Fishermans Friends

After a phone call from Kris, a good mate and fellow fisherman, we were on for our post christmas trip. Mick too was keen to wet a line after a Christmas spent with the family. Its not very often that i am lucky enough to spend a day angling with two good mates, so to say i was excited was an understatement.

Despite my excitement at seeing my pals, i didn't feel particularly confident about the fishing its self. The thaw had kicked in big style, which meant high and fast water. That coupled with bright blue skies didn't bode well for a productive day. However, if you have the opportunity to go fishing, especially with your friends, the wrong conditions are not going to put you off!

We set off early to what has become our favorite venue, the lock-cut.(please read older posts for more info) Upon arrival i had one of those horrible moments when you realise that you've forgotten something - the camera! Bugger. If ever you want to guarantee catching the fish of your dreams, just leave your camera at home. Fate will do the rest! Luckily, cameras on mobile phones take pretty decent pictures these days, so all was not lost if we were to catch some fish.

On a more positive note, the 'big thaw' had been quite a slow one. As a result, the river level was not as high as i had anticipated. In fact, it was about a foot lower than usual for the time of year. With this unexpected bonus we hot-stepped it back to the van to get set up. Mick and myself were already set up with float-fishing rigs from our last trip. With this in mind Kris opted for a ledgering approach, but with a twist. Instead of the usual bomb, Kris instead fitted a green plastic cage and loaded it with a pike bomb. These are made of fish and guts and will slowly brake down in the water leaving the area with a very attractive smell.

While Kris and i discussed the mechanics of his rig, Mick had lost patience and proceeded to the river without us! We followed shortly after to find Mick in the best swim! Fair enough, we thought, as he greeted us with a rye smile. Micks keen arrival didn't, unfortunately, bring him the first action of the day. that privilege fell to me. I had cast underneath the foot bridge and within minutes my float was indicating some interest. After watching the float bob up and down, rather unconvincingly, for a few seconds, i wound down and lifted into... nothing! A small fish, no bigger than my herring hook-bait, i suspected. We'll never know. A sigh, shortly followed by unsympathetic banter from the lads ensued.

Whilst i was busy scratching my head over the lack of Pike on the end of my line, the cry 'I'm in!' came from one of the lads. I scrambled over to where Mick was waiting with the net and Kris was hanging on to his rod, which had developed a very healthy bend. A big fish came up near the net, only to catch sight of three ugly buggers staring back at it. It mustn't have liked the look of us (and who can blame it!) because with a splash of the tail it was back down in the depths. The clutch on Kris's Stratos clicked franticly as the fish peeled line off the reel. What a scrap! After coming to the net a couple more times, Mick finally had the opportunity to scoop the fish up. Kris ran back to the van to fetch the scales while i slipped the barbless trebles out of her mouth. Even without weighing her it was clear that she was a high double, and a well fed one at that. Infact it is worth mentioning that all the Pike that come out of this stretch of water seem to have a 'fat' belly. The scales confirmed that she was just over 17lb.A big fish from a small river. Kris was over the moon with his new personal best, and we were all surprised at a fish that size coming from this venue. Just how big are they in there? Is this the biggest? Are there bigger fish in there? Is it time for breakfast? It was.
After a bit of food we composed ourselves, a little. As we stood there talking about the possibilities of this stretch of water, it came up with the goods again. This time it was my bait that that had taken the fancy of Esox lucius. A short and frantic fight saw a fish of about 8lb nearly in the net. The fish, however, decided that it would be easier if it unhooked its self in the water to save us any bother. I'd now lost 2 out of 2, and on any other day i think that i would have been a little upset about it, but one look at Kris's beaming smile was enough cheer anyone up at the moment. Looking to put an end to my unfortunate streak, i enquired as to what bait had caught the big girl. "A sprat!" came the answer. Smallest bait for the biggest fish. It was worth a go. On went a sprat and under went my float almost straight away. This time i was the victor and a fish of 6lb 8oz was my reward.
The morning had been very productive, but as the day went on the action seemed to dry up. We moved on and fished other areas of the river. The complex was uncharacteristically busy, every body keen to escape the family after the festive period i suspected. Despite the numbers on the bank there weren't any fish coming out, other than the fish that we had caught. After a couple of hours it became clear that we had the right spot when we arrived, so back we went in anticipation of the witching hour.
By now it was dusk and it wasn't looking good for Mick. Despite fishing hard all day, he just couldn't tempt any fish.
We toasted the setting sun on what had been a great day days fishing and decided to call it a day. Just as we were consoling Mick on his tough luck, his float began to move. Talk about last knockings! We held our breath as Mick struck into firm resistance. Fish on, finally. Kris returned the honour by engulfing the fish with the net in an effort nearly as worthy as Micks fish playing. I unhooked the fish and three other anglers, on there way home after a fruitless day, were there to witness Micks trophy shots. The fish weighed 6lb 8oz, and on closer inspection was the same fish that i had caught earlier!On a personal note, i had a cracking day out with 2 of my best mates. Something that i don't get to do very often. Kris catching a PB made the day even more special. Well in mate!

