Nearly lure chucking season

[DJMCJERICO]

The pike season really don't bother me, except the pike seem to spawn a few weeks before the close season, do they not have a calender

 

My idea is pike season is how it is for the carp anglers, and also when the carp are up in the water they will get foul hooked.

 

Keeps the fair weather holiday anglers away from our pike anyway

 

[ 26. September 2005, 04:51 PM: Message edited by: DJMCJERICO ]

[JBee123]

Tony,

 

Some fish require more oxygen than others. Hence fish like Carp, are quite happy bumbling around in low oxygen lakes.

 

Pike, being the prehistoric monster that it is, has a relatively poor oxygen exchange system. This means that they require a higher flow of oxygen through their gill area to get em started again.

 

Now I am a firm believer in that if people are properly educated then there is no need for the close pike season but as most are not then some places consider this worth while until the pike are easier to handle.

[chevin]

When I began fresh water fishing in 1956 the reason for pike fishing starting on October 1st was because they were so badly out of condition after spawning before that date. As I began to understand more about fish I realised that they were by far the earliest to spawn as you would expect of a predator - it gives their young all of the other little fish to eat as they come along. While I am aware that summer pike fight harder than pike at other times of the year I wasn't aware that it was used to justify a pretty stupid law.

[Leon Roskilly]

October is also a time when the females go on a feeding binge as their ovaries start to develop in readiness for spawning in the spring.

 

As all pike over 10lb are female, this is probably one of the best times of the year to hook into a big fish.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Tony U]

JBee

I think you have missed my point I am well aware that pike are fragile due to their relatively poor oxygen exchange system, but how does this effect anything but a few southern English lowland lakes and slow moving rivers?

Would you apply this argument to Scottish lochs or the English Lake District, where the dissolved oxygen content is fairly constant all the year round and what about fast flowing or spring fed rivers where oxygen levels are again fairly constant, how do you apply your argument to them?

I think the October Season has the element of an old wives tale about it.

Its interesting to see some celebrity Pike anglers who adhere to this "Close Season" still pop off to Ireland or Scotland to Pike fish in the summer.

[Steve Burke]

I commented on the oft-repeated view that pike are out of condition before October in my article entitled "Fishing Fallacies" at http://anglers-net.co.uk/authors/steve03.htm

 

I'm totally against any blanket ban on summer piking as every water is different. IMO it should be left to whoever controls the water.

[DJMCJERICO]

Well we dont have to worry about it coz it's now pike season

 

Few hours kip and i'l be pulling em in

[geffaz]

pike ar harder figting during the summer! lol

who said that? off to a locl mill pond tomorrow and wobble some smelt

BRING IT ON OLD LADY CROCS!

[DJMCJERICO]

Well i went with 30lb powerpro, wish i had done it years ago, can really feel what my lures doing down there and when any weed gets on it etc.

 

Local shop had it on ebay so i got it for £24.

 

First cast of the season and landed a 13 1/2 lber followed by a 8-9lber about 6 casts later.

 

Cant wait till tomorrow

 

 

How did everybody else get on?

[Ken L]

"Pike, being the prehistoric monster that it is, has a relatively poor oxygen exchange system."

 

Hold on, we are talking about a fish with a circum global ditribution in the Northern Hemishpere and a range from Southern Europe to the Arctic Circle. It's so sucessfull that it has barely been changed by evolution in millions of years and it remains the apex predator across it's entire range.

If there was anything substandard about it's makeup, it wouldn't be here.

 

I'm inclined to agree that the so called "pike season" is simply a hangover from the days of old when the gamekeeper would be prepared to allow the oinks onto the river to remove pike when the salmon and trout weren't in season.

 

If people want to define their own seasons and choose to target specific species at certain times of the year, that's fine but please don't try to impose rules on the rest of us. If pike welfare was really the driving force behind these suggestions, we'd see a ban on pike fishing during February and March when the fish are spawn-laden an likely to be injured if handled without the water supporting their weight.