Pike

Being a summary of what I know and have learnt about pike, and all other things pike related.

• Introduction
• Pike "Rules"
• Pike Method
• Double VB Hook Rig
• Unhooking Pike
• Braid Trace Note
• The Pike Pit. A short note on a formative water. It even had a few pike in it.
• Jack Pike on The Dyke (1978-80)
• First ever Double (1979)
• 1990 Pike Spinning Result
• Season 1992-93 Overview
• 1992: 17lb Pike through a hole in the ice
• 1993: First 20lb Pike
• Season 1993-94 Overview
• 1993: 17lb and 21lb Pike
• Season 1994-95 Overview
• 20th November 2005, Fiddleford Mill on the Stour.
• A Strange Procession

Introduction

I had flirted with Pike on and of for a while, after coming across so many at The Dyke, with a largest of 13lb. The bug never really bit though until after a Boxing day pike session in 1990, when I became "hooked" on Pike (as it were). I think we had 6 pike or so between us on the day. So having decided to take the pike fishing a bit more seriously (or at least wanting to catch more pike), I started at the bottom and read some books on the subject. Here is a short list:

• "Pike Fishing; The practice and the Passion" by Mick Brown
• Ken Whitehead's Pike Fishing (my favourite).
• "Pike Fishing" by Tony Whieldon.
• "The Predator Becomes the Prey" by John Baily and Martyn Page
• "Success with Pike" by Barrie Rickards
• You can add to this the pike chapters of "The New Compleat Angler" by Stephen Downes and Martin Knowlden and Falkus and Bullers' "Freshwater Fishing".

So having digested all of this, and adding in my own limited experience of pike fishing, formed a set of rules (well all right then,"very rough guidelines").

If there is one certain thing in any fishing, it is that nothing is definite or predictable.

Bear in mind also that my opportunities were limited as I was "fiscally challenged" round that time and consequently had a very limited number of waters to fish - which were Thatcham AA's gravel pits and Canal, plus Theale Lagoon and Hambridge Lake.

Also bear in mind these "guidelines" are for those still waters - and worked for me at the time...lastly, I would call these guidelines a starting point on waters - every water is different, but you need to start somewhere. After a few sessions you'll pick up the quirks and good places - and the not so good.

Pike "Rules"

1. Pike are not really very clever, even for a fish.
2. Catching pike is not that difficult.
3. Finding Pike can be very very difficult, especially big ones.
4. Pike can see forwards and upwards, but not down or behind them. If you can see a pike stay behind and low down.
5. Pike have first class vibration detection - they can track by vibration pretty well. Blind pike can make a pretty good living (so can one eyed pike). Move very softly. This is a big deal - finding the pike is the hardest bit, it seems a shame to scare them off.
6. Pike are occasionally proverbially curious.
7. Pike are ambush predators, and will tend to take the easy meal over the hard one. They tend not to chase and harry. It's hard work.
8. On some waters, pike are smart enough to become wary of a heavily used bait - now this is an odd thing, as you would think they cannot talk to each other...I suspect on waters where this effect is noticed, most pike caught are caught more than once (or even more than twice). Certainly more than most of us would admit.
9. Unusual baits will often get a good response, until they become heavily used, and move into the category above.
10. Pike will sometimes feed primarily at a particular depth.
11. Pike have 2 main behavior modes. Let's call them "lurking" and "prowling". "Lurkers" are often found in the same place repeatedly over period, tend to keep to a small area, and can often be caught in the some swim or spot or repeated occasions, (especially if you change your bait...) "Prowlers", tend to move about between swims, seem to have regular beats or patrols, and tend to hold up for short periods by good ambush points. I have no firm reason to think so, but I believe"prowlers" tend to be larger fish.
12. Shallow swims often produce later in the day.
13. Deeper swims often produce early in the day.
14. There is very often 2 pike in close proximity. No idea why. If you catch one, re-bait and get back in the water. Or move your other bait. Or get your brother to cast out to the spot.
15. Baits "popped up" off the bottom, score better than baits lying flat on the bottom. Probably because they are more visible. Baits dangling in mid water, do not seem to worry pike (although I try to make mine more or less horizontal).
16. Bits injected with oil seem to score better than those without. I suspect for if no other reason it is that they probably smell from along way off - even still waters have currents and a slow current will carry a scent along way in 45 minutes. Also a sprat stinking of salmon is "unusual" compared with just a sprat.
17. Bait movement can attract welcome attention.
18. If your pike hasn't taken the bait in 20 minutes it probably really doesn't want it, or it is somewhere else. It might change it's mind if you move it a bit. It might not. But it's worth a try.
19. Pike will eat nearly anything. I have caught them (or seen them caught) on trout, gudgeon, sardines, sprats, kippers, various spinners, minnows, worms (very under rated pike bait), sweetcorn, maggots, red dyed luncheon meat, perch on the way to the net, fly spoons baited and otherwise, gilt hooks with no bait, bread paste, both stationary and being retrieved. Feel free to send me others you know first hand.
20. There really are such things as Pike "hotspots". There is really only one way to find these...
21. Any of the above can be wrong at any time.

