Those nasty,nasty Pike.....gimme a break

[Andy Macfarlane]

I worry all the time about Pike and handling.It is true that a Pike will never bite out of anger or fear but they do recoil quickly and with fingers in the mouth you may end up looking like a well chewed sprat...hence the need for tongs etc.The thing is that many youngsters are taking up Piking without really ever having played a Trout or a Chub and have no experience handling jumpy fish never mind Pike.I see all manner of disgraceful implements being used in search of our favourite quarry.Now I do see folk who use beach rods or heavy spinning rods all the time and CAN successfuly land and deal with Pike with the minimum of fuss and the maximum care....thier tackle is just representative of thier financial situation.Unfortunately I do also see kids/adults using boat rods and starter rods to fish for Pike with all the wrong gear.I do try to help whenever possible and try to advise on the best allround gear to buy but some folk just cant be advised because they are too proud or just think you are a know all.I think Piking is heading for a serious demise and comments about Pike being vicious when captured only leads to "vigilant" youngsters killing everything they catch,and with Pikes appetite,they do catch them regularly.Recently at a local reservoir here in Glasgow my friends witnessed some kids giving a 31Lb Pike a hiding :mad: .It had been caught on a boat rod with 50-60Lb line on sea-hooks and a lump of Mackerel.The fish was rescued and returned to to the water shaken and most definately stirred but should recover none the less .I have also retrieved about £20's worth of tackle from the mouths of Pike and my box is lookin mighty full.A benefit yes but a bit like becoming richer through a death in the family...it doesnt make you feel any wealthier.I think we should be promoting "starter" fish with kids like Perch....easy to catch and release and they are returned more often because of thier instant popularity.Please prove me wrong and shed some light on this but I cannot promote Piking when I see the level of detriment it is having.

Andrew Macfarlane

[Peter Sharpe]

I'm sure I'll get a bit of flack for saying this, but it seems a bit of a joke to me when people go to all the trouble of preaching pike conservation, and then you find pictures in the magazines, showing some grinning idiot holding up a pike with a size 4/0 treble from a jerkbait sticking right through the roof of its mouth. Usually a heavy wire treble with a very deep barb as well. Some of the ones I've seen in tackle shops would hold a tarpon, and were quite possibly designed for that use. Kids and newcomers must think that they are an accepted part of pike fishing, and could use them to cause all kinds of dreadful damage. Just imagine the first time somebody accidentally hooks a swan and breaks off with one of those monstrosities. I can just imagine the photo of an RSPCA inspector holding it up alongside the injured bird. If I saw such a picture I would probably feel like banning angling myself, so I dread to think how it would appear to the general public.

[Scott]

I think you will find that the Pike havent been caught on them lures, but the lure has just been hung on the Pike's mouth to make it look like it was caught on that lure.

In one current advert the lure has been added afterwards (computer enhanced) but if you look carefully you can see the lure doesnt even have any hooks on it.

 

Its the Pike worlds version of being chased down the street by beautiful women because your wearing a certain aftershave.

 

Scott.

[Peter Waller]

Andy, spot on, top man, couldn't have worded it better myself. You have said it all. Poor old pike, they really do get a hammering.

 

Unfortunately the media suggests that they are fun, fun, fun. What does a kid do? He wants some fun for himself. Quite reasonable. It the folk that should know better that wind me up.

[Danny H]

In response to the big hook jerkbait debate ( again!!!),

I saw a great reply from eddie turner on one of the sites about methods, basically what he said was every method from the fly fishers playing fish in on lightish tackle, to the huge hook debate, taking in the deadbaiter with his " I'll wait 10 minutes and then strike attitude" could all be used as the wrong way to Pike fish.

 

Is there a right way, Honestly?, Lets get off the holy moses trip and get real, all angling does the pike no favours, different degrees maybe, but good , no.

 

All we can do is

learn how much risk we are willing to take.

 

Lots of my lures now have only one hook, the reason I felt that these lures were doing excess harm By the number of hooks, others might not.

All my barbs are filed, - Easier for me to unhook, from fish and myself-

I lose fish, others might find that too much sacrifice, that is their choice.

 

With a group of LAS boys up the fens once we saw

some deadbaiter play in a low double, for ten minutes before he lost it, he had o.k gear, what is that all about, a jerkbaiter would have had that pike in, recovered her, and she would have been off, during the first minute or two, That looks too me like less aggro to the pike, others might disagree.

 

About the kids, -Usually we complain they never go fishing, what with computers etc- Education, I'm sure that is all we can do, I too have seen spinners pulled from pike with the pike being stood on.

 

I had some kids ( fishermen) come up to me when I landed a 10lb fish, and in all honesty they thought that if I killed the fish and took it to the local fishing shop, that the shop would pay me £10!!

I had too explain that the shop would probably throw me out.

 

I agree it is hard these days to tell kids ( many who have never had too listen to an adult) how the correct way should be, preachy is never, ever going to work ( War on Drugs???)all we can do is advise, the rules have to come down from the E.A or bailiffs or club or something.

 

People like That Mad Mick character organise Kid Pike fishing days, that has got to be the way.

The rest of us less saintly figures, all we can do is show by example.

[Tim Kelly]

Well said Danny.

[M.K]

Some very sad thoughts indeed. I would suggest the EA make a safe fish handling section on their web-site. Any way, a question to U.S anglers , Do you keep and eat the fish you catch, As in Britain anglers very quickly release what they have caught but in other parts of europe practicaly all anglers kill,cook and eat whatever they catch?

[Peter Sharpe]

Sorry Danny, I'm not trying to prolong an argument, but I'm genuinely puzzled by this statement of yours:

 

"With a group of LAS boys up the fens once we saw

some deadbaiter play in a low double, for ten minutes before he lost it, he had o.k gear, what is that all about, a jerkbaiter would have had that pike in, recovered her, and she would have been off, during the first minute or two, That looks too me like less aggro to the pike, others might disagree."

 

How would the jerkbaiter have had that pike in even one second faster than the deadbaiter, who you said had good tackle. Am I missing something?

[Danny H]

Peter First off let me start by saying that my post was a general reaction to the many posts I have answered on this subject, and was not directed at anybody here in general.

 

My point was, as I said " What was that all about", Lots of guys seem to play the fish in for far too long.

When jerkbaiting, the strength of tackle normally insures that the Pike is in and back out swimming again in as short as time as possible.

I was using it as an example of how not everything is quite as cut and dried as we would like it too be. I feel that the Fight drains the Pike more than a big hook, But I also stated that is only my opinion based on trying all available methods.

 

I feel there are + and Minus's in every method, But I'm not sure any of us are qualified to give the definitive answer just yet, until we have tried all the methods.

[Nightwing]

In general, we in the U.S. are much more likely to keep our fish, I do so often enough. It depends on species caught, location, sex of fish, time of year, all manner of things. OUr fisheries are huge and prolific compared to yours, and so in general, it does little harm to keep some fish for the table. Some species are much prefered, such as walleye(zander), perch, trout, and members of the sunfish family). Pike are also often kept for the table, particularly encouraged in waters where they are overcrowded and stunted.

Having said all that, C&R is also very popular here, often some waters are designated as C&R only, and some species(bass, trout), in some aeas are almost exclusively released. On the whole, I would guess that about 60-70% of all fish are kept, the remainder are released. This is not including undersized fish, or fish taken over a keep limit.

Oddly enough, carp are considered vermin here, and usually killed without a second thought by the majority of anglers, usually just to be tossed on the bank. However, so few people fish for them that the effect is negligible, and our average size is very large.