Pike Fishing With Deadbaits....Dreadfull start Comes Good

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you well and your nets wet.  We are coming to the end of January 2018 and this will be the third written blog of the year as well as producing a Youtube blog video each Friday as well so so far so good on the blogging front and i must admit i am thoroughly enjoying getting back into the written one again and thank you too all who have emailed me saying how pleased you are its returned!

so straight into it...

1k Subscribers  on Youtube Channel

Great start to 2018 with the Blogs Youtube Channel hitting 1,000 Subscribers, a huge milestone for the blog, one i hope will continue to build by following the principles of the written one.  Good, honest and open accounts of an everyday angler documenting his fishing trips its the way i wrote the blog 7 years ago and it is the way it will continue.

My other half bought me a cracking gift for Christmas in a set of 3 Mark Houghton Pike deadbait pencil floats which look amazing.  As the youtube channel hit the 1k subscriber mark i decided to do a bit of a give away and that is now live on the channel in the video below.

So dead simple be subscribed to the channel, like the video and comment what colour floats you would like to receive if you win. As in the video not a sponsored give away i will be buying the prize myself and i was well impressed with the gift for Christmas and thought would make a nice prize for the winner.

New Year New Card...

So this year i am a member of Lymm Angling Club and looking at the waters they do have a huge variety to go at.  I have got some plans to do some more carp fishing this year like i did with the reservoir diaries last but i am hoping to again target this water.  With the Lymm card i am thinking of using it to target a new species and one i have never really had a serious go for in the past, the Barbel.

The club seems to have waters large and small to target these fish on and with a lot of the waters seemingly being highly pressured carp waters i think the banks of the river is where i will find my type of fishing on this card.  So yeah a little thing on the back burner at the moment but already thoughts of Summer and Autumn are in the mind.
 
On to The Fishing ....

Pike Fishing - Dread Full Start Comes Good!

A afternoon battling Chub on the River the day before and holding a 17ft rod as high as possible saw me meeting no sorry hitting the 6am Sunday Alarm Clock with the half asleep slap it deserved, a couple of snoozes rightfully applied i eventually rose from my slumber around 6.30am.

I am normally very well prepared when it comes to my fishing and have everything ready the night before so i can get up the next day and go about my morning routine knowing all i have to do is load the car and be gone, this morning was far from my normal pre fishing routine.

Stick float rods left in the holdall needed replacing with the pike rods of which one would need setting up on a ledger from scratch on the bank whilst my pike terminal tackle remained spread on the downstairs table, left from last nights attempt to tie some traces.  Its not often i am not in the mood for going fishing but this morning i could quite easily have stayed in my pit.  My drive to go came from the fact i knew there was a window of opportunity on the river where the weather and levels where right and with rain forecast during the week and possible over time the following weekend in work i knew i would regret not going.

A strong coffee consumed i loaded the car and began the trundle to the river, out of my close and onto the main motorway my mind began to wander onto the session ahead.  Where would i place my baits and what bait would i fish where the main thoughts and then, like most anglers, thoughts turn to the dreaded question "Have i forgot Anything?"  It then hit me i had left my wire trace bin on the kitchen table, no pulling over to check i knew i had and without it i would be in a bit of a pickle having to make up traces.  Half way to the venue a U-Turn back to the ranch and upon my return there it was proud as punch on the table a quick grab and back on the way, staying in bed was looking like a good option.

Back into the car and retracing my steps.  I don't know about anyone else but i always feel like i have missed out on a huge part of the day if i am not on the bank on day break, its such a short period of time compared to the whole day but it can reveal so much, especially when it comes to pike.  Making my way back i could see the faint glow of light blue on the horizon that told me day break was not far away bit i was making good time.

My head lamps still required to negotiate the dark roads i might just make it in time for day break.  Pulling into the car park the birds where in full song and before me lay a river, its surface like a mirror reflecting the bare boned trees on the far bank and along the inside line, for only the shortest of distances the water danced with small fry topping in the dropping moons light.

There i stood just watching and staring at the venue taking in its mood and desperately trying to get into tune with the daily activities of the fish below its watery surface.  You soon get that feeling inside of where you need to set up and one peg in particular was calling to me as it just seemed alive with silvers, a pike just had to be stalking that shoal.  The frustrations inside from the mornings mishaps began to ebb away and in it's place came that warm glow of fishing excitement, time to grab the rods.

stock image

I knew i had one rod to set up from scratch so i quickly threw a few frozen dead baits into the net in the edge to thaw while I got the one rod that was all set to go ready to make a cast.  I figured as long as i had one rod in i was fishing at least.  The banks sticks with their lolly pop alarms on top slid easily into the saturated sodden slippery banks as did their back rests and in the early morning light a dead bait loaded with Sardine oil was cast out.  The fox swinger keeping the line tight to the lead the trap was tightly set and ready for a hungry pike to spring it open. 

Setting up the second rod i realised I had only had one more wire trace left in the rig bin, a trace i had made a while ago when an accidental purchase of some Barbless Fox trebles had taken place, total and utter nightmare as baits fly off the hooks all the time even with the bait flats.  Even so needs must so out went the rod with the trebles on and i prayed they held the bait on while i made a new trace up.

The new Fox 49 Strand Anti Kink braid really is good stuff, pricey but good, one thing it does need is a lot more effort top make traces than the old carbo flex and why they stopped making it i will never know.  Each cut of the wire you make requires you to burn the ends to stop it from fraying so a task that a year or two ago would take 5 minutes required the stove to be set up.

