Hi all 👍🏼

[Philpot 2]

Thought I’d just say hi to everyone as I’m a new member & im looking forward (hopefully) to getting out there this year and catching some decent pike. I’m relatively new to pike fishing (maybe just shy of a year) but I have been out quite abit locally and  travelled , not an expert angler quite yet...so any tips & advice would be excellent. I never thought pike fishing would be so addictive! I have plans of a log cabin get away up Scotland this year depending on the obvious Covid situation...does any body recommend any good lochs up there or is that a silly question??? thanks in advance!

[Elton 172]

Hi,

Welcome aboard! It's a bit quieter in here than it was years ago, pre-social media, but fire away with any questions in the appropriate forum and you should get a helpful reply. Tight lines!

[BoldBear 197]

Hi Phil welcome.

Unfortunately I’ve never fished in Scotland for Pike so can’t really advise you about any of the Scottish lochs, but I’m looking forward to your posts. and if I or anyone else on here can help with any other thing then we will be glad help if we can 

Tight lines

Keith

Edited February 16 by BoldBear

[Huge_Vitae 565]

Hello Phil & welcome.

I used to hunt wild pike years ago, by wild I mean reservoirs, chalk pits, brickyard pits etc, certainly was a damned good buzz.

Those places I mentioned slowly became ‘modernised’ and filled with oversized tame carp. Give up because of the removal of the pike plus a lot were then restricted to syndicate members only.

There used to be fantastic pike fishing up north and even in the fens near Elton, somebody will tell you if you start a thread.

[Philpot 2]

Thanks for the replies gents, much appreciated We have managed to book a log cabin on loch awe, which I hear is excellent for pike fishing in the right season ofcourse, so rather excited about that. Being a northerner (Newcastle) we were thinking about trying a lake quite local to us which apparently holds decent pike,hopefully get some pics uploaded! I have told my brother and friends about this forum so they will be joining too. Thanks once again and I will definitely be needing some advice soon without a doubt.

Tight lines indeed!

[chesters1 1579]

Please be very gentle with pike they are not the savage brutes people think they are ,infact they are very fragile so strike quickly its far better to miss the odd one than deep hook it .

I gave up multi treble steel traces decades ago and use just one hook a pretty large sea hook pushed through the forehead of a deadbait  or two with the other pushed through the back bone if the deadbait is fragile like a sea fish (had lots of success with sardines) and its easy to use an unhooking mat with a flip over cover so you can pin the fish down with a knee each side holding the flap under your knees facing the head ,a pike flapping about knashing can be quite alarming to a new pike angler lol

My mat is oval about 3 ft long blue one side silver the other i have never seen another on the bank in the 35 years (perhaps longer?) i have owned it ,great for sitting on in the hours of waiting

Edited February 18 by chesters1

[Philpot 2]

Thanks you very much for that experienced advice chesters. Duly noted. They are a beautiful specimen & we do treat them with care & respect. We haven’t caught anything severely Goliath yet but we do know that they grow to a monstrous size, I’d like to get a lot more experience before I catch something too big, Then again it’s a gamble on what you’re going to catch really isn’t it.!? I’m more then happy with jacks for now .We tend to use eel section,lamprey or joey’s & have had some good response to them but thanks for the quick tip on sardines, I’ll try them sometime. Thanks once again