norfolk broads

[ben88]

is there any chance of some big old chub....or in fact pike perch or zander if i try lure fishing the free town water at bridgenorth river severn or ironbridge or shrewsbury as it is only a trainride away.

[Peter M]

Well i have to say i use mono as i am not prepared to spend the money they charge for braid. I don't know the river severn although if I lived as close as you do i would probably fish for Barbel not predetors. I think i am right in saying that there are lots of pike perch and chub in the river, although some more local anglers will know more.

[ben88]

bridgenorth is bout 15miles from minebut i have to use the bus or get a lift from my parentsand last bus back is at 5.oclock or something stupid so thats not much good, shrewsbury is further but transport is easier as trains run till late and bus from trainstation bak to mine stops at 11pm. so any advice on fishing shrewsbury would be brill. is shrewbury a dayticket stretch or is it free like ironbridge or bridge north.

[Newt]

ben88 - braid is great but as you noted, expensive when compared to mono when looking at only the initial purchase price. Over time, braid holds up lots longer and usually works out cheaper but if you are short on funds, the 'long run' isn't a consideration and you certainly might want to opt for mono.

 

argyll had a point about the mono but didn't mention that the damage is usually confined to the last few feet so if you spool up with mono for lures and just check every hour or so and after each fish, you can remove any damaged line. Just don't rely on your eyes. Pinch teh line lightly between your thumb and forefinger and pull a few feet. You'll easily feel any damaged spots and if you do, cut and re-tie.

 

Another thought - 100 yards of PowerPro in 30 or 50 lb b/s from BassPro shops is $11 so by the time you paid shipping, VAT, etc. would probably work out to around £11 or less. If you use it for lure angling you could easily spool two reels with 50 yards of PowerPro over a cheaper 'backing' of mono so you'd be looking at around £5 per reel. Might be worth the investment. I'd suggest the 50lb since it holds up well and is smaller diameter and less stiff than 17lb mono.

 

Long Time Pikers - this is a bit of a rant but take a look back over the posts on here. Sounds to me like ben88 wants to do things right and isn't getting one hell of a lot of advice or support from those of you who know piking.

 

Certainly, don't give up your hot spots on the internet and maybe only the fairly good ones via PM or email but general advice or maybe an offer to take him out once or twice to show him how to do things properly seems in order to me.

 

I have no idea where any of you live compared to where he lives but I'm guessing that one or two live fairly close.

 

I read lots of moans about bad pike anglers but with a couple of exceptions (way to go Budgie) I'm not aware that any of you are willing to take a little time to correct the problem by showing anyone how it should be done.

[ben88]

thanks for the advice newt.

much of what you say in your second post is correct, the only part of the post which i am not to sure about isbeing taken out by others after all mommy always told me not to talk to strangers :-p

 

but seriously a few of these people i think do live far from me.

 

i think that the reason people seem to be having a dig is that they have seen to many bad anglers so they have become suspissiocs (sorry bout the spelling) of any new pike angler, even if they do want to do things properly.

[Newt]

Spelling - mine is horrible if I don't have help but I installed a great free utility called IESpell and it placed a little icon on my IE toolbar so a single click and spelling for any content I'm typing (like this) is spell checked. Give it a try.

 

Distance - well, I'm driving around 365 miles (7.5 hours roughly) after I get off work this Friday night so I can fish Saturday and Sunday with an angler I only know from this forum. I realize that fuel is more expensive by quite a bit there than here but distances are shorter so as the chorus of a popular country song goes, "That don't impress me much".

 

My feeling here is that one really can't have it both ways. Either help new folks or quit bitching about them not knowing the right way to safely and effectively fish for pike.

[argyll]

Sorry Newt my boat is 'open house' always has been, but I prefer to arrange such meetings

off-line. I prefer to avoid ...as the other song goes... 'a blaze of glory' You might find others do exactly the same.

Ben is 150 miles away from me...its the first thing I checked.

 

[ 21. July 2004, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[jeepster]

remember you dont have to fill your spool with braid, just put half a 150 yard spool of powerpro on, thats what i do.

i have one of the shimano exage travel spinning rods that peter mentions, they are very good, and quite cheap

[Peter Waller]

Two things Newt. IESpell appears to be limited to only a few servers, and not very well known ones! How do you get round that?

 

Secondly, I do help new pikers; like Argyll my boat, and mooring, is an open house, also by arrangement.

 

But it is not the beginners that create the problems. My gripe is with the braindeads who have a few pike to their credit but still refuse to use the brain that the good Lord provided them with.

 

There is another issue Newt, quite simply pike are going through an incredible popularity surge over here in the UK. Like you guys we like predators. But unlike the US we neither have the variety nor the quantity. In a nutshell there are now, I think, more pikers than the pike population can possibly sustain. Over the last three years the piker population has grown at an alarming rate. Coincidently over the last three years the pike population appears to have taken a corresponding tumble, a serious tumble.

 

[ 21. July 2004, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[Newt]

Peter - not sure what you mean about IeSpell being limited to certain servers. If I type up text to post, it always has spell checked it for me since it's checking text on my PC before I send it on to a server.

 

Pike in short supply - I agree and think that trying to drum up new pike anglers would be stupid. But the case here was someone who was going to do some pike fishing so it would appear that doing it pike-safely would be of benefit to all.

 

And if I'm the only one who saw the earlier posts as being unhelpful as to rigs and equipment then it was probably just the way I was reading them.

 

I completely understand the reasons ben88 got short shift when asking on an open forum about good places to camp and catch lots of pike. I think if we had more bio info about posters, his age would have allowed folks to put that down to youthful enthusiasm but that all got worked out.

 

It was the later stuff that bothered me some.