With the trace eventually made up i wound the second rod in and as i thought the last hook on the bottom treble was the only hook attached to the bait as the top set of trebles had come lose, Semi Barbed all the way guys.  The trace replaced it went back out into the same spot and i grabbed the kettle to make a much needed brew.  I don't actually think i made it back to my basket to grab the lighter to light the stove before i was stopped in my steps by one beep on the rod i had just replaced. 

Like a statue my body remained still only my head turned back towards the rods direction.  Another soft pull on the line brought another one beep on the old delkims, a third more violent tug and the line parted from the fox bite arm and that ever so satisfying clunk as the metal of the back alarm made contact with the bank stick as it completed its fall.  A slip and a slide down the bank i grabbed the rod and set the camera to record, line was now peeling from the spool as the pike went on a confident run, a solid take.

I gave it a count down strike and set the hooks and felt that satisfying solid resistance of a strong winter pike with line pulling from the reel it was like the woes of a frustrating morning where peeling off with it.  A solid fight that saw the pike go a bit mental under the rod tip as it made one final run along the bank and under my other rod but thankfully i eventually slid the net under a lovely marked and well fed pike.  On the Scales she went 9lb and had been feeding very well, a good sign for the rest of the session.

The pike went a bit mental in the net to sat the least so i decided to put her in the edge to rest, upon doing so my morning went from ecstasy to complete and utter tosh as i slid on my backside top to bottom of the bank.  Picking myself up i was caked all down my side and on such a cold day i was thank full of my thick thermal under layers i can tell you.  A brush down and the pike released i set about casting the same rod back out and poured myself a much needed brew!

Sitting back on my Shakespeare green box i decided it best not to move a muscle, just stay put on the chair and you will be safe i thought that way nothing else can go wrong.  Carefully sipping a warming cup of tea i took a moment to breathe and relax!  It had been all go that morning on the bank what with the manic start, a pike and then going over on the bank so sitting back the rods out either side of the swim i  watched the world around me go about their Sunday morning routines, joggers and bikers all enjoying the outside crisp morning weather whilst above them a pair of Buzzards circled the open fields looking for a free meal and in a complete contrast to all these subtle activities a flash of blue and orange zoomed past the swim as a kingfisher made its way to its favourite perch.

Sat on my own perch it was a good two brews later i recorded a piece for the youtube blogs on how a running ledger set up works as i had received a few questions on it recently.  No sooner had i finished talking the other rod buzzed into life and there was no messing with this one the line pulled straight form the slip and, almost carp run like, line spooled from the rods tip. 

No messing about with this one i wound down and set the hooks and immediately i knew i was into a better fish as the rod hooped over as the fish pulled hard in the deep water.  Nervous, hook hold releasing, head shakes sent shivers up the line through the rod and through my whole body as a very tentative fight was played out.  One of those fights where you feel at any moment you could lose the fish.  A hard fight under the rod tip she came up and turned leaving a huge boil in her wake, i had seen the prize and knew i was attached to a double figure pike.  Up she came again and this time there was no messing and into the deep net she went,  first thoughts?? BARREL!!

She was a short fish and in normal conditions she would weigh about 1olb for her length i would say but in her winter condition she was fit to burst, broad across the shoulder and had been eating very well.  Certainly a big fish in years to come she had the right mentality already, EAT EAT and EAT some more.  On the scales she went just under 14lb and was one of the most beautiful fish i have ever caught with vibrant oranges tipped with deep red in her fins a dark green back with dots of yellow along her side perfectly placed, a real beautiful fish.

A fish like this called for more than a celebratory brew so i cracked open some cuppa soups my other half had picked up for me the previous day.  Warm and satisfying i sat on my box with the mud  on my clothes now caked dry i had not a care in the world.  That pike had made my day and made all the effort worth while to push on through all the trials and tribulations of the session.  I gave the session till 1pm before calling it a bay and i made the long journey back home with a irremovable smile on my face.

A session to show that its not always sun and roses  on the bank but not giving in and pushing on through it can all come good in the end.

Till next time i wish you all

Tight Lines

Danny

Wobblin for Jacks And A Few Doubles......

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  In this weeks blog i hope to cover a little on how resilient a species pike seem to be with some examples from my travels,  my latest blog going live on Pondip and also an update on where we are up to in our fun pike challenge for 4 anglers to catch 400 pike, 30 doubles and a 20lb pike by the end of the pike season.  The fishing this week comes from a social session where its all beginning and the end of the session where the action happens and also a session wobbling dead baits hoping to get to grips with this new method, so on with the update..

Tough Little Critters....

Since specifically going out to target pike as a species with dead baits there have been a number of things that have astounded me about this species,  not least the fact they will actually pick up a tail of dead fish off the bottom, but it has been the sheer amount of resilience and ability to survive against all odds that has shocked me the most.  I think i remember reading somewhere that the pike is one of the very few species who's fossils are found from many years ago that have not evolved or changed from then till now as they are so efficient at what they do....surviving.

I have lost count over the years catching pike both dead baiting and on the river just how many pike i have caught that are blind in one eye but still are there feeding well and looking, apart form the eye, healthy.  Take this pike below i caught on the river dee, pug mouth and blind in one eye yet fat as a barrel and feeding well.

You of course see pike both young and old that bear the scars of a sinister liaison with a bigger pike at one time or another and i used to think to myself just how much these scars inhibit the pikes ability to feed as some can be quite bad.  Well this week during a social piking session you will read about below Ste caught a pike that bared some horrific scarring which could have only been caused by a outboard motor and the pike not moving out of its way.

The scars looked like they where healed up but it just goes to show what a battering these pike can take during their lives and still be efficient at surviving and finding food.  amazing creatures when you think about it.

