Pike Fishing Techniques - Part Two

Of course dead-baiting is the main method of pike fishing, but there are alternatives. Lure fishing is one, which involves attaching an imitation of a fish to a wire trace (so when the Pike attacks the lure the line is not cut).

One of the main aspects of lure fishing is the retrieve. It is important to vary your retrieve speed, sometimes stopping to let the lure sink down. Personally I think it is the vibration caused by the lure that attracts the Pike, since if the water is murky, the colour is not going to be obvious anyway. In recent years one particular lure that has been very successful is the 'Bull Dawg' and its little brother the 'Spring Dawg'.

Very recently a new variant on Dead Baiting is the 'Kebab'. This techniques involves hair-rigging chunks of fish onto a single hook (much like in carp fishing). Although of course since the fish is chopped up, in theory there is a lot more 'juices' leaking out and so should attack Pike quicker.

Pike Fishing Techniques - Part One

There are various pike fishing techniques that really depends on the type of water you are fishing. I really focus on lake fishing, and as the season for Pike Fishing draws closely I'm looking at the various techniques I use to my advantage in the coming months.

Firstly, I need to mention "Dead-Baiting" which involves simply attaching a dead fish to a metal wire. Usually the 'trace' is made up of two treble hooks attached to a metal wire, however there is a growing tendency of using just one treble and and a large single hook. This is due to the reduction in damage to the Pike's mouth as well as making unhooking easier. I should also say that using semi-barbless and barbless hooks make unhooking easier as well.

So what kind of fish should you use on your trace? Well the most popular are Mackerel, Smelt and other sea fish. This is due to the fact that sea-fish have alot of oil and so the smell of the fish can spread quickly to the nearest pike! Although there are alot of other fish that make suitable candidates if your fishery is quite heavily fished. You could use eel, perch, roach or bream it just depends on what the 'natural' fish population is. I find that using these natural fish can increase my results. There is also the point that using a bigger bait will result in bigger Pike, since the smaller ones can't swallow it!

Stay tuned for more Pike Fishing techniques such as live-baiting and lure fishing. I will also mention the newest of Pike Fishing techniques: the Kebab!

Online Fishing Games

Big Catch By Miniclip

The internet’s selection of online fishing games is excellent! And particularly this game from Miniclip! There are two modes to this game ‘free play’ where you can play as long as you want, and ‘tournament’ where you progress through the lakes available getting money for your catch. With this money you can buy additional lures.

The graphics on this game are excellent with the fish appearing in a life like manner, as well as the actual casting of the rod. There are 4 species of fish available to catch: trout, bass, carp and pike (which range in size).The controls are very simple, you simply hold down the left mouse button until the desired casting power is indicated on the bar. To retrieve the lures simply hold down the left mouse button, the longer you hold it down the faster it goes. When you have hooked a fish a bar will come up showing you the tension in the line. To retrieve the line, again hold down the mouse button, but don’t let the tension get to high or else the line will break!Hint: When a fish approaches your lure, move it very slowly and watch for it to pounce!Further Hint: You can wiggle the lure by moving the mouse side to side.
9/10

Big Mouth Bass 3D
If you are an American and like to specialise in bass fishing this game is for you! However to me the graphics look slightly dated, and in my opinion the game is too easy! You can ‘see’ the fish’s shadow on the water so it is simply a case to casting to it.Another worry is that the controls aren’t that simply. You have the click the mouse once to ‘activate’ the cast then click again to adjust the power. Even once you’ve hook a fish, there is a strange way of retrieving it. You have to keep the mouse cursor within the yellow circle on the fish, or else you line with break.The graphics are ok, but the game lacks in complexity
.7/10

Reel Fishing
Poor! The game is very simple with only 2D graphics. You simply have to cast to the ‘shadow’ of fish on the water. Then apply tension to bring the fish in.As mentioned the graphics are very poor, and the lure action is very unrealistic. This game would maybe be ok for 5 mins to pass the time.
2/10

Survivor III: Fishing
This game is good for entertainment value, while not for actual fishing accuracy. The games plot is that your character needs to survive out in the wild by fishing with their pole. The controls are simple, with the space bar controlling your casting distance and line retrieval rate. You simply need to dangle the lure in front of the fish. As you progress through the game you visit different lakes with different species.One criticism is that the ‘All Right!’ or equivalent comment of the character does get annoying each time you catch a fish!
6/10

