Fluorocarbon pike traces

[Worms]

Not sure what a "norm" is excepted or not ,lots of people except things without question when so called experts tell them to many except things even from non experts ,its a bad trait we have.

I simply follow any rules the club impose on me for allowing me to fish i dont care what the norm is outside of that.

If it works for me and I don't have problems with damaging fish or leaving them with kit in their mouths I do it...experience is the best teacher!

[Phone]

Andy,

 

I think an important difference is when using live or dead bait, a light wire leader is recommended. Live bait fishing demands a bit of patience on the angler's part. Pike typically grab the bait sideways, then attempt to swim off to turn their catch in their mouth and swallow it. Trying to set the hook to quickly often results in the hook being pulled from the bait or the entire bait being yanked from the fish's mouth. Setting the hook to soon drags the leader across the teeth causing the potential you suggest. This is NOT a common occurance with lures since they aligns in a straight line after the initial "bump" by a pike.

 

As for my personal experience. I probably have only fished for pike maybe 100 times. But I have to remind you it is not at all uncommon to catch 15 - 20 fish per session. Do you want to know how many times I've experienced what would appear to be a "cut" leader?

 

Phone

[Steve Burke]

If it works for me and I don't have problems with damaging fish or leaving them with kit in their mouths I do it...experience is the best teacher!

 

Regardless if you're breaking the rules of the fishery?

[Worms]

Regardless if you're breaking the rules of the fishery?

Of course not, that wasn't the route I was following...I meant as legitimate methods of angling...although some of my carp method jokes may imply otherwise I do always try and stick to the rules...however much they stick in my throat sometimes...It was strictly a method comment, not a political one!

[Phone]

Steve,

 

American Fishing Wire Surflon Micro Supreme is most commonly used up North right now.

 

Andy,

 

Perhaps you will find this an enjoyable read. It is not fisherman talk but science talk.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/documents/species/northernpike.pdf

 

Phone

[Steve Walker]

Cant ignore what i see in the pike pics though, they do look like pretty damn sharp edges to me.

They're flattened to some extent, but they are not primarily for slicing, they're for stabbing. Pike don't bite chunks out of prey, they hold on and swallow whole. They certainly can cut, I've slashed a thumb on one that wriggled, but they're primarily pointed rather than edged.

[Andy_1984]

They're flattened to some extent, but they are not primarily for slicing, they're for stabbing. Pike don't bite chunks out of prey, they hold on and swallow whole. They certainly can cut, I've slashed a thumb on one that wriggled, but they're primarily pointed rather than edged.

 

Do the pike know this

[Ken L]

Andy, don't worry you are not bonkers. It's the rest of the world who are bonkers.

 

Ken, why do you use Fluro leaders in the tropics when there are a thousand and one more oppurtunities of hooking toothy critters, sharp gill plated fish etc and then not Trust them for Pike?

 

Why not use wire when fishing in the tropics?

It's a wind on leader attached to 80lb braid with an FG knot. It's good for both rocks and fish running under the hull and does give some protection from teeth etc.

 

I do on occasion use wire but I hadn't actually planned on much trolling on the last trip (I ended up going out four times) but when I do and am expecting toothy critters, I use a meter or so of solid trolling wire. There's no plastic coating to fray and it's so thin that it doesn't interfere with the action of the lures.

[tomhaggett]

Just read through all this and thought I'd add my tempeneth. It's a subject that I can't stop stumbling across on various forums.

 

For me, if you're going to encounter pike with any degree of regularity you should use wire. The only time I don't is when drop-shotting.

 

I'm fed up of reading the argument "pike sometimes take worms or boilies when I'm winding in and we don't get told to use wire for that". That, in my opinion, is a moronic statement. Yes, these things happen, but fishing a lively or a lure is a totally different kettle of fish and the likelihood of encountering pike using those methods is 100x higher than when reeling in a carp rig. When it becomes 'likely' that you may hook pike you should be using a trace, end of.