Pondip Blogs Go live.......

Over the past few months i have settled into a rhythm of writing my blog and also writing a piece for the Pondip blog on their coarse boxes and a few on tips and hints for fishing.  I am really enjoying this little project away form my main blog and the freedom it gives for me to go into detail on how i do my fishing, methods and little hints and tips i have picked up along the way.  Some of the tips are probably not as refined or the tips you will see in the weekly mags but they are tips i wish i had known when first starting out, for example i wish i had known about asking the shop to elastic ate my first pole.

links to the two blogs are below:

Octobers Pondip box Review: http://blog.pondiptacklebox.com/2014/boxes/pole-fishing-box/
Tips on Pole fishing: http://blog.pondiptacklebox.com/2014/tips-and-tricks/pole-fishing-tips/

If you are interested in Pondip Tackle Boxes  and what they offer as a company check out their page and don't forget to make the most of the discount code off the first box great little idea and a item i always look forward to dropping on my welcome mat.

Update on Piking Challenge.....

So we are just over a month into the pike challenge for 4 anglers to catch 400 pike, 30 doubles and a 20lb pike, and we are really pressing along nicely indeed.  We are all getting out on the bank regular and catching pike on most trips, although i had a blip with 3 blanks on the bounce.  The scores on the doors before the sessions below where 54 pike caught in total, with 5 doubles and one 20lb pike.  We are a 1/6th of the way into the challenge and are just below where we need to be but if the journey to this point is anything to go on its going to be great fun trying to get as close as we can to the total.

In terms of the whole challenge it is going to be a case of seeing what the weather does, if it stays warm like it is now then i can see us putting together a good run of pike as they keep chasing lures and moving baits but if we get a sudden drop in temp and the snow and ice arrives things might get a little tougher and keeping the sheer number of pike we need coming in might see us falling behind. But as i have said its all about the fun of chasing such a high goal with your mates.

On to this weeks Fishing....

Saturday 1st November: Throwing a Wobbler....What have i been missing!.......

A email landing in my inbox the week before this session asking if i was interested in reviewing a pike rod on my blog so for Saturdays session i thought i would pack my little spinning rod into my holdall and have a bit of fun and in the process try and learn a new method.  Having watched Garry, an excellent lure fisherman, for the past few months casting his favourite lures and catching some nice pike i had again been spoilt by having such a experienced teacher and although we had never really sat down and talked about lure fishing he had shown me a few times about the art of wobbling with dead baits.

I don't know if lure fishing will ever be for me, i am far too clumsy and unorganised to keep a load of lures from becoming a web of tangled hooks, but sink and drawing or wobbling is something that has always interested me but i guess confidence in not getting snagged and again a pike taking a dead fish clouded my mind.

In the week leading up to this session one of the pikers in our group, Ste, had been asked to do a article for the anglers mail and it involved twitching "kinky" dead baits.  Like with Garry i had been on a few sessions with Ste and again like i had seen from Garry casting his lures, you could tell from the way Ste cast them with accuracy and how he worked them through the water he was good at it.  Its a bit like watching a good river man running a stick through, they make it look so easy and effortless and that only comes with practise.

I am always gratefully to have two fantastic pike anglers to call mates, my pike fishing has come on so much this past year, and hopefully as the work dies down in all our jobs i can begin to repay them back with a few trips to the river and maybe even Garry's first pike from the Dee, till then i will just have to agree to stop dancing and singing on sessions and keep the pot noodles rolling in.

Back to the session and i arrived on the bank armed with one dead bait rod and my small lure rod that i have had since a kid and cost me a whole £6.00.  This rod is as strong as an ox and was the only rod i took piking for many years on the Dee fishing lives for the pike and can boast pike to 13lb, not bad for a small rod, bends at the butt but gets em in.  I cast the dead bait rod out on a roach dead bait and then began to wobble a roach dead bait back though the swim.

In my eyes the bait looked a mess as it swayed from side to side coming through the water and it took me a few casts to get the confidence to let the bait twist and turn then let it go slack so the bait falls as if it where a dying fish.  I had cast in countless times and i could see the bait coming in and i thought if i can see it the pike can and then from now where BOOOM! a pike shot out from no where and absolutely nailed the fish.  Calm came across me as i resisted the urge to strike and let the fish take the bait as it it was a dead bait run and then gave it a countdown and struck.  Thankfully the fish stayed on unlike my bait that flew off in the fight and i was over the moon to have landed my first wobbled dead bait pike.

The pike released i set about recasting my dead bait rod which had remained strangely silent and to be honest would so all the session.  My next take came from utilising a cunning little trick for picking up a bite.  Basically it works on the principle that after casting around in an area you might not have had many takes but you may well have had a pike follow the bait right in and you not have seen it so after a few casts i let the bait sink the the bottom right under my feet and what you then do it let the bail arm off and watch the line to detect the bite.  It may seem like a hard method but in practise there is no missing the bite as the braid starts to tremble and move away and this method caught me the best fish of the day in this 7lb 14oz pike.

After fishing away for a few hours taking a break here and there from the wobbling with no results i decided in a change of bait for the wobbling and i think it was either the third or fourth cast on the retrieve i felt a solid bang.  You have to remember at this point in my wobbling i had seen a pike take close in and had one under my feet so i had no idea what a pike take felt like out in the water, in reality there was no missing it.  I gave the fish line and struck praying i was not setting my hooks deeper into a snag.  Thankfully my strike was met with the feeling of a fish rather than a sunken branch, only a jack but i did not care it was great learning a new method and even better catching on it.