Super Fishing
This game is pretty simple, with cartoonish graphics. You can move the person’s boat from left to right with the mouse and dangle the hook by clicking the mouse button. The hook only needs to come into contact with the fish to catch it.Although not realistic the game is again good to pass the time. Although it can get quite addictive when the game gets difficult in later levels and you’re trying to beat the clock.
4/10

Hook, Line and Sinker
This game is disappointing with virtually no skill required to catch the fish. You have to simply dangle the hook onto the fish and you have caught it. The controls are simple; you move the boat left and right by moving your mouse. You lower the hook down by clicking the left mouse button.To pass the first level you need to catch three fish of the same species. Why?! This seems pretty pointless to me.
2/10

The Growing Trend: Fly Fishing for Coarse Fish

In recent years there has been a growing advance in the fly fishing camp, to use their equipment to catch course fish. Of course, this has been happening unintentionally ever since fly fishing has existed, but it is only recently that fly fishermen have actually targeted coarse fish.

One side of this new method, is to use fry imitations to catch pike. Indeed there have been whole books dedicated to this method. It is also possible to use, what I can only describe as Christmas decorations which seem to prove effective.

Another element of fly fishing is to fly fish for carp. Interestingly I read in a recent fishing magazine that the notorious booby fly seems to be quite suited to this. However, there is of course the moral obligations of fishing with a fly that seems oddly similar to a floating expanded pellet!

Certainly this method of fishing can prove a nice alternative to normal fly fishing for trout, or even coarse fishing.

Fluorocarbon verses Monofilament

Fishing lines: the material that is the link between you and the fish. Therefore it is of great importance that we choose the right material.

There are two main contenders, fluorocarbon and monofilament, which both have their advantages.

For high breaking strain you have to choose monofilament since you simply don't get fluorocarbon in that high a breaking strain. Monofilament also had the advantage of being much cheaper. However, monofilament has a wider diameter and is more easily to spot under water. It also stretches alot more than fluorocarbon meaning you might not set the hook if fishing at distance.

Fluorocarbon is great to use a hook length when float fishing. This is because it is roughly the same density as water and so virtually invisible. This is reason it is used to a great extent in fly fishing. It is also has a much thinner diameter.

What about braid I here you say?! Well braid is simply strands of fishing line braided together. Therefore there is very little stretch in braid and it can be very high breaking strain - useful for fishing at range with snags.

Shimano Fishing

In the UK shimano are regarded as one of the best manufactures of fishing tackle, and with good reason. The build quality of their products is excellent, whether that be reel, rod or bite alarm. It is always the best on the market.

One reason for this, is their ability to develop entirely new products. For example, Shimano are the inventors of the baitrunner reel - a reel that had the facility of allowing the spool to turn freely allowing the fish to run with bait. This was very handy in predator fishing situations as well as carp since the line could be controlled as it was pulled rather than the messy way of just opening the bail arm. The recent range of bait runners are the best yet, with the line lay perfect and a very durable and long lasting feel to the reels.

I would recommend that you view the online catalogue on their website.

Barometric Pressure / Moon Phase Effect Fish!

Fish have very acute senses in relation to the current atmospheric pressure. For pike fishing falling low pressure indicates a good deadbaiting situation. When there is high barometric pressure live baiting will get you the bites.

The pressure also affects the weather, generally the higher the pressure the weather is sunny, and low pressure usually means windy with lots of rain!

It is also well known that the current moon phase can affect fishing success. Generally fish are most active when the sun or moon rises or sets. It is just knowing these times! There is an excellent article on moon phases at ArticleAlly.

How Do Bite Alarms Work

Modern Bite Alarms usually work through use of a reed switch which conducts when an magnetic field passes over it.

A magnet is contained within a wheel that turns when line is passed over it. Therefore when the magnet and reed switch come together the bite alarm sounds.

This is why a bobbin needs to be used when using a bite alarm, so that the line will turn the wheel and therefore the bite alarm will sound.

This may be an over simplified version, but in essence it is the basics of bite alarm operation.

Lyns lands 39 lb Pike

Lyn Baker stunned the angling world when she reeled in the biggest pike ever caught by a female angler at the weekend.Lyn, 32, from Newcastle, caught a 39lbs 8oz pike on a trip to the Lake of Menteith, in Scotland, on Saturday

."I'm still shaking now, I was so excited,"

she said. "It fought really hard, it was really fit. We didn't see it for five minutes after I hooked it, and when I did, I just thought oh my god."

