piking- getting the right place and time

[The Flying Tench]

In Berkshire, where I live, we've seen air pressure rise from 980 on Fri morning to 1027 today. I'm a comparative pike novice, but as I understand it that spells pike, specially fished for with a mobile bait. As I understand it the best time is day one or two into a rise in pressure, as after that the risk is that the pike will have already had their dinner and you'll be past the best.

 

Well my fishing day is tomorrow, Mondays, so I'm into day 3, which I realise is not ideal, but I'm hopeful it will still be soon enough in the high pressure period to give some good results. The pressure will be 1021 at 9am dropping to 1017 by 3pm, according to Metcheck.

 

The question is where to go and when in the day. I suppose first light would be ideal, but I'm not brilliant first thing in the morning, and there's the rush hour traffic. I think I'll leave about 9am, and fish till mid afternoon. I'll miss the key time of dusk, but the pressure will be slightly higher, and it will be a little bit earlier during the high pressure spell.

 

And there's the question of where to go. I haven't the faintest idea how to choose between lake and river (and whether the rise in air pressure will be more beneficial in one than the other), but I prefer rivers, I guess, so I'll try a mobile approach with wobbling gear driving around the place spending an hour here, half an hour there. That way I will warm up in the car each time. I'll probably try a couple of places on the Lambourn, a place on the Kennet, and may even mosey over to Father Thames - though the hotspot I've been told about there is probably better when the river is in flood.

 

Or I might just throw financial caution to the wind and have a mobile day wobbling at Barton Court (upper Kennet) . If only I was a bit more confident the weather is right.

 

So what's my question? I guess I'd be interested to know if my thinking is reasonably on key. For example, is day 3 in a high pressure period still OK? And hearing how more experienced pikers decide how and where to go depending on the weather would be of interest too.

[Angly]

I read an article (either here, or another forum) where a poster claimed that the air pressure 'rule' was in fact a red herring (my words), as fish underwater cannot feel the pressure change. The poster claimed that therefore the air pressure 'rule' is merely because of the weather (which the fish can feel) that accompanies it. It all sounded very plausible to me.

 

Anyone?

 

I do agree that today seemed perfect piking weather though from what little I know (pike novice here too), frosts last night and this morning, clear skies and sunshine. And I'm going piking Tuesday! Grrrrr.

[barney66]

In Berkshire, where I live, we've seen air pressure rise from 980 on Fri morning to 1027 today. I'm a comparative pike novice, but as I understand it that spells pike, specially fished for with a mobile bait. As I understand it the best time is day one or two into a rise in pressure, as after that the risk is that the pike will have already had their dinner and you'll be past the best.

 

Well my fishing day is tomorrow, Mondays, so I'm into day 3, which I realise is not ideal, but I'm hopeful it will still be soon enough in the high pressure period to give some good results. The pressure will be 1021 at 9am dropping to 1017 by 3pm, according to Metcheck.

 

The question is where to go and when in the day. I suppose first light would be ideal, but I'm not brilliant first thing in the morning, and there's the rush hour traffic. I think I'll leave about 9am, and fish till mid afternoon. I'll miss the key time of dusk, but the pressure will be slightly higher, and it will be a little bit earlier during the high pressure spell.

 

And there's the question of where to go. I haven't the faintest idea how to choose between lake and river (and whether the rise in air pressure will be more beneficial in one than the other), but I prefer rivers, I guess, so I'll try a mobile approach with wobbling gear driving around the place spending an hour here, half an hour there. That way I will warm up in the car each time. I'll probably try a couple of places on the Lambourn, a place on the Kennet, and may even mosey over to Father Thames - though the hotspot I've been told about there is probably better when the river is in flood.

 

Or I might just throw financial caution to the wind and have a mobile day wobbling at Barton Court (upper Kennet) . If only I was a bit more confident the weather is right.