Tuesday 4th November: Social Piking Session

With work levels low and the half term school holidays over and done with i jumped at the chance for a days leave from work and with a solid session behind me wobbling with dead baits on the Saturday the past three blanks where nothing but a distant memory, i felt i was cooking on gas again and it felt good. I was casting out with expectation of catching rather than expecting a blank which is always great.

My plan for the day was exactly the same as Saturday fishing a dead bait rod and use my lure rod to wobble a smelt.  The four of us where all in attendance all evenly spread along the bank and unlike the mere we where a lot closer and could all gather and have a chat.  My dead bait rod had not been in more than around half an hour when my oil loaded mackerel jack attracted some interest from a pike.  The float bobbed a few times before it sailed off at some speed and the float submerged and i struck into a fish that i new was a better fish as it made hard runs taking line from the reel as it did so.  Tilting the rod down and loosening off the drag to reduce the chance of a hook pull saw the tables swing in my favour and Ryan slid the net under a nice pike that surely had to go into double figures.

The pike swung the scales round to 11lb 4oz and we had another double to add to the list and my third of the season. Ryan was next to see his float sail away but his strike was met with an unsteady fight that saw the pike come off.  It did not take long though for his mackerel "tail" to attract the pikes attention back to this scrumptious sushi banquet and this time he made no mistake and landed his first pike of the day in this sublimely marked pike.

During the next hours till noon we all tried in vain to lure the interest of a pike on our dead baits and wobbling and it was not until a move to a completely new area by Ste saw more pike coming as he landed 3 pike in as many casts including the pike with the horrific boat scars.  It showed me big time how close you can be to pike and be so far away as with all that smell in the water you would have thought these pike would have smelt out our multitude of baits loaded with oil and moved onto them.

Ste had to get off to do a job at 1pm so it was decision time for the three remaining piking pirates did we stay put and move to the area ste had caught three fish or move to another location where we thought our chances where greater.  We arrived to find the venue gin clear and not very appetising and i knew there and then from my river fishing that it was going to be a few hours till we had any action as darkness closed in.

Around 3pm i moved my bait from beside a overhanging willow into the middle and within seconds the float was moving off along the top.  I gave the bite as long as i dared as i knew this could be my one and only chance.  I struck and knew instantly i had a bad hook hold by the amount of head shaking it was doing and i could feel them all suggesting the hooks where loosely hooked in the pike jaw.  A swift turn by the pike and it all went slack for a second as the fish parted with the hooks......but then all of a sudden the fish was on but it felt a lot bigger indeed and it wasn't until the fish came to the top we realised the fish was foul hooked in the tail.  The fish must have spat the hooks and then the hooks must have hooked the fish again as it has flapped its tail to move away, lucky indeed.

This luck instantly ran out as when being netted the hooks caught on the outside of the net, disaster and i guess it was a fitting end to the fight for the pike to then have the last laugh and come off the hooks to freedom.  That is the way it goes with pike fishing the margins between success and fail are so small.

The last hour loomed large and it was going into dark while preparing to recast my dead bait rod i heard a shout from Garry up the bank lure fishing to get the net.  Before i could get the net the fish had come off but speaking to garry he said he had just witnessed the biggest pike he had ever seen take his lure, i asked if he thought it was new Pb potential and he said yeah for sure, his Pb is over 14lb so we was talking a decent fish.

Garry continued to cast his lure around the area while i had a cheeky cast over the far side both to no avail.   The dark was setting in fast so we decided to call it a day and began walking back along the bank to Ryan to pack in.  I then did something i have done hundreds of times before and dropped my smelt in the edge and began walking back to the car.  One step, two, three BANG i was pulled backwards and halted in my steps as something grabbed onto the bait, no swearing on the blog but my words rhymed with hook me, I've got a take i said.  By the time i walked back along the bank the float was gone out of sight.

I stuck and instantly the rod hooped over and this fish was not messing about as it pulled line from the reel, i could not stop it.  Garry said give it some line and take your time its a nice fish i have just seen it and then it came up to the top, jesus it was nice fish all right!  Garry took his chance a slid the landing net under the pike and we raced no danced along the bank to get the fish unhooked and on the unhooking mat.  Garry instantly said he thought it was a 20 and i could not argue with him it was a deep fish.  We nervously placed her in the weigh sling and ryan read out the scores, not a 20 but at 17.8lb i was not complaining, a very very very lucky capture.

The fish capped off a memorable first month of the season for me and i month i could only have dreamt about, well lets be honest here it was a month i have never dreamt about because i never thought it possible.  I have had my fair share of luck along the way, not least with this 17lb8oz fish but as months go i had caught 22 pike with a 11.4lb, 15lb, 17.8lb and a 21lb 4oz fish accounting for my doubles within that.  A month i doubt i will ever repeat in my life and one i am fully aware does not come along too often.

After these sessions it left us on 68 pike with Ste and Garry both finding time to also get out in the bank between my wobbling session and the social one.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

Tough Times After such a High....But Come Through...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you well and your nets wet.  Well what can i say but a huge thank you to all the people who went out of their way to contact me, comment on the blog/Forums or via social media to congratulate me on the capture of my first 20lb pike, thank you all so much and it was great to hear from people who had read my blog for a long time and shared the highs and lows to that point.  I have always wanted my blog top be a true representation of my angling and the pike fishing has been a prime example of that, from casting out and blanking on the first of January this year when i first cast a dead bait out for pike to that point has in reality been a short journey and i have been fortunate to hit a mile stone so early on but boy has it been a steep learning curve.

