Help me catch a pike

[Paul]

I recently bought this pack : Plug Assortment can anyone tell me which type is for what and what you'd recommend to use.

 

Does anyone have a good lure to use that has been sucessful for them catching pike?

 

Also, is it true that pike won't feed when it's raining?

[Trevor GL]

Paul My Favourites are spinnerbaits preferably with the white Muppet Tails,check them out out tackle bargains, or Harris Angling http://www.harrisangling.co.uk/

[argyll]

Also, is it true that pike won't feed when it's raining?

 

Better not be, I'm out before first light and its chucking it down at the moment.

 

The lures. First take all of the lures with three treble hooks and get rid of the middle one. Two is enough to deal with in a pikes mouth. The smaller 5cm lures are very suitable for chub and perch, the floaters will be attractive to chub during the colder months. Use a wire trace unless you are absolutely sure that you are fishing a pike free water.

 

The larger lures are obviously meant for pike, the sinkers are more viable in the colder months worked as slowly as you can, the floaters more useful in the summer months, although there will be days in the winter when they will take topwater lures. I'm just trying to cut down the odds.

 

Other lures to add to your arsenal. Spinnerbaits, big spoons (loves me big spoons) rubber grubs or shads.

 

[ 12. October 2004, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[Dick Dastardly]

Leave all them plugs for the moment and get yourself some 5" copper spoons.They catch any where and do not require to be "worked" in any complicated way.

 

Although I find high pressure conditions the best pike will feed in most conditions.

[Leon Roskilly]

argyll:

Also, is it true that pike won't feed when it's raining?

I've never had a pike take a lure whilst rain has been falling, though I've often caught between showers.

 

A couple of times, I've run a lure past a pike's nose whilst the rain has been falling with no reaction at all from the pike.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Dick Dastardly]

Cant remember about lures but have certainly caught them on bait when raining.

 

You want help to catch a pike Paul then get yourself down to the Teach In that Lynns organised at Angling Projects later this month.

[Elton]

Rublex Ondex spinner - gotta be the easiest pike catching lure ever.

[Del_R]

Might have to get me one of those Rublex Ondex then - not had any joy on my two trips out so far this month. :-(

 

I had a perch follow my Chubby Shad Monday evening and that was it.

 

I thought I'd try again this lunchtime - found a very interesting looking area on the canal, a very ancient mini-side bay that was overgrown with trees and bushes and partly boomed off. If I was pike I'd have certainly waited for Del's plugs right there. Alas, first cast my Chubby Shad attaches itself to something so solid that's the last I see of it, and the wire trace, and a good proportion of my line. I try again with another soft bait a little further out. Exactly the same result. What's down there? A sunken boat? This is the Gloucester & Sharpness so it's plenty deep enough to hide an old oil tanker. I retreat to a more user friendly area where I know there are Zander but there's not time to fully explore before I have to come back here to work (well, to post this story anyway!).

 

Hey ho. It's early in the season and last year it took several trips before I had any success.

 

Cheers,

Derek

 

[ 13. October 2004, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Del_R ]

[Paul]

I tried them Elton, they seem to bit abit light and don't sink far or cast far

 

[ 13. October 2004, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Paul ]

[Pangolin]

It's not so much what you've got, Paul, but how you use it! I reckon a hungry pike will grab at almost any likely-looking lure, as long as it doesn't have to work too hard to get it.

We feel most confident about casting lures into open water, but pike prefer snaggy areas. We tend to retrieve quite fast, to keep a lure off the bottom, but pike are lazy fish that often lie on the bottom, particularly in cold weather.

My advice is to fish as close to snags and reeds as you dare: you might try using lure-saver hooks on your lure, as you will inevitably get caught up from time to time. The easiest lures to use are floater-divers, but be aware that even a deep diving lure won't get near most of the pike if the depth is over about 10 foot. With the floater-diver type, you can cast the lure and, sometimes, let it drift to exactly where you wanted it, before starting the retrieve. An alternative to lure-fishing, if you want 'active' pikeing, is to sink and draw a small deadbait. This technique has consistently out-performed lure-fishing (for me), probably because you can choose to rest the bait on the bottom at any part of your retrieve.