Should we have a ban on Summer Pike fishing?

[gozzer]

Damn hanging around here is getting to me, next I will be picketing commercials with a placard the only good Carp in one made in to fertilser

 

Slight exaggeration Stephen, but I think it's allowed if your an angler.

 

If you are getting the 'message', then well done. Many struggle with the concept, but although a little 'raw', I think you might have potential.

 

John.

[Dales]

I'm not surprised that most would not want a ban on summer Piking as we have enough rules and regulations on fishing but I was surprised that so many do fish for Pike in the Summer. I know it's a small survey of people who voted but I just would have thought many would not fish for Pike not because of any welfare considerations but that they would be to busy fishing for other traditional summer species.

[Phone]

Dales,

 

I didn't vote. None-the-less I have a question and/or a comment.

 

First, the following is "cut and pasted" -

 

""Once the shallows bays [in Northern US lakes] get to warm for their comfort; the bigger pike head for deeper water." "..., big northern pike [british Pike] prefer cooler water in the 50 to 55 degree range.""

 

Do you have any 50 - 55 degree waters in the summer?

 

Since I know so very little I can't vote with any fairness. However, I would not favor fishing for any species who is under stress from high water temperatures? Is that the case?

 

Phone

[Emma two]

I'm not surprised that most would not want a ban on summer Piking as we have enough rules and regulations on fishing but I was surprised that so many do fish for Pike in the Summer. I know it's a small survey of people who voted but I just would have thought many would not fish for Pike not because of any welfare considerations but that they would be to busy fishing for other traditional summer species.

 

 

Perhaps we don't have easy access to waters with 'traditional summer species'. Piking has always been a summer thing, for years autum and winter was taken up with a busy shedule of shooting, ferreting, hunting, and working lurchers. We have the river with a modest run of salmon and sea trout, ok for a few days each summer and autumn, but the river has to be just right to make it worthwhile. There is a commerial 2 miles up the road where people pay to sut on a circle facing each other and catch enclosed carp and some other species, bream and roach I think, I would feel exceptionally embarassed to fish there, perhaps 'humiliated' is a better way oif describing it. There is a tarn about 5 miles away (I wrote about it in a thread in here fairly recently) a club took the fishing rights and stuffed carp into it, I pay my dues in order to be ablke to fish it, for pike! I went carping a while ago and found the whole business crashingly boring and had difficulty staying awake. There is another commercial an 80 odd mile round trip away, it has carp, roach and tench in it. I started the grandkids off in it, catching roach on the whip. It's not the sort of place I would spend a serious day's fishin'.

 

Thgen of course we have our fantastic deep cold glacial wild lakes, where the pike and perch have existed for centuries, when my rod end violently rips around I have make contact with a directlink to the last ice age. If some nutcase tried to ban summer piking then I wouls just go out on my boat with the same lures and spinners, and declare it salmon and trout fishing'.

 

We don't all live in the south of England, some of the posts lately indicate that fishing could be banned (as we know it) by the prissies on the inside, not by the antis.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Emma two

[Dales]

We don't all live in the south of England, some of the posts lately indicate that fishing could be banned (as we know it) by the prissies on the inside, not by the antis.

 

Yes we are quite capable of ruining fishing ourselves with out the need for any one outside angling

 

 

 

Thanks Emma, yes I thought some people would be influenced by the areas they live in and what's available and that makes sense. At times I do forget the spread of species across the UK and have always thought of the summer as being Tench, Bream, Carp and Rudd time.

[Dales]

Do you have any 50 - 55 degree waters in the summer?

 

Since I know so very little I can't vote with any fairness. However, I would not favor fishing for any species who is under stress from high water temperatures? Is that the case?

 

Phone

 

Phone, if we are talking in celsius then I cant think of any water that would get that warm but if Fahrenheit yes then I then again I never take water temperature readings and so some one might be able to correct me. In relative terms the UK may be small, but from one end of the country to the other water temperatures can vary considerably and as Emma pointed out she could be fishing a deep cold glacial lake while I could be fishing a warm pond for Rudd down in the south.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Dales

[Tigger]

I've caught loads of pike in the height of summer over the years and never had any deaths or any remotely looking like dying. Blimey if their treated correctly and put back asap there should be no problem no matter how hard they fight or how warm it is. If one should look a bit iffy just let it revive before letting it float off. Rather than mauling them to revive them they're better propped in an upright position and left alone to slowly recover.

[Phone]

Dales,

 

Fahrenheit

 

Tigger,

 

I'm afraid I "threw in" the stress issue all by myself. I have not read that stress is an issue from any US experts. It does look misleading and I don't know a tinkers-damn about piking. The expert comment was that the pike tend to disappear to deeper, colder waters (become less catchable). We have some pike, like the Muskie (Musky) that actually prefer warmer water. I extrapolated all creatures have a "comfort zone" or maybe a "stress zone" -pike must have one also?

 

Phone

[Dales]

Fahrenheit

 

Phone

 

Then I would have thought that many shallow lakes and a few rivers would get to that temperature or even higher.

[Phone]

Dales,

 

I'm wondering? Let me say this differently. Pike like temperatures BELOW 50 - 55. Above 50 - 55 they vanish to deeper water (where the water is 50 - 55 and thus become more difficult to catch. That's what WE say.

 

Now, in this thread folks are talking about the enjoyment of summer topwater fishing for pike. Almost SURELY the water is above 50 - 55.

 

So, have pike addapted to warmer waters in the UK or is the same thing true as is in North America.

 

Or, does the water remain in the pike comfort zone throughout the summer as well as the other seasons.

 

I am trying to get a "grip" on why this thread and poll even exists? What possible differences are so profound in summer as to even ask such a silly question?

 

Phone