In this update i hope to cover the time after the capture, my emotions and how it made me feel towards my angling and it may surprise you the emotions i went through.  I also hope to cover a little bit on how to unhook pike and work around the business end of a pike and also go back down memory lane to my early fishing after a recent trip home.

The reality of hitting a milestone........

As i mentioned in last weeks blog a huge part of my piking over the years, whether that be live baiting or dead baiting, has been searching the waterways hoping to see just what a big pike looks like as it breaks the surface of the water and comes into my landing net.  On the 15th October i got my wish and while i was unhooking the pike, taking the pictures and letting her rest in the net i was pumped with emotion and buzzing and made a point of making sure i took every moment of the short time i had with this pike in as it was a long time coming.  

The pike released i sat back in my chair and it was a good 20 minutes before i cast back in, eventually i did and then i sat back and experienced the most unusual of feelings, one one hand i was tingling with excitement as i though "Jesus, Danny your new Pike Pb is 21 pound" but on the other i felt sadness as the realisation hit me that i may never ever beat that personal best again, never experience the excitement of a new PB Pike and most of all i felt lost as my fire and drive had been to experience that moment when a big girl comes up through the water and the sheer feeling of terror as you realise what you are attached too, well, this had been experienced.

I was sat there with two rods in the water and the next hours till i had the next run passed by in a blur and i really could not have cared less if the rods had gone or not at this point.  Garry often comments on how wired and on edge i am when piking as the slightest breath of wind on the float gets me up and walking the bank so to go from starting the session wired to being so unmotivated was a strange experience. 

I also felt i had missed out a huge part of the progression of my piking by not experiencing what an upper double looked like and it would have been nice to go from 15lb to say a 18lb and then break the 20 but i guess that's a perfect world and we definitely do not live in a perfect world.  Strangely enough the next two fish did little to change my demina.

I have said many a time on this blog that having pike anglers around you is such a blessing, comradely, for help with piking but also advice and strangely enough it was a conversation a week or so later whilst sat beside a huge mere that got me my mojo back.  I was sat speaking to Ste, himself has caught many big fish over 20lb and even 30, i asked him straight out did he feel a lull after his first 20lb fish and just to hear that he did and it was normal made me feel so much better and he was right in the next few days the bug bit again and the urge to get out was there. Thanks mate.

Unhooking Pike....

I am never a person who writes this blog preaching about how to fish but i do try and involve as much information as possible about the fishing i do as rigs, type of tackle and how to unhook a pike are easily the most common question i get emails about.  Pike have a fearsome reputation for being aggressive biting machines when on the bank and i think, like the perch, this aggressive nature both in and out the water can lead to people thinking they are quite harden fish but the reality could not be further from the truth.  This little section here about simple unhooking technique is simple aimed at people reading my blog who might want to try for a pike themselves from reading it and hopefully this little inclusion will help them when that first pike is on the bank. 

Preparation
Before you even cast in make sure you have an unhooking matt set up and your tools for unhooking close to hand.  Believe me from experience of fish escaping the net in the margin while you search for your gear, you want that fish out of the water and unhooked asap and having your matt and tools ready set up means you can lift the fish straight out and onto the matt after capture to unhook immediately.

Unhookimg the pike
So the pike is on the mat, there are many ways people unhook pike but the way i do it is to kneel down with the pike between your legs so your are straddling the pike, this will keep the pike still and free form flapping off the matt.

If you turn the pike over onto its back and lift the gill cover like shown above you will see there is a bony recess on the inside of the jaw, if you place your hand here you can get a grip on the pike, but be careful not to be too aggressive as there is a thin layer of skin as well in this area as shown in the pic below, only a little pressure and you can see my fingers.

If you the pull slowly back towards you the pikes head will rise towards you and its mouth will be open wide and you can begin to see where the hooks are as shown below. 

As you can see doing it this way the pikes mouth is open wide and you can see there is plenty of room in there to work.  Some pike are quite active on the bank and you can tell when they are going to flip as they tense up just before so you can almost prepare yourself for it.

Staying Calm
It is so easy when you get that pike on the bank for the adrenalin of the capture to take over and if the pike is deep hooked it is very easy for panic to set in but the best thing to try and do is remain calm and work methodically around the fishes mouth. 

I also wrote a little on this subject early in the year so if you are looking at fishing for pike for the first time check out this blog here: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/dead-baiting-for-pike-effort-equals.html

Memory Lane..

Earlier this week i was back in my old neck of the woods where i grew up as a kid and it brought a tear to my eye as i walked the route me and my dad walked so many times to go fishing when i was younger.  We would walk up to the local canal normally with our rods still set up, much to mums disapproval of them being on the stairs, up through the lights and up these steps to the canal. 

Walking up these steps i still got the same sense of excitement as all those years ago as i knew at the top of them i would get my first glimpse of the canal.

In those early days i always remember setting up at first light with the sound of a wood pigeon in the trees, it was just part and parcel of it. As was the choice of destination, no apps then to tell you a hour by hour report it was a quick look at the sky and from that you where either fishing the open length or under the bridge.  Happy memories for sure and a licence i will be buying next year so i cant wait to get out and relive those memories of spiny perch and bronze bream.

on to this weeks fishing....

From Ecstasy to Frustration....

After the capture of my new Pb pike i thought i would be riding a wave of confidence and would hopefully build upon that to continue to pick up pike steady but the reality was far different.  The next session out was the Saturday after catching the pike and i naturally found myself sat in the same swim i had caught in on the Wednesday.  My tactics where exactly the same as the previous session but for 5 hours i sat behind motionless floats.  Normally i would have stuck it out but i found myself moving locations to another spot where a mixture of ramblers, drunken youths and the one run i did get coming off  putting an end to a sorry day on the bank. A day with so much expectation was met with a cold hard reality of a blank, the closest i got was a badly mouthed roach bait.

