Saturday 20 October 2007

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!

Tuesday 16 October 2007

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