bobbin or bait-runner

[The Flying Tench]

Some great pics, particularly of the pike sniffing the keep net!

[The Flying Tench]

20 hours ago, Martin56 said:

Hi Tench,

I reckon you should maybe catch a few Pike with a float until you reach the level of experience which demands heavy Leger Tackle??

OK, I've only caught the odd opportunistic Pike up to 6 Lb or so myself.

Can you deal with a "Deep Hooked Pike"?? 

PS - I'm in no way trying to make fun bud'.

Martin, I've had a fair few pike over the years, often just 3 or 4 a year, but they add up. There were a couple of years when I concentrated a bit more on piking, and I got quite 'professional' at the unhooking - but I admit I'm a bit out of practice. Very few have been deep hooked, but the few that were I handled OK, even if with difficulty! Apart from my very first pike about 25 years ago.

Why do you think float is preferable? Is it because you think there is a greater risk of deep hooking with a ledgered bait?

[BoldBear]

If I’m piking fairly close in then I would prefer to float fish for my Pike too. When the wind is in the right direction I’ve also been known to have vanes made out of dart flights attached to the top of my float so that it catches in the wind and starts to drift downwind.

however in the local gravel pit where I do a lot of my piking there are some really deep holes where a surface float is too limiting so I’ll often use a leger together with a sunken float to keep my line off the bottom or away from the edges of a deep hole; for this I use a stop knot set at a depth that will keep my line above these things.

I occasionally make some of my own surface Pike floats using balsa doweling with either a central hole for my line to go through or use the barbed shanks of sea hooks as in the diagram below:

I prefer using a Pike float where it’s possible simply because it gives me a visual indication of what is happening down by my bait instead of just waiting for the line to pull free of a butt indicator.

A float will often give me a clear warning when a Pike picks up my live or deadbait by trembling and moving off before sinking out of sight, plus a float gives me the option to vary the depths that I want to present my bait.

However if I’m fishing for Pike on a river then I prefer to use lures so I can move around a lot more and search in various likely places.

Having said all that, in reality I haven’t been Pike fishing for several years now although I might start targeting Pike again this winter as long as the weather isn’t too cold (I am a pensioner now you know ) 

Keith

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by BoldBear

[The Flying Tench]

It's amazing how you do those diagrams, Keith!

[The Flying Tench]

I see the advantage of a float in still water where, as Keith says, you can adjust the depth - and sometimes in rivers where you can trot a bait down stream. But a lot of the books recommend float-ledgering, though I've never really understood why

Edited September 9, 2021 by The Flying Tench

[Martin56]

16 hours ago, The Flying Tench said:

Why do you think float is preferable? Is it because you think there is a greater risk of deep hooking with a ledgered bait?

Yes, I think that's what I'm trying to say plus all the points Keith talked about.

Also, watching a float from that Initial indication to the TAKE is much more exciting!!

[BoldBear]

4 hours ago, The Flying Tench said:

I see the advantage of a float in still water where, as Keith says, you can adjust the depth - and sometimes in rivers where you can trot a bait down stream. But a lot of the books recommend float-ledgering, though I've never really understood why

If there is a strongish surface tow or a slowish current float-legering would allow you to hold still while at the same time give you a lot of the advantages that a float can give you. Plus you can use a paternoster rig with the live or deadbait coming off to the side when using a float-leger rig.

NB: You can also use the paternoster presentation when using a submerged float in much deeper swims too.

Keith

Edited September 9, 2021 by BoldBear