bilkofish

I know from following lots of threads that everybody who uses this site is conservation minded, but I would just like to add a few points about handling pike. There's no problem with chinning them out although you might want to use a glove to get a better grip under their gill cover, but I see a lot of people who lift them all the way out of the water one handed. Please don't, because this puts too much strain on their back bones and many fish that appear to go back OK, later die. This is especially true of the bigger fish that are all female. The correct way to do it is to get a good grip under their gill cover and then support the fish with the other hand about two thirds of the way down its body. The other thing about pike is that they don't support being out of the water for too long so get the camera ready and happy fishing. I wish I was joining you but I still haven't got round to buying that first kayak yet. Should be plenty of hard feeding fish around at that time.

Thanks, would like to take you up on your offer but I am not able to PM you - not sure why not. Any other way of contacting you?

Thanks Simon, I'll try to look him up next time I'm staying down there, sounds like a man very much after my own heart with the fly fishing angle. I'd like to take you up on the offer of a Dorado trial around Plymouth or anywhere else in the south west some time. Don't seem to be able to use the PM facility so is there another way of getting in touch?

I'm new to these pages and I'm going to buy a yak but am having trouble arranging test drives of the models I fancy (ain't that just life!). The Dorado looks good, I like the deeper sitting position which suggests greater stability than Prowlers and Tarpons which are the other 2 models that interest me. As a keen cyclist, the Hobie Mirage Drive looks the nuts but is well expensive. Any advice on where I could test a Dorado or the other models (I live in Bath but I travel often to Plymouth and Cornwall on business) would be very gratefully received. I love fishing for coarse fish on the fly (pike, perch, chub and barbel) 3 of which I catch regularly and also like lure fishing. The yak would be for sea use; although I haven't done much sea fishing, i really am fired up by the whole yak fishing idea. PS Who lives in Porthleven and has the van with the Prowler 13 on top?