Dear 'Steve'

Just a quick note to thank steve for his comments. Unfortunately your back-link doesn't seem to direct me to you. Feel free to email me at oliver.chef@hotmail.co.uk and i'll do my best to help you out.
Thanks

Oli

Piking in a Winter Wonderland

To say that the weather had deteriorated was an understatement. Here in the east of england, we had experienced 2 days of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures. Many of the main roads were closed, albeit temporarily, and driving everywhere was dangerous. Just finding the car under the 6 inches of snow was a challenge, as was getting out of the street. However, determination is a very powerful thing as is the primal desire to hunt!

Our venue this time was the river Nene at Hardwater Mill on the WDNAC. Freeing the car and negociating the tretuious roads had meant a bit of a late start, but that didn't matter. The snow had not yet started to melt so the river looked in good condition as we crossed the double bridges near the venue. Now, clear blue skies and snow are not conducive to good fishing, but they do make for breath-taking scenery.

As before, simple float-fished deadbaits, the best rig for a roving approach. Sitting down and slowly letting the cold creep into your bones was not an option today, so the chairs stayed at home. Being cold is likely to distract you from your fishing as you become preoccupied with keeping warm. We decided to start at the lock-cut section of the water as, just like Ringstead, the water here is of a slower pace and a good area for the fish to hold up while it is cold. Our baits were cast, so it was time to take a few pictures of the scenery for the blog, oh and er.... untangle Micks first birds nest of the day!!(sorry Mick!) Moving and recasting every twenty minutes or so saw us covering all of the water in a methodical manner, but after a couple of hours neither of us had had any action. This didn't really bother us as the snow and scenery had combined in an awe inspiring way to keep us both quite content, for the moment!
However, circumstances were about to take a big run up and hoof us quite squarely in the plums! A phone call from the better half saw us packing up and heading home. I'd cleared off in the morning with something of the missus's in my pocket (I'll leave it to your imagination to work out what!). Oops, these things happen! We reluctantly dragged ourselves back to the car wondering if there would be any point in coming back after our errand. The answer was "hell yes!" from Mick. Ringstead's not that far, we can be there in 20 minutes!"
Thats the spirit, and in 20 minutes we were in the Ringstead complex. Not the venue that we'd hoped to give a good going over today, but sometimes you've got to take the rough with the smooth.
Daylight was burning fast now, so there was only one thing for it. The lock-cut. It had been good to us on the last trip and we needed it to be good to us again today, to save the day in fact. We moved so fast to get our lines in the water that we nearly failed to notice how beautiful the scenery was here as well. The snow barely disturbed apart from the hoof prints of a large deer. The trees naked but for their newly aquired snowy over-coats and birds hurrying about knocking the white powder off of the branches as they darted from tree to tree.
While Mick and I stood taking all of this in the river started to produce its goods. Micks float began to indicate that something was showing an interest in his herring deadbait. He waited a moment and then, on my instruction, wound down and struck into the fish. Unfortunatly, he missed it. However, better to strike early and miss than wait too long and deep hook the fish. Believe me the journey home after accidentally causing a fish harm is no fun. The float went back to the same spot and, sure enough the float started to bob again. After a strike the fish was on, but only momentarily. By this point we concluded that the fish was only small so we scaled down to half a herring each. Closer inspction of micks bait however, showed that the pike's bite had luckily (for the pike) missed the trebles. Leaving Mick to his battle of whits with a small pike, i moved to his left and tried the other side of the bridge. As if Mick wasn't frustrated enough i then proceeded to get a take on my bait. The float rising up and lying flat on the surface before moving steadily off to the left. A firm strike connected with resistance. Fish on! The small jack put up a good fight but was soon in the net. Now, time for my first ever 'fish in the snow' picture.
Not a big fish, but my first in the snow and i was happy with it. The lock-cut had come up with the goods again! We moved on to try and tempt another fish and i did get into another small jack, only for it to fall off as it came to the surface. Unfortunately, nothing for Mick on this occasion but we both agreed that the pike that i caught was very likely the one that he had nearly caught as it was from the same area.

Light was fading and we could no longer feel our toes, so it was time to head home. Again no monsters, but on a day when most anglers wouldn't have bothered, we went out in the snow and we caught pike.

The next time a non-angler asks if your 'mad' for fishing when its freezing, point them to this blog! It is never too cold for the pike to feed.

Dead Baits

Herring seemed to do the trick on our last outing. Doesn't seem to be a particularly oily fish which should lend its self better to colder temperatures (2 points raised there, both open to your criticism!). Stays on the trebles quite well, especially when hooked in the wrist of the tail, in my experience.

I tend to buy mine, from the fish monger at the supermarket, in bulk and then freeze them in packs of 4. It is considerably cheaper this way and you always have some to hand if you can't get to the tackle shop or are lucky enough to grab a few opportunistic hours on the bank (the later happening to me very rarely these days!)

We must always, though, do our best to support our tackle shops and besides - the fish monger doesn't sell roach deadbaits!- not yet anyway. Seriously though, try to spend a couple of quid in there every week, we'll miss them if they have to close.

Its a Start!

I wouldn't say that we were off to a flying start, but, we're both off the mark with this winters campaign on the first outing.