Lyn was on a boat with her husband Neil when the monster picked up her sardine deadbait."I've been pike fishing for around three years," she said. "Neil got me into it, he fishes all the time. We used to do a lot of fly fishing for trout, then he got into pike fishing and got me to try that." Neil convinced Lyn it was worth entering the draw for a place on a fish-in on Menteith organised by the Pike Anglers Club, which she joined a few months earlier." Her previous best pike was 10lbs 8oz and I said if we go to Menteith you've got a great chance of beating it," he said."

Her first fish after half an hour was 21lbs 5oz and she was absolutely over the moon, she'd have happily gone home then."I said it'll take you a while to beat that, then she struck into this thing, it came out of the water and I've never seen anything like it."The PAC obtains a limited number of days' fishing for its members on Menteith each season. The events are always over-subscribed and members enter a draw for places.PAC special events organiser Mark Skinner said: "I spoke to Lyn in the pub the night before and said wouldn't it be great if a woman member caught the biggest fish." It's truly a great achievement for any pike angler but to see one of our female members come on here and upstage all the household names shows what the club's about. "It shows anyone can join up, get in the draw for places and stand a chance of catching a fish like this if their number comes up."

Book Review - Big Pike

'Big Pike' edited by Bob Church is a relatively new pike book (some of the photos taken in 2006), and covers all the basics and well as more advanced techniques.

Personally I found the mixture of authors to this book quite interesting, even if some of the authors did tend to ramble about pike fishing tales. It also meant a wide variety of fishing techniques and tips are covered in the book.

Most noticeable the section on lure fishing and fly fishing for pike were the obvious references to the latest in pike fishing. The authors experience in these techniques to catch big pike, makes his words very influential.

As mentioned earlier the book is a good read, since it contains stories of the anglers best and worst moments. With other books, they can get boring if they are just focused on fishing practice. In particular, the section on fishing in Canada may interest some fisherman.

At the beginning of the book some time is focused on the history of pike fishing, which can be interesting to younger anglers who do not know of the terrible treatment pike faced in those dark days.

The book retails at £19.95, but can be bought for £13.16 from Amazon.

Feeder Fishing

Feeder fishing has become very popular recently for bream, roach and carp. Below are a few steps which can improve your next feeder fishing outing.

• Make sure the distance from the hook to the feeder is quite close, so the bait from the feeder encourages the fish to bite your hook!
  
• The rod should be positioned at about 45 degrees to the side for the best bite indication when using a quiver tip.
  
• If you do not have a quiver tip rod, 'feeling' the line for tugs is a very accurate method.
  
• Change the contents of your feeder. You could use groundbait, worms, maggots or sweetcorn.
  
• Change the hookbait, and make the size of it appropriate for the size of fish you are fishing for. IE when being pestered by small fish, try using a big hookbait.

Feeder Bite Indication

Feeder fishing involves having a capsule of bait attached to your line, which then sinks to the bottom so you are ledgering. On the right the feeder is filled with ground bait. Fishing on the bottom makes good bite indication difficult since there is no float.

One method is to 'feel' the line. I suggest holding the line between your thumb and other four fingers. For this to work the line must be taut. When a fish does take your bait you should feel a tug on the line. This is by the far the most sensitive bite indication.

Another method is to 'quiver tip'. This involves the use of a 'quiver tip' rod or a rod that is quite flexible. Again the line should be taut. When the fish does pull your line the rod tip should move back and forth and hence the name 'quiver tip'.

New Fishing TV Series

On January 9th a series of 10 programs called 'Nick Hancock's Fishing School' are starting about budding fly fishermen being shown the ropes in Scottish lochs. It is on at 7.30PM on ITV1.

The TV Presenter invites would-be anglers to the Highlands of Scotland to learn the art of wild game fishing. The environment is stunning but remote and rugged - do they know what they have got themselves into?

The Benefit of Bite Alarms

A bite alarm is a device which indicates visually or by sound that you have a bite. This makes them ideally suitable for fishing where you have more than one rod, such as in Carp or Pike fishing. In these situations bite alarms reduce the pressure on you to monitor all rods at once.

They come in 2 forms. 'Front alarms' (pictured left) are placed on the first rod stick and will sound when the line is moved over them. A bobbin or drop arm is then required to ensure the line is pulled down onto the bite alarm. A post here demonstrates normal requirements of bite alarms.

Rear 'drop off' electronic bite alarms are slightly different. They only sound when the line is pulled off the clip on the drop off arm. They will sound continuously when the line is pulled free.

A recent development in bite alarms is the use of a wireless receiver. Small lights on the receiver will light up when a bite is observed. This is especially useful if you are fishing in a bivvy and might not here the alarms.