BoozleBear

I wouldn't say that myself. I find a great time for piking in winter is when it has been cold for several days and then it's 4-10 degrees higher. Go out on that warmer day and esox is out to play! Simon

Sad news Jan, take care. Simon

Festivals? Do you get fishing festivals? What happens at a fishing festival? Do rumours start spreading that Matt Hayes will be headlining on the Sunday, Jan Porter may be pulling out and that Paul Young may be joining John Wilson in a special one-off performance? etc etc I'll get me coat.....

I'll bring the tent - Jack likes it and it's so big that we can keep tackle in it too. With regards to sharing a swim that's fine, I'd prefer it that way. Cheers, Simon

I'm going for third time lucky this year. If Liverpool reach the cup final I can always get it on the radio (on very low volume of course!!!). Could I bring my lad along with me, he's 11? Also re accommodation the lodge sounds good, but should I bring my tent in case there isn't enough room? Cheers, Simon

If there are any over 20lb I'd be half tempted to buy one, de-frost it, and nip to my nearest still water, where a mate can take a picture of me holding it with a big smile on my face!!!!

Nice little story

A spinner!

Nice one. Will bring landing net, and stick to lures and wobbling if that's what works best. Will do the day but not the night - the missus won't let me get away with that much. No moral issures re livebaiting, just too squeemish for it! Cheers Simon

Just to check you have me down as a yes for this? I take it you wouldn't mind if I deadbaited on 1 rod and wobbled / lure fished on the other? Or is it truly wobble-only!!!! One thought, as it's sounding like quite a roving afair, should we all take alnding nets or would that be silly? Just a thought as if people (like I sometimes do) rely on the knowledge that other people will have one I can nab, we may end up fishing a quarter of a mile stretch with only 1 landing net. Highly unlikely but just thought I would flag it. Cheers, Simon

True, another advantage. When I can afford it, I'll change!

...I don't think I'd invite that type of person along somehow. Thanks for the suggestions. I think fly fishing looks like a good idea. As alluded to above, sea fishing will have a few fellas honking over the side of the boat, plus many of the fly venues also do the accommodation too. I agree that Carp fishing might not be a good idea due to inexperienced anglers being there. Cheers a lot guys, I have a good amount of leads to follow up here and will let you know how I get on. Still got to get the nod from the boss yet..... Simon

A nice idea. And something I haven't tried before either. Which is always a bonus!!! Thanks Simon

I work for an advertising agency in London. We sometimes entertain our contacts with a day at the races etc and often enjoy return trips from them to football matches, trips away etc. Tough old world I know! I have a meeting with my managing director next week and want to suggest we do something different and take some of our contacts on a fishing day. Some rough details: We'd be looking at probably 10-12 people, would want to stay in a hotel nearby (any suggestions welcome - one with a bar's or decent pub nearby is always a good idea!) on the night before, get to fishing venue for 9/10am and fish for the day with a stop for lunch, and then back to the hotel that night and home the next day. I'd like to take them carp and bream fishing for the day, with a bit of help, tuition, and equipment laid on and ready for them to fish with when they arrive. I had initially thought of Wingham but they don't do corporate days. Oh and by the way, they are likely to be a tiny bit hungover on the day but I would not be allowing / suggesting any comsumption of alchohol on the day itself. The nearer London the better but I'd look at anywhere within 4 hours from London (be that by train or car). And suggestions welcome. Cheers and kind regards, Simon

I must admit I haven't done any big water pike fishing. I like the canal because I can guess the obvious spots where the pike will be (well trained by my friend and Ghillie, Greg) and on a big would would probably use tips / methods I have seen the likes of Hayes, Brown and Wilson extoll the virtues of on their TV shows and in books. I have been piking on the broads too, and just as on the canal, really enjoy slinging out a ledgered dead whilst also trying out lures and spinners. I like the roving method too. If one spot doesn't produce within half an hour or so I like to move on - unless it's a spot that usually produces or that Greg swears by, and many times staying put and having patience or a sandwich has paid dividends. I haven't got a braided mainline but have used Gregs and really enjoyed it, especially when lure fishing as you feel a lot more. It's amazing how many times you realise you are catching the bottom rather than 'getting a knock' when using mono! It's much more truthful than mono. Cheers, Simon

I understand what you mean but have lost too many fish with the non-striking / soft pull approach in the past. I always go for the opposite direction, a decent method to say the least.