And lastly. There are many ways to catch any fish - these guidelines and methods worked for me, and I am sure will work again (watch this space), but I am also as sure there any many equally good systems and methods.

Pike Method

Generally speaking I dead bait with two rods, 2 reels with 12lb BS line with not less than 200 yards on each reel. Not that I've ever needed that much, but you never know. I personally never use less that 12lb for dead baiting, as with a 20lb b/s wire trace, why go lighter? Some will say this is heavy tackle, but all other things being equal the point of fishing is ultimately to "get them out of there onto here". Sporting chances to escape from too light tackle are not sporting at all.

I would take a "rod pod" and a reclining/folding seat, a big landing net, a small rucksack, flask (black coffee for the stowing of), nosh, dead bait (various), a "rig bin" (traces for safe storage of), a handful of re-usable cable ties and a book of cryptic crosswords and a four colour pen. Camera and scales. Gag with lots of gaffer tape on the ends, and a large pair of forceps. 2 very thick leather gardening gloves. I'm amazed it all went in the bag, looking at that list. One flat tackle box, with all the other bits and pieces in it, floats, balsa wood, syringe, bottles of fish oil and so on.

The "rig bin" which is a screw top container with a core of foam, is one of the most useful devices ever for pike fishing. You can get all the traces you will ever need on one of these, all made up in the warmth of your front room. Even better, you do not stab yourself with hooks, when you rummage in your bag.

Black filter coffee all day, with nothing to eat, can have the affect of making you really, really alert...so food is a good idea.

The plan:

One rig is set up with a float to fish a dead-bait, usually about 3 feet down. In shallower water I would not fish so deep. I tend to go for about 1/3-1/4 of the depth of the water to start with. Sight of the bait is a big thing, so if the water is clear I don't worry to much. If it's coloured, I'll estimate how far the bait can be seen, and try different depths.

One rig is set up with a bottom fished dead bait popped up off the bottom, 12-18" or so.

Both rigs to use oil injected baits. Baits to be "unusual" where possible. I bought in small trout and smelt, and also used small gudgeon (not usually found in still waters). I tended to always carry a few sprats (they are cheap and seem to keep catching - my theory is that they mimic quite well roach and rudd), and sardines worked well for me as well. I used sardine and salmon oil mostly, as they seemed to be the most productive. As an aside I would say that smelt do not smell of cucumbers to me, and I never had a run on one.

Herring are supposed to be good, as they are both large, easily got and smelly. However, I cannot stand the smell myself, so have only used them a few of times (never caught a fish on them either). Each to their own.

I make up wire traces, using a 20lb bs plastic covered wire. I gave up treble hooks very early on, as I never really liked them, and their tendency to get caught in everything, and swapped to VB doubles in various sizes. I would take the barb off the larger hook (needle nosed pliers will flatten it out, and a twist usually breaks it off), leaving the barb in the small hook, which sticks in the bait. For small baits I would use a singe VB hook on the wire, with the trace threaded trough the body, and out the mouth. A small swivel was attached to the trace. All joints were crimped myself, using copper crimps, which I preferred to any other as to my mind the soft metal tends to form around the trace on crimping, making a stronger join, but one less likely to weaken the trace. The small gleam of copper was likely to help also. I also doubled the wire through one more time than usual. See the picture. This might mean a larger crimp than you would normally need for the wire size. Not really an issue.

