of urine could be the 47 pensioners sat on the benches with leaky catheter bags...

should ginger people take care whilst swimming !!

try attatching your 'snap tackle' or whatever to the fish straight from the fish monger, fit the holding elastic around it etc.... then freeze the bait tackle and trace in the position you want, if your hooks are positioned correctly then you need not worry about the bait being hard, even sprats that have been frozen with the hooks in position will withstand many many casts in the cool water of this time of year (about 4 degrees C i guess). ive caught loads of decent pike on wobbled nearly frozen baits........ but dont forget to tell the mrs about the baits in the freezer, she does not want a size 6 treble in here hand whilst hunting for the frozen peas !!

well good for you, hope you are enjoying your new hobby, its a great sport.. im only an hour from nottingham, im in sleaford, where are you..