Targetting pike in their spawning areas?

[Peter Waller]

Do you do it? I know my good friend Den doesn't! He says so on the 'here we go thread'.

 

Someone made a similar comment last year. At the bottom of it, I suppose, hidden away in the small print, is the question of ethics.

 

I have to say that I do target pike in the spawning areas, and I don't have a problem with it. The pike's whole life-cycle is about survival, and reproducing its own is the major part of that annual cycle. From Feb onwards pike are gravitating towards the spawning beds. If you target pike then this factor has to be a consideration. If you want to catch pike then it is unavoidable.

 

Come the new season I know where the pike will be, around the spawning grounds. Both theirs' and the breams' spawning areas. It is a very major factor in pike location. It is how it is. It can't be ignored. If its not their spawning area then it has to be someone elses!

 

I do not believe that you will catch pike that are actively spawning. I say that because I have never caught a pike actually shedding milt. That said I have heard deadbaiters say that they have. Maybe that is a factor as I largely lure fish. Something to do with wanting to catch loads of pike !

 

Many of you fish twelve months of the year fisheries. Where a fish spawns has to be a factor in that case. Most of you want to catch a fish at its maximum weight, when a fish spawns therefore has to be a factor, a very major factor in some cases. I can't see how it can be otherwise.

 

I don't know, or understand carp, as most of you know. Surely they have areas where they spawn? If people want to catch carp at that time of the year then that's where you need to fish surely? It was largely the carp boys who did away with the close season, so why is it an issue for some folk?

[dizidave]

Not really the point but, if you want to catch carp when they are spawning you can usually just go and pick them up with your hands out of the margins!

[Newt]

With fish having the spawning habits of pike and given that UK piking is C&R, I don't really see the harm.

 

Pike are 'random' spawners in that they just sorta leave eggs around wherever as opposed to making a bed and guarding it after the eggs are laid. So it doesn't seem that getting fished for or caught would upset that routine very much.

 

Carp - don't know about UK carp but over here, the large females will 'stage' at the nearest bit of deep water close to the spawning areas. There they can be caught both while they are waiting to join in the fun and while they are paused after the spawn to eat a bit before leaving the area.

 

The smaller male fish and any females in the process of getting the eggs beaten out of them are pretty much not gonna bite although as was said earlier, you can net a few if you are quiet. Not sure why you'd want to but you certainly could.

[trent.barbeler]

Dear Peter,

 

I am firmly with Den on this one.

 

Regards,

 

Lee.

[Dick Dastardly]

Pete I too have never caught a Pike which has discharged either milt or spawn.

 

I too have found that the majority of Pike spend at least half of the year in the spawning areas.

 

A big difference in fishing for pike whilst they are spawning and when they are in the spawning areas,but I accept the point being made.I wouldnt dream of fishing for other species whilst they were spawning and it has only really occured to me that we do for Pike.

 

Also due to the pike having always spawned before the old closed season they have always been fished for during "spawning time" never seemed to have caused any problems over the last couple of hundred years.

 

Den and Lee,when do you think the Pike season should be then? Or indeed do we need one? I for one think there is more harm done to Pike caught in the high water temperatures of summer than is done by catching them during the "spawning time"

 

I have caught Roach,Bream and Perch which have discharged milt (not spawn though,oddly) but I have always found most fish Tench.Carp etc not to really be that interested in taking a bait whilst spawning,infact big bream neither.Caught spawn bound Carp but never any that have discharged.

 

I always thought of the closed season (which I still support in a lot of cases) as more of a time for the banks and vegetation to have a break.

[trent.barbeler]

Dear Budgie,

 

Whilst I agree with Den, I also think that pike angling issues should be addressed by pike anglers and not someone like myself that doesn't fish for pike. Sounds like a cop-out I suppose but thats about the sum of it from my side of the course fishing fence.

 

Regards,

 

Lee.

[Andy Macfarlane]

I actively hunt both Pike and Perch, during thier spawning cycle and I fail to see the harm. During this time, I've witnessed Pike thrashing and charging around, just as much as they would have, if they had been hooked. The Pike don't seem fragile at this time of year, in fact, quite the opposite and why wouldn't they be?

At no other time of the year, do Pike spend so much time in each others company. With large females beside small males and huge numbers of both present, nature would have made a bit of a blunder, if it had not equipped the fish to cope. We know fish often get bitten and snapped at. Fins, gill plates and all manner of delicate areas, are quite often, seriously damaged. If the fish was in any way sensitive or fragile, these wounds would be very serious or even potentially fatal. Often though, the fish don't seem to show any signs of difficulty and the damage often heals within a matter of weeks. Frankly, I don't see what the fuss is about. As mentioned earlier, high temperatures and inexperienced anglers are more lethal to Pike than anything.

 

[ 09. March 2004, 11:44 AM: Message edited by: Andy Macfarlane ]

[Dick Dastardly]

Fair comment Lee.An interesting point Peter brought up here though.As I said I had never really thought about it this way.

 

[ 09. March 2004, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: BUDGIE ]

[Del_R]

quote:

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high temperatures and experienced anglers are more lethal...

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???!!!

 

Freudian slip, maybe?

 

:-))

 

Derek

[Andy Macfarlane]

Thanks Del.