pike, info

by Ste Brown- our pike instructor
I first became interested in pike during a session 'trotting' for chub on the River Aire in West Yorkshire. I was in my early teens at the time and had spent the previous years of my fishing career on the leeds/Liverpool canal and local stillwaters catching small roach, perch & gudgeon, (as most people did), using fine match tactics. fishing the Yorkshire rivers was a totally different propersition & the fish on that particular stretch of river, (that I was fishing with my Dad & his mate), were much bigger than anything I was used to catching. Bigger fish called for stronger tackle & fishing a river meant different methods. Anyway, there I was trotting, (or stickfloat fishing), a piece of breadflake down the middle of the river when the float dipped under & I struck into another chub. As I was playing it it suddenly became snagged up, which was strange, as none of the other fish I had caught had got snagged. I slowly put more & more pressure on the fish & the snag slowly moved upstream. To be honest, I thought I had lost the fish & was pulling a clump of weed upstream, which is difficult in running water! As I got the snag in front of me I could see the chub, which was a good 3lb, caught in a lump of weed. But when I looked again the weed was fish shaped & had loads of spots along it back. A pike. A big one too!! I alomst dropped my rod in fright as I was inexperienced with pike at the time. In fact this was my first one. But as I reached for the landing net, the pike let go of the chub on the end of my line. My jaw dropped in awe, (although I had to admit I was relieved!). Since that day I have been facinated with pike but only managed to fish for them a few years later, when my friend showed me the basics..... Although pike are generally thought of as 'a ferocious predator' the truth is that they are probably one of the most fragile species of fish in britains fresh water. Pike are the No 1 predator, eating mainly fish, waterfowl and small mammals.......dead or alive! This is what has given them the 'ferocious' tag, but really they are the guardians of our rivers, lakes and canals, taking dying or diseased, wounded and dead prey, effectively cleaning our waterways of unfit fish etc. Remember, in the natural world, it is survival of the fittest!! Great care must be taken when handling pike. Because they are so fragile, I would recommend that if you are thinking of having a go for pike that you go with somebody who really knows what they are doing. M.A.D. offers pike fishing lessons, mainly in winter. Handling pike is very important to learn, but of coarse, in order to learn how to handle them, you need to catch on first! There are many ways to catch pike & I'm going to try to explain what each one involves with the tackle & techniques applied in each method. It is worth remembering that some people do things differently, so the way I explain how to do something, may not be the way somebody else would. The important thing to remember is the safety of the fish. Tackle for pike.
First of all you need a trong rod with a test curve of at least 2.5lbs and a reliable reel capable of holding plenty of line. You can use either braid or monofilament line. If its braid, then it should be no less than 30lb, if its mono, then it should be no less than 15lb. The next thing you will need is a wire trace. This is because pike have rows of very sharp teeth which can bite through line very easily. Treble hooks are usually used for pike, but more conservation minded anglers are experimenting with doubles or even single hooks, depending on the size of the bait. The next essential is unhooking tools, because it is not recommended that you put your fingers in a pikes mouth. That is if you like your fingers the way they are!! I carry 3 types of unhooking tools, artery forceps, long nosed pliers and wire cutters. It is of paramount importance that NO hooks are left in a pikes mouth. Simply because a pike with a wire trace left in it, will soon become a DEAD pike. This is why we need such strong tackle and an array of unhooking tools.
Methods for catching pike. As I stated earlier, there are many ways to catch pike & some methods are far more exciting than others. Each one can at times be more effective than the others at different times. I can't say when those times will be........only the pike know that. The method I'm most familiar with is static deadbaiting, which involves hooking a dead fish onto a wire trace and fishing it either under a float or on a ledger rig. Static deadbaiting doesn't mean you have to stay in one place all day, in fact a roving approach is often the best way as you can search out the pike in the water you are fishing. It simply means that the bait is static on the bottom of the lake or river, just as a dead fish would be. I also do quite a bit of 'sink & draw' or 'wobbling'. This technique is very active & you can cover a lot of water using this method. In principle it is just like lure fishing, (a method explained later), except that a dead fish is used. The fish is attached to the trace so that when you pull it towards you, with your rod, it looks like a dying or injured fish. There are no floats involved with this method, but sometimes a couple of SSG's are pinched on the trace, near the sivel to make it sink better in deep water. It is then simply a case of casting to your chosen spot, let the bait sink, then lift the rod up to draw the bait up in the water. It is also important to keep your line quite tight to the bait at all times, feeling for the bites. Lure fishing is another effective way of pike fishing & is rather like sink & draw fishing except the bait is an artificial lure. These can be bought in any good tackle shop & the list of different types of lures is endless, refelcting just how popular this particular type of pike fishing has become. Among the many different types are : Spinners, Spoons, Plugs, Jigs, Jerkbaits, Softplastics and Flies. They all catch pike though and each design has a different way of how you would retrieve it. Please remember that M.A.D. do not allow the use of livebaiting during the lessons offered as many of our members believe this method is tight!!