The next session out was a afternoon into evening session with Garry where we planned to see what potential lay in fishing into dark.  We arrived with enough time to set up and have our baits in the water for a good hour or so.  We then moved over to a spot where we hoped the pike would be lurking as the depths deepened.  We certainly can not be called for not putting the effort in as we stood in the dark till around 8pm hoping for a chance to come to one of us crazy pike hunters.  A nice evening with some funny moments involving people not accustomed to anglers being around at that time.  The realty again was that the rods remained motionless.

The next session came on a gruelling weekend a few weeks back when it seemed the whole world was against me.  Trouble with my job and a strange noise coming from the bonnet of my car that just screamed "MONEY" was met with me needing to get out on the bank. I should not have bothered.   The session in its entirety saw me getting stuck on bottom 4 times and straightening out the hooks, loosing one complete set up and then resetting up only for my float to tangle around the line right by my reel so after setting up it needed to be set up from scratch again.  Enough was enough at that point and i gave in and went home, three trips and three blanks and i hadn't a clue where my next bite was coming from.

Learning to Ledger for pike.....

The next session out was with Garry on a location we had caught well on recently.  We had a session planned for the coming weeks on a big mere where ledgering was the only option at ranges of 30 to 60 yards.  Ledgering for pike is something i have only ever done once and that was on a a short sesison with Garry a week or so back and in reality it was the rod going rather than an alarm that alerted me so this was little test for a proper ledger session for pike.

In reality the set up for ledgering is even easier than the float rig but the real art to learn here is knowing when to strike as you have no float for indication and to judge how far the pike has gone with the bait and knowing when to strike all comes form experience and feeling the pike on the other end.  The simple ledger rig is literally a lead and a trace where you would normally tie your hook length for carp fishing with a buffer bead and a low Resistance run ring to reduce resistance.  My delkim alarms i had bought for carp fishing had remained motionless all season so i hoped and prayed for a single bite on them but with 3 blanks under my belt i was not confident at all.

Within seconds of setting up Garry had a run under his feet, a solid run but it was so weird when he struck nothing was there. I have never ever seen anything like it as the float was moving as he struck, weird. It proved the pike were feeding though so my levels of confidence improved.  It didn't take long for the pikes interest to be regained and it was Garry who put the first fish of the day on the bank, a great start.

From this early run till 10am the rods remained eerily quiet and it was while enjoying a brew on Garry's peg i heard my alarm screaming off and the tip was banging away.  I got to the rod and gently reeled down the line and felt for the fish taking line solid, line peeling off i struck and was into a fish.  The water was deep so the fish felt really big as i played it and i was sure it was a big fish.  The fish came up and it was a jack around 5-6lb.  The fight on the ledger was completely different and the fish did feel bigger and much harder to get in.  The blank streak broken with a nice pike i was over the moon.

The fish returned i set about re baiting the rod as the bait had come off in the fight or was in the pike belly.  I re baited and cast back out and rejoined Garry on his peg.  I don't know how long i was sat there but it didn't seem any time till the rod was off again and this time the fish did feel a better fish and put up a great fish as it came in with line tearing runs and plenty of action under the tip.  She looked every part 7lb-8lb fish but it wasn't until i lifted her out i thought maybe a double as she weighed a bit.

She went 9lb 9oz on the scales so just under a double but two pike in no time.

The fish again took the bait so it was re baited and returned back to the spot and i set about recasting my other rod.  It was while setting the bobbin on the rod the other rod screamed off again and i struck into a fish that felt nice but did not feel right as i could feel the head shakes suggesting it was not well hooked. Half way in the fish come off with a violent head shake, i was gutted as you always feel with any lost fish but with so much activity surely i would get another chance.

It took another 15 minutes before the rod screamed off again and i gave line only to strike thin air and bring back a bare set of trebles and no bait, weird!  In the space of an hour i had 4 runs on the Leger but little did i know then that was my lot for the day as my rods remained silent all afternoon despite numerous recasts.  Right on last knockings Garry's ledger rod beeped into life with a really cagey run one beep, gap, another beep, gap, then beep as it roared off.  Striking he hooked into a pike right in the middle that fought like mad all the way in, slipping the net under our fourth pike of the day it felt like a fish well earned us both sticking it out in the bite less afternoon and we left happy anglers with four fish added to the tally.

Huge Step Up.....Step too Far??

A few days alter was the trip to a mere and it would involve us casting 30-60 yards on ledgers into a mere that as we approached looked huge, easily the biggest span of water i have ever fished.  Wading out to put my bank sticks in the dark it was a place full of atmosphere and you could tell it held some special fish.   The sun just rising over the trees offered a perfect opportunity for a picture.

We were just all about settled in when Ryan hooked into a fish right in the margins, a place we had all written off and on the float as well, hats off to him for sticking to his guns as on this trip it certainly worked. The smile on his face showing just how happy this capture made him feel.

The next hour Garry had a dropped run and i had a few occurrences on my rods but being new to ledgering i was unsure if it was weed on the line or a run, they certainly where not the screaming runs of the session with Garry. 

Dinner time came round and in my haste to get out the house i had left a cup behind so it was improvisation time for me and i must say a brew from a cut in half pot noodle cup is.......absolutely disgusting!  Two pike came out to a guy up the bank but that was it for pike action on the day.  A tough place indeed and certainly a step up and i really did feel daunted by the whole place and i was certainly out of my depth for sure.  An experience i am glad i have done but i think it is something that will be the odd session for me rather than the normal for at least this year while i am still learning.