For larger baits, I would mount 2 hooks. See the picture.

Double VB Hook Rig

This is a poor sketch of a double VB hook pike trace. Notice the second loop of wire though the bottom trace. The idea is to use the loop of the wire on the rod side of the trace as a wedge, if you like. This is coupled with the extra bulk of the wire to give a reduced chance of the hook pulling the trace through. The same crimp arrangement is used for a swivel at the other end. The free end of the wire is cut off flush with the crimp, I've shown it for clarity only.

The top hook has the same idea, and allows one piece of wire to make the whole trace. Normally I would make the finished length not less that 2 feet and as long as 3. Enough to go round a very big pike twice...

The other advantage of VB hooks used in this way is the instant strike. Pike pick up dead baits, cross ways in their mouth. with one or 2 hook rigs you can strike straight away - I usually wait a few seconds (literally), to make sure the bait is well held - using this time to slowly take up any slack in the line. I've missed the odd run (who hasn't?) but not had any swallowed baits more to the point.

It's worth a quick diversion here to natter about how a pike takes a bait. When fishing on the Dyke, certainly summer time when the water was clear, a lot of pike could be seen and stalked individually. (This teaches you about keeping low, quiet and behind the fish). You also learn that it is more effective and less likely to scare a fish, to cast past it, (not over) and tow the bait past the eyeline, not too close, anywhere within 3-4 feet is good, and then let it drop. In this water worms were the main bait.

The most instructive bit, was to watch a pike take a dead bait or worms in this type of fishing. The pike will slowly line itself up on the bit, using only the pectoral and other fins, then gradually getting more and more agitated (a bit like a cat about to pounce) , will then dart at the bait and grab it. It's a pounce, no mistake about that. You get a flick of the head sometimes, then the fish remains fairly still and chomps a bit. Which is where you hit it...if you leave it a while it will (with a few chomps) move off a distance. This is the first "run" at the end of which a pike will turn the bait to swallow it (if a fish bait).

Not all takes are like this and pike will snatch at a passing bait, and also chase slow moving baits, and I have seen them "shadow" slow moving lures and bait for some distance (more often than not without taking, as I said proverbially curious). Once when casting a worm bait only 5 yards to a few bream, a large pike (15lb+) swam casually 10 yards in from the centre of the water, picked up the worm bait and swam off again, in one continuous movement - (I missed the strike, or it dropped the bait). See rule 20.... It's certainly the case that moving baits tend to be hit harder, but you might expect that as the pike has to be moving in the first place to catch it. Certainly all hardest takes I have had, have been to slow moving dead baits, or just recently stopped moving.

Anyhoo, for the float fished bait I would put the main line through a link-swivel and using a plastic bead and braided stop knot to set the depth (easy to change floats or to a bottom fishing rig, no weak points on the main line). The float was attached to the link-swivel (usually a small loaded stick), but this way I could change it, or take it off, on a whim.

For the bottom fished rig, I would attach the trace directly to the main line, and use stick of balsa wood inside the fish to make it float. I prefer this to foam, as I know it's biodegradable, and cheap, and can be whittled and cut to the right size for the bait. The downside is that is does absorb water and the buoyancy will change. Model shops sell cheap packs of odd cuts, which will last you a couple of years. I would pinch a swan/AAA shot or 2 onto the trace just above the swivel (or further up sometimes). Check the bait actually floats near the bank. Every time you reel it in, check it's still floating...wood gets wet, the baits start off with air in them... Chuck them both in (did I say chuck? I mean "cast" obviously) in opposite directions is sensible. Let the float drift, it almost certainly will. You'll cover more water.

After 20 minutes reel in the the bottom bait (slowly) about a third of the distance ("enticing" we called this)...the bottom fished bait will be bobbing along about a foot from the bottom. Every 45-60 minutes or so you would fish out a swim. The few moments after reeling a popped up bait in will sometimes see a real slam of a bite, be ready for it, bite indicators can get flipped out of you fingers for sure. I always retrieve pike baits slowly with pauses. You'd be surprised how often that works. When you have fished out the swim, you tie the rods to the rod pod (that's what the cable ties are for) and move up a swim.

