Pike fishing in the Bristol Docks

[beefhands]

I'm currently getting into pike fishing, I live in Bristol but I cant seem to find anyone who can tell me what pike fishing (lure and/or bait) is like in the Docks. Does anyone fish the Docks? Whats are good areas and methods? Can anyone help?!

[Brian Carragher]

Best advice I can give is put your coat onand go for a walk around the docks and talk to the anglers there

 

If theres any pike about and there should be they'll have shown by now when bite offs happen with small skimmers and roach so any pike hot spots will be where the bait fish usually show

 

You could do with finding out what depths the various parts of the docks hold and who controlls the fishing rights, seem to remembe its one of the local clubs, and you could also do with finding out if theres any rules on methods of fishing allowed, ie livebaiting, which should help you find the pike a fair bit quicker especially now the water temperature is warming up a bit

 

You could do a lot worse than visit the local tackle shops for more up to date info on whats getting caught and where and ask about acces to the docks and permits or clubs controlling it

 

Take a pair of polarised glass's with you and have a good peek into thewater and see if you can see any fish lurking near piles or structure or retaining walls and you'll have a more than even chance of catching when you go down with rod and line, if you go with a lure rod and a pocket full of lures make sure you can land the fish before you cast in off high dock walls where a landing net won't reach

[davedave]

is it not sea water if its the docks? Or is that a stupid question

[Brian Carragher]

Its part of the Bristol Avon, Isombard Kingdom Brunel country near to where the iron clad battleship is

 

Parts of it will be a bit saline but its mostly fresh water and roach bream and pike and eels can withstand a bit of saline water without any worries and they seem to thrive in there now its been cleaned up

[JV44]

Does not look like the Bristol region Pike Anglers club has a Regional officer any more but they meet at

Meetings are held usually on the last Wednesday of the month starting at 8pm at The Midland Spinner, London Road East, Warmley, Bristol, BS30 5JB

And here

http://www.bristolpac.blogspot.com/

 

Ask in local tackle shop for info on the Bristol PAC club as that will be your best bet re help with handling Pike and they can prob find someone to take you outfor the day Steve.

[R Jim]

Hi all, I spotted this thread a while back and have been meaning to sign up and post, so here I am.

 

 

Pike fishing in the docks seemed a bit of a myth about 6 months ago, but I can assure you they are there, We spent about 20 minutes with a spinner off the wall and had two on the bank.If you look in the picture below you can see the Audi garage in one of the estates on Feeder road, we fished it at low tide about 2 days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

There is a link to google maps that shows you exactly where I mean.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp...c249ce96e48fefb

 

 

 

Have a look as it isn't right on the water and space is limited, it is possible for two people to fish, but space is limited and THERE IS A 3 OR 4 METRE DROP INTO THE WATER AT LOW TIDE.

We stood/ sat while one cast into the mouth of the weir and pulled it back, within 3 or 4 casts we could see them following the lures right up too the wall, there is a flat concrete plinth to the right of you that hasmaybe a foot of fast running water coursing it and on bath occasions we pulled the pike onto that section and let them drift backwards into the landing net where it drops away to deeper water, as I stated above it is a long drop, so care and common sense is needed, just to give you a scale of it, we had probably a 2'6 or 3 metre landing net and we were led on the floor hold the net straight down over the wall to land them, not the easiest but care was taken and all went well, and it was a blessing there was three of us.

 

This is a link to my you tube channel and a little bit of film of the pike getting its breath back after the fight on the above mentioned plinth, please forgive the heading, I was on a fact finding tour and my mate in the picture is a dab hand with a rod and a river, and took no end of humor from the fact I blanked.

 

Im off to buy meself an extra long landing net pole, im taking me bivvy and i'm gonna night night fish next week with some dead baits and stuff see what we can't pull out......

 

 

 

 

 

Youtube Video ->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for licences, I started fishing again about a year ago now, and when I bought my licence I asked in Bill Pugh's (a fishing shop in Knowle), Veals, and a shop in warminster, and the general consenus on free waters was that, the docks is free fishing, the feeder is free fishing, there is a strip of bank in keynsham you can fish, Bath has free sections, I think maybe including a weir, and then finally a section in Bradford on Avon. As for specifics i will ask on Monday as i'm furiously buying bait and rigs in Veals for a marathon first time pike session!

 

I will post a pic of the other pike that was banked under this one.