Well that's just about it for this week i am still a bit behind with the blog so there are a few nice captures to come but right now i am looking forward to a mornings pike fishing tomorrow and a days trotting with my uncle on Sunday which will be a welcome change form the piking.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

//7

River Dee Fishing and First Pondip Article Published

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update I hope i find you well and your nets full.  In this weeks update we travel to the banks of the River Dee hoping to find the shoals of dace we found on our previous trips but things don't always go to plan so with a big decision to stick or move to be made will our choice pay off?? 

First Pondip Blog Published!!

Link to Article: http://blog.pondiptacklebox.com/2014/tips-and-tricks/5-top-tips-canal-fishing/

This week marked a huge milestone in my angling life away from the bank as my first ever piece of writing for another site apart from my own went live.  The long term sufferers of my blog know my stlye on here is very much a "as i would say it to your face" style with very little in the way of the normal This is how to catch fish or this is how you should be fishing information in there.  This is on purpose as I like my blog to be something that  comes across as relaxed and a blog people can read that is reflects myself as one everyday angler who likes to go fishing and share his experiences of the day and the fishing. 

The brief for some of the blogs i am going to be writing for Pondip is very different as they blogs are going to be more around my techniques and tips for actually catching fish and for me this presented a huge step away from my normal blog.   I decided to write the article on a type of fishing i have done all my life and where it all began for me, my local canal. I nervously submitted the piece last month and at the time i was unsure if the piece would be of a standard for them to publish so i have kept quiet about it on the blog and Social Media through fear it would fall flat on its face but early last week i received an email saying the piece had been published on their blog and they were really happy with it, i was over the moon and the day it went live was a really proud day for myself, i was over the moon and hopefully there will be more to come.

Royal Mail Problems!!

With the Pike fishing fast approaching my evenings when not fishing or writing my blog have been spent bidding on Pike terminal tackle on EBay and i have managed to snare the odd bargain.  Last week i mentioned that some of the tackle i have been ordering had arrived but the most important parcel had still not arrived in my possession and it was quite possibly the most important parcel of the lot as it contained the Crimps, Crimp Pliers and hooks to construct my pike rigs.  The Parcel reference entered into the Royal Mail order tracker revealed it had been posted fine and dandy on the 28th August and was in the Royal Mails possession.  Tuesday the 10th September i received the phone call the package had arrived at my home and about time it was too and although it was being delivered from Ireland in the past i have ordered stuff from China that has arrived in 2 days!! 

At this point i was just glad it has arrived and its contents where all as should be..

The Pike Trace Building Begins.....

All the component's ready and waiting I was like a kid in a sweet shop as late on Tuesday night after publishing the midweek blog update i say down at the table and laid all the different items of tackle purchased over the past few weeks out on the table.

Two items of the tackle have nothing to do with the construction of the rigs and are born from watching how a fellow piker, Garry, went about his piking last year and little tips picked up to make life easier.  Firstly a Rig Bin to store all my traces in, my god the amount of times i cut myself on rigs in those plastic packaging's or put my hand inside my tackle box for my forceps to be met with the tip of a stray treble!  Lesson leaned all my traces will now being stored in a spacious Fox Rig bin.  The next is the quick change swivels, a huge part of the appeal with pike fishing is how quick you can be fishing and i am an angler that loves leaving as much of the rod set up as possible and last year that included the trebles placed on an eye and the rod split in two, again loose trebles find everything especially when unloading from a car boot at home so this quick change link means i can easily unclip the treble at the end of the session and fold the rod up happy there are not hooks to catch anything and also on the plus side when setting up its a quick put together of the rod, attach trace and bait and I'm away.

 On a really short evening session after work that may only be a hour or hour and half this can make a huge difference.

My second ever attempt at a pike trace as i din one last year on the bank but this is my first on my own and apart form the trebles being just a bit too far apart i am happy with that as a first attempt and certainly a solid base to build from.

Mid-week Blog Goes Live...

The past few months i have been really fortunate to have not only got out on the bank quite a bit but also been lucky enough to have some really memorable trips along the way.  As such i have been in a situation where i have a lot of trips to write about but to put them all on a Fridays blog and it not be pages long would be difficult and as these trips where so different i wanted to try and capture the sesisons in full by writing an update for each.

These updates going live midweek some times go under the radar as they are only live for two or three days so i thought from now on i would include a link in the following Friday.  This midweek one was a trip to the River Dane where we hoped for a nice net of silvers, what we found was very different and more sinister........but great fun!!!

Link: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/first-river-dane-pike-as-fish-go-crazy.html

And with that its on to this weeks fishing.........

River Dee: Being Prepared to move...

Heading out to the river we had a fair idea of where we wanted to fish and arrived well before sunrise to make sure we were all ready for setting up in the headlamps of the car.  We had travelled to the same are i had fished recently and done well for a double figure net of dace.  My uncle set up in a swim i had fished in the evening a few weeks ago and had trouble with line across the river and i set up in the swim below a bridge on a fast bend where i knew i would find it difficult but if the fish where around i could get a few.  

My uncle fishes a stick different to myself and also feeds his swim differently so he was confident of not having to risk snagging on the line as he hoped to get the fish where he wanted them under his feet.  The dawn breaking i made my first cast of the session and almost as to fit with the beautiful scenery a kingfisher shimmered upstream just as my float came to rest. 

The light barely enough to make out a float i under shot the float so i could see quite a bit of the tip and began trotting hoping that the fast flow would induce a violent bite that would see the float bury.  The first few trots down all that came back was a snotted maggot and not a sign of a bite.  As the light improved i shot the float right down to a mere pimple and i began to see the bites and they where like lightning a swift dip on the float and that was all you got, reeling in revealed a bait with just the tip taken, a sure sign of small fish.