 

So what's my question? I guess I'd be interested to know if my thinking is reasonably on key. For example, is day 3 in a high pressure period still OK? And hearing how more experienced pikers decide how and where to go depending on the weather would be of interest too.

when i use to pike fish people didn,t realy think about air presure and things i found that there was a certern time of day when pike would feed on pits in rivers i think its driffrent pike have to be more of a opertunest as with flood water ;cold clear rivers i also found when live baiting was hard the pikeing was best as for river or pit fish a pit if wanted to get pike of 20 30 pounds smaller ones in rivers not to say rivers don;t have big pike in them just harder to find info were they are most pits in and around reading area copuld throw up a biggey

[JV44]

In Berkshire, where I live, we've seen air pressure rise from 980 on Fri morning to 1027 today. I'm a comparative pike novice, but as I understand it that spells pike, specially fished for with a mobile bait. As I understand it the best time is day one or two into a rise in pressure, as after that the risk is that the pike will have already had their dinner and you'll be past the best.

 

Well my fishing day is tomorrow, Mondays, so I'm into day 3, which I realise is not ideal, but I'm hopeful it will still be soon enough in the high pressure period to give some good results. The pressure will be 1021 at 9am dropping to 1017 by 3pm, according to Metcheck.

 

The question is where to go and when in the day. I suppose first light would be ideal, but I'm not brilliant first thing in the morning, and there's the rush hour traffic. I think I'll leave about 9am, and fish till mid afternoon. I'll miss the key time of dusk, but the pressure will be slightly higher, and it will be a little bit earlier during the high pressure spell.

 

And there's the question of where to go. I haven't the faintest idea how to choose between lake and river (and whether the rise in air pressure will be more beneficial in one than the other), but I prefer rivers, I guess, so I'll try a mobile approach with wobbling gear driving around the place spending an hour here, half an hour there. That way I will warm up in the car each time. I'll probably try a couple of places on the Lambourn, a place on the Kennet, and may even mosey over to Father Thames - though the hotspot I've been told about there is probably better when the river is in flood.

 

Or I might just throw financial caution to the wind and have a mobile day wobbling at Barton Court (upper Kennet) . If only I was a bit more confident the weather is right.

 

So what's my question? I guess I'd be interested to know if my thinking is reasonably on key. For example, is day 3 in a high pressure period still OK? And hearing how more experienced pikers decide how and where to go depending on the weather would be of interest too.

John that fish came from the pool that is the slipway swim i told you about and all 3 takes came to sardines,think the thames will be a bit to coloured for another couple of days at least for wobling deads ,http://riverconditions.visitthames.co.uk/http://riverconditions.visitthames.co.uk/ this is a good site for a idea of thames conditions before you go Red board warnings normally mean a no no unlessits been like that for a while and you can find a slack,no pike striking anywhere on the river that i could see but it is starting to drop now steve.

[Neil G]

TBH if the rivers aren't too fast/ coloured I'd choose fishing them over any stillwater regardless of weather as you can always winkle a few out. Okay, so bigger pike may be rarer but they tend to fight harder and the mobile river style is more interesting.

[Anderoo]

I have always associated high pressure and typical winter conditions (cold, still and clear) with river piking and have had my best days in such conditions, too often for it to be a coincidence. Nearly always to a mobile, wobbled deadbait approach. Recently both Budgie and Steve Burke have suggested that it's the rising (rather than high) pressure which is the key, and I'd be silly to ignore them - I hadn't figured that out for myself, but it makes sense to me.

 

I have to say, though, that on gravel pits I prefer the milder, low pressure (more 'autumny') days, where you might think about perching instead. But on pits I nearly always fish static deads, so it could just be that those conditions suit that method better.

 

If it's high/rising pressure I would go for the river and stay very mobile. A flask of hot tea, warm boots, wooly hat and gloves and decent company make the day even better

[Dick Dastardly]

Anyone who doesnt think that rising air pressure and its resulting weather conditions doesnt affect pike fishing simply hasnt done enough piking or hasnt a clue how to most effectively catch pike!

 

Sounds a bit heavy! but if you get out regular enough and fish competently enough the results are so obvious to see that no one would be left in doubt.

 

John,definately worth making the effort to try and fish dawn till dusk at least untill any other feeding time patterns emerge.Ive been lucky enough to fish some waters where there has been no need to get up early and a lay in is fine but others the dawn period has been by far the most productive.Once youve found this you can then obviously plan your day around this.

