Pike Fishing

[Dave-C]

I have recently took up pike fishing, as yet I have had no luck with dead baits and I don't like the idea of using live baits. Last week on a trip to Rudyard I decided to use a spinner and caught my first pike followed shortly after by another 5. The pike were only jacks around a lb so nothing big but it was a great days fishing and i thouroughly enjoyed it. I am using my carp gear at the moment but will be looking for a decent spinning rod soon as I can't cast small spinners on a 2.5 test curve rod. Any advise on lures and spinners, or just general pike fishing tecniques would be greatly appreciated.

[Newt]

Hi Dave-c and welcome to Anglers Net. You should get some excellent suggestions for specific gear (including lures) to use.

[Neil G]

Good to hear you have discovered the joys of pike fishing....once I started it I never looked back and am now pretty much fishing for them 100% of the time bar the odd eel or perch session.

 

Pike in different waters all respond to diferent methods as well as bait....I wouldn't write off dead baiting as it's very, very effective, just try as many different baits as you can as often mackerel will work on a day that sprats or herring won't and vice versa.

 

As far as spinning rods go it depends on what sort of lure fishing you are looking at doing. I use a Drennan spinflex 2.5tc rod which at 9ft is ideal for river fishing where you have to negotiate weeds and lilly pads etc. It'll flick out small spinners easliy and can cast heavier, weighted rubber shads and jerkbaits up to 50g so it can get the distance on larger waters & reservoirs.

 

If you are going to get into piking I also reccomend a half decent pike rod....the is more suited to casting heavy deads which can put a lot of strain on rods...it's always good to have the confidence to cast a bait far in the knowledge that the rod isn't going to let go.

 

Sure there will be plenty of people along soon to give you valuable advice....all I can say is the more you fish, the more experience & confidence you get, especially with unhooking etc and you can handle most situations with ease.

 

Good luck

 

Oh yeah....check out the Pike Anglers site for tips on rigs, making your own traces & unhooking etc.

 

www.pacgb.co.uk

Edited June 5, 2007 by Neil G

[Dave-C]

Thanks for the welcome. It was a real buzz getting my first pike spinning and I won't give up the dead baits. I think like all methods of fishing it will take patience and once I've caught on them my confidence will grow. When you blank on a bait or method you always quesion yourself as to wether or not there is something I am doing wrong or is it that 'today the fish just aren't feeding' As the the spinning rod I have looked around and there is quite a variety to choose from ie. weights they will cast and so on so I think I'll probably look at around 10 to 30 grammes to start and see how I get on. As you say the weights you cast will probably overload the rods I'm using at the moment but the baits I chose were quite small, ie spratts, sardines, half mackeral and smelt. I don't know if using bigger baits will attract bigger pike or not but I don't think it would make much difference, although I'm learning and any advice will be thankfully received. I live in Hyde Cheshire and resevoirs are quite plentiful though getting on some can be very expensive, so any good venues?

 

All the best and tight lines.

[cobra]

Thanks for the welcome. It was a real buzz getting my first pike spinning and I won't give up the dead baits. I think like all methods of fishing it will take patience and once I've caught on them my confidence will grow. When you blank on a bait or method you always quesion yourself as to wether or not there is something I am doing wrong or is it that 'today the fish just aren't feeding' As the the spinning rod I have looked around and there is quite a variety to choose from ie. weights they will cast and so on so I think I'll probably look at around 10 to 30 grammes to start and see how I get on. As you say the weights you cast will probably overload the rods I'm using at the moment but the baits I chose were quite small, ie spratts, sardines, half mackeral and smelt. I don't know if using bigger baits will attract bigger pike or not but I don't think it would make much difference, although I'm learning and any advice will be thankfully received. I live in Hyde Cheshire and resevoirs are quite plentiful though getting on some can be very expensive, so any good venues?

 

All the best and tight lines.

welldone with getting your first pike mate i love lure fishing ,theres nothing quite like it when a good size pike grabs your lure, ive been getting alot of success with big surface lures lately but when it gets colder you might find the deeper lures work try lots of different lures and spinners to find the ones that are working on your water ,im not very successfull with dead baits as yet but i fully intend to give it a good go so we will have to compare notes

[Neil G]

Sounds like your on the right path.....just put out a deadbait whilst you lure fish the surface layers.

 

As for venues I can't really help out there as I am way down south near Bristol....you could try getting in contact with some people on the Pike Anglers Club as they do have regional organisers that could point you in the right direction.

 

Rivers are always a good place to fish for pike as well so if you have any good local ones it may be worth seeing if you could get onto them.

[Peter Waller]

Personally I would NOT advocate putting out a deadbait whilst lure fishing. Stick to one method, do it well and do it thoroughly. To mix methods such as lures and deads is a sure recipe for disaster. It also means that you can't give 100% to each method.

[Dave-C]

There are so many lures to choose from I'm like a kid in a sweet shop. Some are quite expensive so a small selection can set me back a hundred quid. Also there are so many retrieves I'm almost overloaded with info just on the back of lure boxes. Is there special ways of retrieve to get more takes from specific lures or are they really mostlt the same ie. bring it in slow or do I use a quick slow retrieve?

Dave

[Grandma]

Have a look at this info on summer piking:

 

http://www.pacgb.co.uk/tips/summer.html

 

It's important to have them out of the water for as shorter period as possible, think in terms of seconds rather than minutes as pike will keel over and die, particularly if the water is shallow and warm, this includes the margins.

 

A lot of pikers prefer to lure fish in the summer, partly because there's little danger of deep hooking fish. A deeply hooked pike can take a bit of time to deal with if you're not used to handling them and may end up dead in warm conditions. It is worth getting a net with 'lure mesh' because hooks get stuck in normal mesh and again can be awkward to sort out quickly. Also some mini bolt croppers to cut awkward hooks, remove all the bits from the fish.

 

Basically, land and return them as quickly as possible and you'll be ok.

 

Good luck

Edited June 6, 2007 by Grandma

[Leon Roskilly]

Check out the articles section of the website (see links over on the left).

 

There are a number of articles on fishing for pike, and lure fishing, which should interest you.