I did hit the odd bite and was proved right with really small dace coming to the net and in the space of 2 hours of a bite a chuck trotting i had converted it to around 10 fish in the keep net with one proper dace.

net of fish

The nature of river fishing means that you can sometimes be out of sight of the person you are fishing with and only see them two or three times during a session as you visit each others peg for a brew.  The first trip to each others pegs is always a litmus test for how the session is going for the other person, if the fishing is going well it can be a few hours as the with trotting you never want to leave a feeding peg.  It also works the other way and looking up the river form my peg i noticed my uncles peg was vacant ans i could hear the swishing of his waterproof pants as he approached my peg, i knew then he was having the same poor start as me.

My uncle had hit the snag twice and was also getting the same fast bites and hitting the odd small dace like myself.  It was decision time, do we stay and hope the better fish come or do we move to a new area of river all together?  A quick look in the margins at the hoards of fry answered the question for us as they devoured maggots, if that was going on in the river and we had a big head of fry in front of us we were going to struggle and neither of us had enough bait to feed them off so we decided on a a change of venue. 

A quick chat in the car and we set off for a new venue on the River Dee and settled for some crazy mad idea we settled on Eccleston Ferry.  It may sound silly me saying its a mad idea but i have to say before this session here it was certainly mine and my uncles bogey venue where i think we could count the amount if fish caught on one hand between the pair of us. 

We left the car in the car park and walked the bank and the first thing that we noticed was the fact the pegs had been taken out, a walker told us and i don't know how true it is but an angler slipped on them in the ice and sued the land owner!if true the so called angler needs his or her head testing this is fishing and you are not on a commercial now you are at your own risk, so thank you for ruining some very rare comfortable river fishing, idiot., you cant blame the land owner for taking that action and a classic case of the minority ruining it for the majority, a common theme on the dee it seems with the loss of almere being linked to idiots being abusive. 

Walking the bank we finally found a few signs of fish topping and they were in a tight 100 yard length it seemed.  I set up in the margins with my box in the water while my uncle set up down stream on a small tuft.  I had just folded my 13ft rod in half when leaving the previous area but plumbing up i instantly hit a problem as with my float as deep as it would do i still could not fish on the bottom, a very deep area. 

After all the messing around in the morning the last thing i felt like doing was setting up from scratch but it had to be done so it was away with the 13ft rod and out with the 17ft rod.  I also changed floats at this point from a 8 number 4 to a 3 gram bolo float simply due to the depth.  Around a hour and half into the fishing my uncle popped a long and he had been doing quite well with around 2o dace in his net with steady bites to boot.  I at this point had around 4 fish in the net but what i was catching was roach and nice ones to boot but just not as prolifically as my uncle was catching.

while my uncle was at my peg i connected with a better fish and my uncle clocked me playing it up straight away but it was certainly pulling back and although i made it look bigger than it was we were both happy to see a nice chublet grace the landing net.

After discussing the choice to set up in the main boating channel on the River dee we returned to the fishing and after messing around with my shotting to get the float to settle so just the tip of the bristle was showing i began to put together a few fish in succession and it was obvious that there was a decent shoal of roach in the swim and it must have been a shoal of just roach as this was the only fish i was connecting with.

The general stamp of roach i was catching was quite impressive, not massive fish but put up a great fight in the depth of water.

At around noon to 12.30 my uncle nipped along for another brew and at this point i had gone a hour without a bite and so had my uncle.  The normal reason on the Dee for this is a pike moving in your swim but in such a depth of water presenting a bait to them down deep was something i was not tackled up for so i continued to persevere with the feeding and slow trot through the swim.  The odd cast further out did bring one or two fish but it was a good two hours till i connected with my next flurry of bites as three fish came in three casts.  The magic and wonder of river fishing is how quickly you go from nothing to catching it can be like turning a light switch one.

Again the fish were roach but with the fourth fish in as many casts splashing on the surface there was a swirl over the bait and there was extra weight on the line, a pike had taken the fish, as the fish was up on top i could quite clearly see the pike and it was only slightly bigger than the roach it had taken and had in its mouth.  I continued to reel in but at the last moment it spat out the roach. 

The picture below shows what damage even a small pike can do to a fish and looking at the bigger picture it could have been this pike in hunting mode in the swim why the swim dies for 2 hours.  The damage done by this small pike to this roach was terminal and shows just how veracious pike can be and more than likely the pike would have returned to claim the fish after it has died.

Nature in its most raw and brutal form.

I mentioned above that it might have been the pike that killed the swim and the rest of the session went to prove it as no sooner had i cast back out the swim was alive with roach and i got into a rhythm of catching steadily and thoroughly enjoyed a good hour and half's fantastic roach fishing culminating in this plump yet oddly shaped roach that put up a great fight.

On our fishing session me and my uncle normally pack in at the same time but on this occasion i admit to indulging in some roach fishing as i fished on for another 20 minutes.

my net

The final net was one of the best nets of fish i have had from the dee of 10lb 5oz, i say its one of the best as for me fishing the river my nets are normally made up entirely of dace with the odd roach.  This entire net was roach apart from one dace and one chub and maybe the odd gudgeon.

My uncles net was the opposite and was entirely dace with a few roach and a small chub and just shows how one stretch of river can have such different results.

uncle net

till next time i hope you enjoyed my write up of my fishing and let me know if you like the new layout with the introduction and how its more broken up.

tight lines

Danny