The crossword book is for the periods you are sat waiting for a run. The four colour pen is just for fun. Well it works for me.

For small to medium sized waters this allows you to cover a lot of water in a days' fishing ( on Pike Pit (say) one 30-40 yard cast and one reel in would cover the entire swim). While I would not say this is an infallible method, after a certain amount of time at a water, you do start to discern a pattern - certain swims and area produce more runs and pike than others. Some never produce a fish. This may be for a number of reasons, but I would think that features and food are at the bottom of the patterns.

I found it is worth varying the time of day on swims as well. There are patterns that favour certain swims at dawn and dusk and others in the middle of the day. Again I suspect movement of the bait/prey fish is the key. For example the good double lower down the page, were taken near a bed of reeds (the floated bait was right up against them). While runs during the day here were not unusual, in the evening as dusk fell small fish movement by and in these reeds would increase, and the pike would move in to feed on the small stuff (rudd and roach in this case).

I would regard these two fish as "prowlers" as well, going by the reports of catches all up the northern bank a a few on the south east corner. you could even speculate on a regular route.

You'll certainly figure out where the "lurkers" tend to be with this method - I would say that "prowlers" will often turn up in the same places, as a good place to ambush with a food source, is a good place to ambush with a food source, whatever your inclination as a pike. How do you tell them apart? Good question. It would help if one sort or the other would wear little pike T-shirts with "Born to Prowl" on them, but they don't. Pity.

My feeling is that only by fishing a water a lot will you get that information, but you can glean a lot from other (pike) anglers, a good few of which on the waters I fished had one or 2 swims and stuck to them...well it's a good swim isn't it? While on the subject of information, pike gossip can be one of the most distorted with tales of monsters all over the place, but few real reports of actual fish...(I'm probably as bad).

Unhooking the Monster

Well, now you've caught the pike, how to get the ironmongery out of its gob?

Before we go any further I would advise anyone new to piking to get an experienced pike angler to fully explain and demonstrate the technique below.

Remember - Pike are a very delicate fish and will not withstand rough handling. Treat all pike gently and with respect.

Also - I fish with VB Doubles, with the barb flattened, never more than 2 and often with only one. These are much easier to remove and do not tend to tangle in the net. I avoid trebles. This means I might not have quite the array of stuff some use.

With the rigs I use I strike immediately on getting a take, so have seldom (no example comes to mind) deep hooked a fish and often, especially with single hooks, the hook sets in the jaw 'scissors'. Then all you need is a good grip with the forceps and twist it out.

Anyhoo. It's like this:

You need an unhooking mat. I mean NEED. Essential are 12-inch forceps and wire cutters (you never know). I carry also a 'deep throat disgorger' and 6-inch forceps. Unhooking mat. I know I've said it twice.

I also have a pair of thick leather gardening gloves…

I carry a small gag - this has a link to avoid it 'over opening', and both ends are covered with wine corks and gaffer tape. Pike teeth will stick in the corks but not break. However, I've hardly ever needed it.

When you have netted the fish, either open the bale arm or cut the line a foot or 2 above the trace. It's easier all round.

You put the pike on the mat, and lay it on its back. The most convenient thing is to kneel over the fish, one leg either side. This supports and prevents it thrashing around. Carefully slide a finger under the gill cover and carefully move the finger towards the front of the jaws. You must avoid any contact with gill rakers. Pull the lower jaw upward gently. As you lift, the pike's mouth will open allowing you to see the hook(s). Using forceps in the other hand remove the hook(s).

You'll need to bend forward and peer upside-down into the maw of the beast. It's a bit odd, but it's the best way.

I keep gloves on both hands myself. If necessary use the wire cutters to cut any hooks or the trace.

Get the fish back into the water as soon as possible.

Strange Procession

I took these pictures in June 2006 at a local Dorset water. This female in the picture, with it's back out of the water was circling the pool, with 3 hopeful male fish in close attendance for a couple of hours - which might have a bearing on the lack of fish. This is presumably pre-spawning behavior.

Worth a closer look at this last one. Download and zoom right in. Not something you see every day.