 

With regards to species being "trace shy", I've been targeting perch with soft plastics on a gin clear canal this winter.. so clear that you can see the bottom all the way over. I've used wire every single time, albeit a supple nylon coated version, and found I've actually caught more a fair few more than some mates that were sold on using fluro. I've always thought that if they're that worried about the trace they can't be paying an awful lot of attention to, or have much intent on taking the lure/live.

 

Drop-shotting on the other hand can only be done properly using fluro and the risk of pike is minimal. It's a far more static method which doesn't seem at all appealing to them and the vast majority that do get hooked are so neatly in the scissors. Though I don't accept the following as a rationalization, a small single hook is likely to cause very little damage compared to trebles or jigheads etc..

 

Why this is even up for debate I'm unsure. People have never felt the need to use anything other than traces in the past so why all of a sudden have they decided that pike are the next Albert Einstein. A less tackle shy species I can't imagine... they happily take totally un-natural sea baits with 2 monstrous trebles sticking out of them for goodness sake. Why anybody thought to swap tried and tested products for something that is at best risky and that offers little, or in my opinion, no benefit whatsoever is beyond me.

Edited April 5, 2013 by tomhaggett

[Worms]

Just read through all this and thought I'd add my tempeneth. It's a subject that I can't stop stumbling across on various forums.

 

For me, if you're going to encounter pike with any degree of regularity you should use wire. The only time I don't is when drop-shotting.

 

I'm fed up of reading the argument "pike sometimes take worms or boilies when I'm winding in and we don't get told to use wire for that". That, in my opinion, is a moronic statement. Yes, these things happen, but fishing a lively or a lure is a totally different kettle of fish and the likelihood of encountering pike using those methods is 100x higher than when reeling in a carp rig. When it becomes 'likely' that you may hook pike you should be using a trace, end of.

 

With regards to species being "trace shy", I've been targeting perch with soft plastics on a gin clear canal this winter.. so clear that you can see the bottom all the way over. I've used wire every single time, albeit a supple nylon coated version, and found I've actually caught more a fair few more than some mates that were sold on using fluro. I've always thought that if they're that worried about the trace they can't be paying an awful lot of attention to, or have much intent on taking the lure/live.

 

Drop-shotting on the other hand can only be done properly using fluro and the risk of pike is minimal. It's a far more static method which doesn't seem at all appealing to them and the vast majority that do get hooked are so neatly in the scissors. Though I don't accept the following as a rationalization, a small single hook is likely to cause very little damage compared to trebles or jigheads etc..

 

Why this is even up for debate I'm unsure. People have never felt the need to use anything other than traces in the past so why all of a sudden have they decided that pike are the next Albert Einstein. A less tackle shy species I can't imagine... they happily take totally un-natural sea baits with 2 monstrous trebles sticking out of them for goodness sake. Why anybody thought to swap tried and tested products for something that is at best risky and that offers little, or in my opinion, no benefit whatsoever is beyond me.

At the risk of making a "moronic" statement, the risk of catching pike when fishing for anything can be very high on some waters. I fish the River Teme frequently for chub, perch and other species with livebaits, lures and other baits that I know I could catch pike on. I don't use wire then.

 

Your last paragraph is interesting, particularly as I mainly fish vintage tackle on freshwater and often in salt....I use old rods and reels, sometimes old lines, but, I invariably fish modern terminal tackle and, if I'm fly fishing for shark for example I use the latest state of the art gear..I could use piano wire traces and broomstick rods etc...but I prefer not to...it's called progress. Some people have no problems with alternatives to wire some do, as time progresses methods and materials evolve and are accepted...take 3lb test curve rods for carp for example, lobbing out bloody great sea leads...in stillwater! (ok, hardly evolution, more a retrograde step but you should get the drift).

 

Discussion of knowledge gained through experience is one of the benefits of this forum. There is no "end of" (and it is also awfully bad use of grammar).

 

Tight lines

Edited April 6, 2013 by Worms