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| The Lure of Pike |
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Join Jan Porter as he takes us to the Richworth Linear complex to prove that pike provide fantastic sport throughout the year...
Many anglers think pike are only worth fishing for in the depths of winter. Granted, pike are larger at that time because they are getting ready to spawn, but believe me pike fight far, far harder in warm water. And that's what fishing is all about - having a bend in the rod, a fish fighting back at the other end and a grin from ear to ear! So, without further ado, here's how I tackle a typical summer pike fishing session using a wide selection of lures...
What is a pike?
Many regard pike (Esox lucius) as ferocious fish-eating machines and vermin, but in fact they form a vital link in the ecology of most rivers, canals and lakes. Pike are at the top of the food chain, feeding on other fish (pike included), the occasional frog, duckling and vole that stumble too close!
Larger pike are females. If you catch one that weighs over 10lb you can be 99 per cent certain that it is of the fairer sex. And just like the fairer sex, pike can really sink their teeth in to you if you make a mistake! Although they don't bite, pike have razor sharp teeth and gill rakers that can cause quite an injury if you accidentally catch your fingers on them.
They are easily identifiable - no other British freshwater fish looks like a pike. They are long and lean, have green camouflaged flanks and either a white or yellow underbelly. The head is almost prehistoric-looking. The eyes are positioned on top of the head and the elongated snout holds hundreds of sharp teeth. For this reason it is absolutely imperative that you use a wire trace.
Why use a wire trace?
When a pike takes your lure, it takes it with gusto. It's jaws open as it thunders through the depths and snaps at the lure at great speed. Once the jaws clamp down on the lure and the fish feels resistance as you strike it will immediately thrash its head trying to free itself. If the clamped jaws don't sever mono or braid, the sawing action of the pike thrashing about certainly will. That's why you must use a wire trace to prevent the pike trailing lures and treble hooks around.
After years of lure fishing I now much prefer to use shop-bought traces, but I test them thoroughly before use. The Rapala traces are good. I don't use shop-bought crimped traces as one or two have let me down, not when playing a fish thankfully, and I never use American snap links. I lost a fish and had the lures pop off due to these links opening up, so I consider them unacceptable. I only use the clasp-type Safe-Lok Links that are virtually 100 per cent safe; they will never open up accidentally.
Where to find pike?
In the main, pike launch their attack from or alongside the cover of weed, roots, reeds, or from dark, shaded water. These are the areas that you are most likely to find pike.
Water outflows will attract smaller fish that relish the freshly oxygenated water, or the extra influx of tiny food items washed in to the lake. Pike won't be too far away, often waiting in the wings for a stray roach, rudd or perch to venture too far away from its shoal.
Lilies offer prime camouflage for pike. It's dark under the large floating leaves and the twisting, winding stems help hide the pike's mottled green flanks. A floating/diving lure cast tight to the outskirts of the lilies and drawn back very, very slowly should do the trick!
Reeds offer excellent cover for pike too. They may not hide away right inside a dense patch of reedmace, bullrushes or stick-ups, but they won't be too far away from them! So choose a vantage point where you can cast your lure parallel with the outer boundary of the reeds and slowly work it right next to the vegetation. As reeds tend to grow along the margins it can pay to wear a pair of chest waders, and a lifejacket if you have one, and carefully wade out beyond the reeds so you can work your lure in the right zone.
Overhanging trees and bushes are prime pike hotspots too due to the lower light levels underneath. A floating/diving or a sinking lure cast beyond the feature and retrieved under the overhang may well provide you with a pike or two.
And finally there's submerged weed beds. Location of these when fishing is relatively easy when tackling a clear water venue and when wearing polarised glasses. I wholly advocate wearing glasses when fishing primarily for safety reasons, but a good pair of polarised glasses helps cut out surface glare so you can see into the depths and locate weed and even fish.
If you find that your lure comes back covered in weed simply cast to the same spot but crank the lure back at a different depth, making sure it doesn't sink or dive right in to the weed.