 

Stillwater/running water? well same as Neil I would look at the river levels and colour and the still waters temperature.

 

Your plan to keep mobile sounds good but only if you know the individual swims/areas well enough to know your going to be at them at the right time! I used to have "casual" sessions on my (then) local Romney Marsh system by visiting several easily acsessable (road side) swims on the various drains,guts and sewers just fishing each for 30 mins max at the times I knew would be best.

 

Anderoos coment re soaking deads on a still water in low pressure has raised a good point.All of my bait fishing for pike is done using both live and dead baits.As such I base my comments on the experience/results Ive had from doing so.I should imagine others do the same (ie basing their comments on personal experience) In high pressure conditions Ive found pike to become very active hunters.My live baits really producing the numbers of fish with no major increase in the numbers taken on deads.In low pressure Ive found the piking in general to be a lot slower.Here the one or two fish taken are often on the deads.The deads not been better in the conditions but the lives being not so good (if you see what I mean?)

 

The above would most certainly be interpreted differently by anglers who only used deads wouldnt it? ie a dead only angler would think that in general piking was very slow only expecting a half dozen fish maximum even on a good day.And as such he would also conclude that as he caught well (by his interpretation)on low pressure days then these were the best?

[Dick Dastardly]

Re the third day of high pressure question.I struggled to word my first reply (head thick with a cold!) so having just read it will try and reply properly when Im a bit better! Will leave this question in detail till then but simply it has more variables than just the air pressure to be to dogmatic.

[scottishflyfisher]

to be honest i just take a quick glance at the weather day before i go , if i started thinking about pressures and moon phases and the like id probably never get out .

 

if a river is swollen and the colour of chocolate id still go anyway just have to try and find the slow bits and backwaters to try , if your not out there doing it your not going to catch just get out there you may learn something new about tactics on your local water when the conditions are totally opposite to what your used to

 

for me i have a day of work and that's the day i go fishing no matter what and catch fish most of the time so must be doing something right

 

all the best

[Steve Burke]

An excellent question as usual, John!

 

Firstly, barometric pressure's only one of the many variables. Sometimes it'll be the overriding one, other times it won't be. For instance on rivers my experience is the same as other's - it's the colour of the water that's most important of all. I've found that it's much the same on trout reservoirs, when results drop dramatically when dirty water is being pumped in.

 

It's also apparent that different types of water, indeed even adjacent similar waters, react differently to the weather. This not only applies to the type of weather, but is also particularly marked with feeding times, Wingham being a prime example.

 

Most years the Coarse Lake fishes best mid to late morning for pike in winter, although there's a good chance of a fish (perversely often the biggest of the day) at dusk. Having said that 2-3 years ago it responded best in the afternoons! On the Carp Lake just a few yards across the stream, dawn to breakfast time was by far the best time last year and we hardly caught anything decent after midday. So as Budgie said getting to know your local waters is vital.

 

Barometric pressure certainly does appear to affect fish, especially pike. It's not just the accompanying change in weather, it seems to be the change in pressure itself. It's probable for instance that barometric pressure affects the gas in the swim bladder of fish.

 

Angly, we've discussed this many times before here, so rather than repeat myself please excuse me if I ask you to do a search.

 

I've mentioned before that I've found high, or more accurately rising pressure, to be good for all kinds of pike fishing. In particular the first day of rising pressure after the barometer has been low for a prolonged period can be dynamite. The following days can be good too, although often you catch mainly or even just jacks then, presumably because (even though they were hungry) the jacks kept their heads down when the grandmas were feeding!

 

Others have reported that they don't do so well with deadbaits in high pressure. This isn't my experience, and it seems that Budgie's the same.

 

In my case though it might be because of the way I deadbait.

 

The one big difference between myself and most other pikers is that I by no means restrict my deadbaiting to on or just off the bottom. Indeed, I've much more often got at least 2 of my 3 deadbaits well up in the water. What's more I don't bother with fishing them horizontally, and I often catch on suspended half baits too!

 

Sometimes this is on a drifter float, but the rig I most often use is my version of the sunken float paternoster. For why it works go to http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Sunken-...oat+paternoster