Pike on the northampton nene

[Pike stalker]

As better pike dont feed that regularly I wouldnt bother prebaiting! Well certainly not that close to the day I intended to fish.

 

I bet your a carp angler? I say this due to your tactics and belief that there might be a quick fix to catch a twenty!

 

As smokin line suggest it's all about getting them up in 2 the swim u want. When they r used to the bait you put in and are confident in eating it they will alway come back to see if there is any easy (free food) around.

Who you calling a carp angler anyway! I fish the rivers for whatever is there at that time of year, unlike you who probably sits behind some buzzers on a mud puddle try to catch a stupid carp that got hooked jus yesterday!!!!

[Dick Dastardly]

Well you asked for tips so I gave you a very important one.That being NOT to think like a carp angler.You want to catch pike you need to find them or their prey its no good what so ever trying to "bait up" for them.You are often (in my experience) decreasing your chances by "feeding" them first by pre baiting.Even more so on a river.Just trying to give you a bit from my "few" years of piking but it seems you know better than me all ready so why bother asking?

[Pike stalker]

Well you asked for tips so I gave you a very important one.That being NOT to think like a carp angler.You want to catch pike you need to find them or their prey its no good what so ever trying to "bait up" for them.You are often (in my experience) decreasing your chances by "feeding" them first by pre baiting.Even more so on a river.Just trying to give you a bit from my "few" years of piking but it seems you know better than me all ready so why bother asking?

Cheers budgie I will take it on board and hopefully get some more sucsess

[Dick Dastardly]

I didn't mean to offend when I asked if you was a carp angler! The reason I asked is that many guys who mainly carp fish try their hand with pike in the winter.They assume that similar tactics (or should I say approach?) will work and also their perception of sizes,catches will be similar.Certainly if carp were your target and you had been catching them at the same size as you've been catching Pike then you would expect a 20 sooner or later.If you didn't get one you would certainly think you are doing something wrong!

 

However just by the fact your catching good doubles regularly it tells me you are doing nothing major wrong.Its simply that 20lb+ pike are so so much rarer than 20lb carp.The upper doubles you are catching from the river may be very close to the ceiling weight for the venue and bigger fish very rare if present at all! As such it pays to improve your chances as best as you can!

 

Even though Ive allways thought of myself as a "pike" angler rather than a "big pike" angler I have been lucky enough to have built a respectable list of big fish (admittedly the bulk of the real big ones have been from trout reservoirs) but after nearly 35 years of serious piking I can honestly say Ive never found a way to specifically target bigger fish/exclude small ones.

 

Other than the obvious thing of fishing waters where big fish are known to exist/have come from then the only answer Ive found to increase your chances is to simply catch more! Good luck with your 20 but enjoy all the others along the way and don't feel you have to get a 20+ to prove anything!

Edited February 4, 2011 by BUDGIE

[crazynewt]

I agree with budgie and personally I think if you are catching that many pike from the Nene, you are already doing extremely well. I have fished parts of the Nene myself over the last few years with relatively little success. I was lucky enough to land a 20 from a club water that includes some stretches of the Nene although the actual water was a lake. This was more by luck than judgement to be honest and I was certainly not targetting a big'un by design. I still had a small (approx 10oz) jack pike in my hand when the big un took the bait, lamprey as it turns out, so it goes to show that you'll get them of all sizes... I hasten to add that this is my one and only pike of 20lbs!

 

On the point of prebaiting, I later fished the same water with a friend. I had been thinking about prebaiting but due to the water being a half hours drive away, knocked the idea on the head. What I did instead was buy some very cheap supermarket fish (whole sardines) and blended them with some oatmeal, then rolled them into balls with a lump of gravel in the middle and froze them. Upon arrival to the water, these balls (about golf ball size) were sporadically fired around using a catapult in relatively close proximity to my baits and we then took 10 pike to 14.5lb in the morning. That was the most hectic pike sport I have ever had. No twenties though that day....

[Pike stalker]

I agree with budgie and personally I think if you are catching that many pike from the Nene, you are already doing extremely well. I have fished parts of the Nene myself over the last few years with relatively little success. I was lucky enough to land a 20 from a club water that includes some stretches of the Nene although the actual water was a lake. This was more by luck than judgement to be honest and I was certainly not targetting a big'un by design. I still had a small (approx 10oz) jack pike in my hand when the big un took the bait, lamprey as it turns out, so it goes to show that you'll get them of all sizes... I hasten to add that this is my one and only pike of 20lbs!

 

On the point of prebaiting, I later fished the same water with a friend. I had been thinking about prebaiting but due to the water being a half hours drive away, knocked the idea on the head. What I did instead was buy some very cheap supermarket fish (whole sardines) and blended them with some oatmeal, then rolled them into balls with a lump of gravel in the middle and froze them. Upon arrival to the water, these balls (about golf ball size) were sporadically fired around using a catapult in relatively close proximity to my baits and we then took 10 pike to 14.5lb in the morning. That was the most hectic pike sport I have ever had. No twenties though that day....

 

Sounds like good sport I might try and make some of that up for my nxt session, thanks

[crazynewt]

No probs. I figured the minced fish tactic would do the attracting without filling them up too. Must have worked!

[crazynewt]

No probs. I figured the minced fish tactic would do the attracting without filling them up too. Must have worked!