Tempting bites
Like all fish, pike can be at any level in the water, particularly in the summer when water temperatures are high. This means that you have to think carefully about your choice of lure and experiment with different types until you start to get hits.
On this session I tried all sorts of Blue Fox lures; small Vibrax spinners that sink and can be worked at all levels; Slyflex shads for bouncing along the bottom; and Shapeshifter floating divers for working from the surface down.
I covered each swim as best I could by casting each lure as far as I could, and working it back at different depths. I then cast a little to the left or right and repeated this until the swim had been well and truly 'fished-out'. If no takes were forthcoming I moved to the next swim and started all over again.
After an hour of thrashing the water to foam I had my first hit. Confidence levels rose as I now had an inkling of the depth the pike may be lying at, so a change of lure was needed. I would say that the take occurred at mid-depth, so I changed to a floating/diving Shapeshifter lure. These little beasts float initially, but once you crank them they start to dive. This is due to the protruding, angled lip at the front.
There are different styles of lip. Long, shallow-angled lips make the lures dive very deep, while short, almost vertically-pointing lips make the lure dive just under the surface. I chose to use a Shapeshifter having a lip angled at about 45 degrees as these lures dive to around 5ft - exactly midwater at Manor Farm lake.
Unhooking pike
Luckily for lure anglers, unhooking a pike tends to be a lot easier than if you caught the pike using a deadbait. Firstly the lure is smaller and therefore easier to manipulate in the pike's mouth. Some lures feature only one set of trebles which are obviously easier to unhook than a pair of trebles, and as lure takes are fast and furious there's a high chance that only one point of the treble hook hits home.
Once you've landed your pike the first thing to do is get the fish away from the net. If it flips there's a high chance that any trailing trebles will become snagged in the mesh making unhooking twice as hard. If you can lay the pike on a protective unhooking mat or on damp, soft grass and turn the fish on its side. Open the fishes mouth by carefully sliding your index finger inside the base of the gills, keeping the finger firmly pressed to the outside of the gill cavity. Once inserted you can gently pull the mouth open allowing you access to the lure.
You will need a strong pair of forceps to remove the treble or single hook. You should never take chances by trying to remove the hook with your fingers; those teeth are ultra sharp!
Treat them with respect
Pike fight really hard in summer and autumn. The warm water conditions ensure they have masses of energy, therefore they really go for it! This gives the pike angler a small problem in that the pike need to recover fully before they are returned - similar to barbel.
Once a pike is unhooked and maybe photographed, slip them in to the margins and hold its tail. Keep the fish upright and watch for any gill movement. Once the gills start expanding and contracting - the fish starts breathing - it will gradually replace energy and eventually flick its tail and disappear, under its own steam, into the murky depths. Only then can you be 100 per cent confident that the fish will return to its natural way of life and fight another day.
The tackle to lure pike
To get the best from a session piking with lures you will need to use a short rod that has a specified casting weight that matches the weight of the lures you intend using. It makes casting the baits so much easier.
For this session I used two Shimano Exage STC Special Bass rods. They are four-piece travel rods that have a casting weight of between 15and 30g - ideal for the vast majority of lures used by the British predator angler. They are very robust rods available in two different styles. There's a spinning version - that is designed to house a fixed spool reel, and a casting version designed to be used with a multiplier reel. I use both these rods.
The fixed spool reel I use is a Catana 3000 - a robust but lightweight reel ideally suited to long periods lure fishing. The multiplier reel I prefer is a neat little left-hand-wind Curado. This is a simple-to-operate multiplier that features a star drag located on the handle. This can be adjusted with fingertips to help control a large, running, big fish.
Both reels are loaded with braid, in particular Shimano Antares 28lb braid. Using any sort of strong braid will enhance your lure fishing simply because braid has minute stretch, therefore whatever you do to the rod tip or reel handle transfers directly to the lure, and vice versa. You can feel every knock on the lure when fishing with braid, and that seriously puts you one step ahead of others.
This article appeared in the August 2004 issue of Improve Your Coarse Fishing and is reproduced with their permission.
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