Pike shame.

[zappagod]

Hi chaps i got a gag when i got my first pike fishing kit and i used it until i was good enough not to use it and it was a greate help to my pike fishing (I HAVE NOT USED IT FOR SOME YRS NOW)... ALL THE BEST ZAPP

[Dick Dastardly]

Hold the Pike correctly and the mouth opens!Well nearly all of the time!

Cant see what the problem with the trace is though......surely easy to unhook.....just ease the top hook out of the jaw and simply cut of the lower treble where it is hanging out of the Pikes arse!

[Andy Macfarlane]

I've just had a look and noone has bought ANY. We might be winning at last.

As for learners. What is there to understand about a Pikes physiology?

First of all you make sure you have all the tools at hand. You lift the gill flap, you check you have not lifted a raker, you slide your finger along to the chin (funnily enough it's finger shaped). You lift the head. You go in.

You do not need gags until you feel safe, secure or experienced enough. Get it right or not at all.

If you cannot face unhooking a Pike...fish for something else. Clearly unhooking will always pose a problem. It is not something you get used to over time. Scared is as scared does.

When I took up Piking, I took a leaflet produced by PAC. I followed the instructions and whooppee. It did exactly what it said on the tin.

I get cut. I bleed from time to time. I get over it and accept it is part of Piking. I could wear a glove but I feel this dulls my sensitivity.

Anyone I've shown how to unhook a Pike has been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to access the mouth and normally they feel a little embarassed at how easy it actually is.

Let's not go over old ground by justifying these things in certain scenarios. Utter nonsense.

 

[The Diamond Geezer]

quote:

---

Originally posted by argyll:

Take a closer look gentlemen, it

(the gag)

has soft padded non pointed plastic ends and it will do no damage.

 

Its even better than the inadequate fumblings of a gloved hand. I would have no need of one myself, but I'd recommend one to a beginning piker until they have a better understanding of a pikes mouth and anatomy and know how to properly hold the fish and unhook it.

---

Andy Macfarlane:

............. Utter nonsense.

Indeed it is. It's a Pile of Pants IMHO.

In fact I begin to wonder from argyll(GC)'s couple of postings re: this and fluoro mono traces, if he's not just being mishievous.

 

I had hoped he'd reserve that for the other Fora that he frequents/ed

 

DG

 

(Dangerous Geezer)

 

[ 04. October 2003, 07:23 PM: Message edited by: The Diamond Geezer ]

[Dick Dastardly]

Reference the use of a glove for unhooking.I to do not use one as not only does it dull the feeling as all ready mentioned but I have found that the gill rakers can catch on them causing damage.Several years ago one of the guys off this site showed me one of the filliting gloves at a Pike teach in AN did seemed ok but I have still stuck with acepting the cuts and grazes.DG are you sure that gags have been outlawed? I know gaffs had but not heard about gags.I hope you are right as they can cause terrible damage to small pike.

[The Diamond Geezer]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BUDGIE:

.DG are you sure that gags have been outlawed? I know gaffs had but not heard about gags.I hope you are right as they can cause terrible damage to small pike.

---

Just re-checked the Bye-laws and you're right ..my mistake (my gaff ) .. it's gaffs that forbidden. Local Clubs may also have rules about gags. Pike can be difficult to unhook sometimes, granted.

 

If I see someone having probs, I usually offer to do it for them.

[argyll]

The Diamond Geezer:

quote:

---

Originally posted by argyll:

Take a closer look gentlemen, it

(the gag)

has soft padded non pointed plastic ends and it will do no damage.

 

Its even better than the inadequate fumblings of a gloved hand. I would have no need of one myself, but I'd recommend one to a beginning piker until they have a better understanding of a pikes mouth and anatomy and know how to properly hold the fish and unhook it.

---

The Diamond Geezer:

............. Utter nonsense.

Indeed it is. It's a Pile of Pants IMHO. In fact I begin to wonder from argyll(GC)'s couple of postings re: this and fluoro mono traces, if he's not just being mishievous.

 

I had hoped he'd reserve that for the other Fora that he frequents/ed

 

DG

________________

(Dangerous Geezer .. if I {or Chester?} or any other bailiff catch anyone using such a device.)

Not a pile of pants and no mischief intended. tell me, were you the same Diamond Geezer that was banned by Sue and Chris from the Harris Forum for some rather devious or should I say Dodgy practises. The very same who rather sanctimoniously and publically slagged off members of a hard working LAS committee on Dave Pughs' site. You get around the forums too at

least the ones where you are welcome. If that was another Dodgy do'h sorry, 'Diamond' Geezer then I do apologise. another thing about you dg, whenever you produce a picture of a fish then we only see a pair of hands, no face, funny that.

 

But I digress. I'm sorry my views about this particular type of gag upset anyone I happened to think and still do that it is instantly preferable to some of the more deadly practices that go on to retrieve a hook from a pikes mouth. Of that there is no doubt. As for the 'mono' incident that dg refers to, the thread is there for anyone to see. I fish specifically for perch

(and chub and trout)with mono. dg decided to add 'pike' to that list, I didn't, although he'd have you believe I did. As I said, the thread is there for anyone to read. But hey dg why spoil a

good story with the facts. Now I'm off for an afternoons perch fishing...now where did I put that fluorocarbon.

[Guest sslatter]

Since reading in the 70s about unhooking a pike by turning it upside-down and lifting the lower jaw, I've never had a problem. I think gags should be dumped in the litter bin. It's not the rubber prongs, it's the spring force on the pike's jaw which can cause irreparable damage, IMO.

[Peter Waller]

Gags, yes, urghhhhhh. But they are, perhaps, the lesser of two evils, as suggested by Argyll. But in all honesty I think that they are evil blessed things.

 

However, I have to admit to carrying a pair of these, new to me, plastic scissor type things that you close the handles like scissors but the jaws open up. First year pike that take hooks well back don't open their gobs on demand! These scissor type things open as far as you want, you are in control, not a problem, I like them!

 

Re gloves, those chain mail things that John Wilson appears to have shares in are, I think, lethal. The fibres attract the filaments of a pike's rakers like a magnet. They really are a menace to pike.

 

But I do use a glove. I find nothing matcho in catching wheals desease. I have witnessed the consequences of this dreadful disease, I nearly lost a daughter through it. I simply wear a heavy weight Tesco household glove on my hand that holds the jaw of the pike. So long as it is wet then their is no problem either for the pike or for yours truly.

 

Yes, I do think we need to look carefully at our handling techniques. They are not the most durable of fish. They deserve the same respect that large carp receive.