On the strech of canal where I pike fish, we have seen a few repeat fish. It's generally easier when they are bigger as features or more recognisable, and with so many jacks around the same weight it's hard to tell the difference. We used to see Jemimathe niner a few times a year, and Greg my mate who's fished the place a lot for over a decade (several miles of canal) has recognised some of the larger ones. Interestingly some of them seem to be in the same area but Jemima moved house from near a bridge to a stretch about a mile down from there. Simon

Where I pike fish you get a few other anglers around, so I'd hate to indavertently prebait a swim on somebody else's behalf! I have notice though, when fishing a my friend's place in the broads, when we heavily groundbaited an area to have a bag up day on roach, bream, rudd and skimmers, we also saw a lot of pike action, and managed to pull out a couple of Jacks on lures at the end of the session after seeing strikes all afternoon made the temptation too strong. Another way of doing it could be to fish a stretch the day after a fishing match. Simon

Great pics and weel written story. Beautiful pike too Steve. With regards to the no coarse baits rule, it wouldn't upset me at all as I have always had more success on sea deads for pike than coarse anyway. If you banned mackerel and sardine then there would be a panic!

The hooks were about 2.5 inches away from each other on a trace of about 1 and a half foot in length. Trace was hand made by my friend Greg, who knows his piking. Just to add, we went again on New Years Eve. Only 3 pike on the bank, but 3 pike from 3 runs. And a perch on the lure. And not a dropped run in sight. On the same kind of traces. In fact I think the one I used then was the one Greg had on Boxing Day!

That's an interesting post, thanks. I always strike sideways, in the opposite direction to which the pike is moving. I think it may have been a hook issue as I'd used the trace before. Having said that they were coming off on the lures as well (1 fight then lost for me, plus 2 or 3 fruitless but hard knocks). Greg changed his trace to a new one and caught straight afterwards, but still had drops after that, as did Craig who was on a new and sharp set up. I agree about how they take the bait. Twice I retreived a bait after a wee battle with a fish and found that the opposite side to the hooks had been munched. I changes the set up slightly so I had a trebble on each side, but still no luck. I'd expect this amount of drop-offs with wobbling but not with deads. Cheers, Simon

Nice one mate. Very jealous!

Mine would be helping my lad Jack to catch his biggest fish to date, a beautiful common carp pushing double figures.

Yesterday I went on the family traditional boxing day fishing trip to the canal in Wiltshire. I took my son, Jack (11) and also went with my brother in law (and friend) Greg and we met up with his mate Craig as well. We started fishing at around 11am, with each of Greg, Craig and I going for 1 rod on float ledgered dead (sprat on 1, mackerel on others), and 1 rod for spinning or fly. When I was spinning, Jack was on the deadbait rod, and vice versa. The action started within about 10 minutes of the first cast. Craig re-cast his bait towards an area where we'd seen a tell tell pike-strike splash, and soon his float was off, but the fish droppped the bait and got away with it. That ended up being the theme of the day. There were catches too though thank goodness. Craig caught a couple of Jacks, Greg caught 3 or 4 pike and was please that he caught 1 on a fly, 1 on a dead and 1 on s spinner. I caught a perch on a spinner on my last cast. No perch was bigger than 1lb, no pike more than about 3lb. Having said that the fish were all in beautiful condition and were very lively fighters. But here's the thing, the amnount of dropped runs. Greg has fished the stretch for about the last 15 years and caught hundreds of pike over that time, and even he said the conversion rates were very poor. I felt most sorry for Jack, who across a 5 hour session was very patient and dealt with runs well when he hand them. He wound down nicely, struck strongly, but 4 times he had a fish on and 4 times it shook the bait off before it got to the net. The mackerel used was the tail end of a joey. Greg had the same experience on sprats 4 or 5 times at least, Craig had such bad luck as well, and I myslef had a fish on 5 or 6 times and only got one on the bank. It's obvious there were a lot of Jacks about on the stretch, but what was weird were the amount of runs that we had and the low amount of fish on the bank. Greg thought that perhaps the fish were just messing around with the baits rather than trying to wolf them down, which makes sense. Perhaps days like this just happen. Always better that the rod bends than doesn't, but frustrating when you think of the day it could have been, and when I think of just how much heavier those fish that didn't make it to the bank seemed! Gutted for Jack that he blanked, but glad he saw some action in good company. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts and theories. Cheers, Simon

I have seen the very cat. I stayed very still, hid behind my chair undetected, and managed to capture this photo of it. I think it was getting ready to go hunting for mamalian dead baits....