We arrived early at the Ringstead complex to find conditions quite favourable. The rain that had been forecast earlier in the week for all day wasn't now due until 3 o'clock this afternoon and, other than a moderate SW breeze, the weather was perfect.

The river was running a little higher and faster than usual, if we were fishing anywhere else that might have presented us with a problem, but, there is always the lock-cut at Ringstead. Regardless of what the main river and back brook are doing, this always maintains the same pace. With this in mind, we headed there. A simple roving approach, with float-fished deadbaits, was the order of the day. Nothing complicated required, fish in pikey looking areas and hope that they were hungry!

The lock-cut didn't let us down and it wasn't long before my float started doing the lambada. A group of ramblers were there to witness the net being slipped under a fantastically marked jack pike of about 5lb took on a herring. Not a monster, but we were off to a good start.
We left the swim to settle and went for a bit of a wonder. It was now time to concentrate on catching Mick his first pike! We tried every other water on the complex, the river, brook and the 2 lakes, giving each swim a good twenty minutes before reeling in and moving on. Might not seem very long, but in my experience, if they are there you tend to get them within that time. This seems to especially true on rivers.
A couple of hours passed and we hadn't had a sniff. Other people on the complex were struggling too, only one other jack coming out from one of the lakes. We decided that a cup of tea and a spot of lunch was in order.
Back to the lock-cut we went to set up temporary camp. As the kettle boiled, Micks float finally started to dip, bob and then vanish from site. Narrowly missing the kettle, i jumped to my feet (just how many years to you have to fish for before you develop a little composure in these situations!) to grab the net. Micks first ever Pike lay there in the net. Again not a monster, but
he was more than pleased with this 7 or 8lber. This one fell to a roach deadbait.
On a serious note here, I'm holding the fish for photo because Mick did not want to cause the fish any harm as he is, at the moment, not as confident as he'd like to be with them. If you are not sure what to do you should ask someone to help. This is why fishing with a mate is such a good idea. Pike safety has to come first.
Eventually the rain that had been promised finally caught up with us, as did the news that somebody had finally caught a double from one of the lakes. Reluctantly we headed back to the car to take stock of what had been a good day. There are some places where you know you are going to catch pike. The lock-cut at Ringstead is one of them.

Catch or blank, a day spent fishing, is a day well spent!

Not Long Now!

If you're an angler you'll understand the compulsion to get hold of your kit out and spread it all out on the living room floor occasionally. Well this is where i'm up to at the moment. It tends to happen every time i am altering my approach or about to target a different species. I'm not entirely sure what the point of spreading it out is, especially as i just tend to look at it and then put it all away again! I think that its maybe psychological, a good clear out ready for the next assult, putting unneeded methods to one side and routing out the ones i need. Getting ready to battle with mother nature once again. The kits ready, we've got the bait, the weathers turned...its time for Pike....

....not long now!

Pike Biology - Nutrition By Harald Hoel

Immediately after the pike fry is hatched, it attaches itself to underwater vegetation with help of sticky threads. After 9-10 days, the nutrition in the yolk-sack is consumed. The fry, which now is about 0.4 inches long, begins hunting on swimming plankton crayfish. Already from the beginning the pike uses its special hunting technique - hiding in the vegetation to wait for suitable prey to pass by.

Later on, the pike fry begins to catch insect larvae, and when it is 0.8 -1.2 inches long, it also begins to eat other fish fry. When it reaches 1.2 inches in length, the fry spread out along the shore. During the late summer when the pike fry has become 4 inches long or greater it lives nearly exclusively on fish.

The pike's nutrition varies from watercourse to watercourse, and also with the fish's size. In lakes pike eat small fish in addition to large, so when fishing in waters where one knows that there are large pike, it can pay off to use large lures - likely 20-25 grams.

Among the many features which demonstrates the pike is an effective predator, is the fact it has an extremely elastic stomach. It can be stretched out to nearly twice its normal size, while the circumference can increase to more than the double. A full pike stomach can be stretched until the skin is transparent, so one can see what it has eaten without cutting it open.

According to English experiments, an 8 -12 inch long pike needs a nutrition amount (fish) of 3.4 grams to gain 1 gram of weight. That means the food coefficient is 3.4. Food coefficient is the number of weight units that must be eaten for the fish to put on one corresponding weight unit. It has been concluded that pike under 2.2 lbs have a food coefficient of 10, while pike weighing more (depending on what kind of prey fish is available) it likely eats different kinds of roach fish and any other edible fish.

No matter what body of water a pike lives, they can also eat other pike. Studies that have examined a pike's stomach have found that 5-6% of its nutrition could be from other pike. It also happens that a pike may snatch a duckling or other swimming young birds, as well as water-rats and frogs.

In some cases it is proven that a pike will eat crayfish, possibly because there is a shortage of other suitable fish. One common denominator which seems to be the case in the bodies of water a pike would live, is that the pike will mainly eat whichever fish species is most plentiful.

The fish which pike prey on can vary in size. Small pike likely catch fish which are in proportion to the pike's own size.

It's a fact that big than 11 lbs have a food coefficient of 30. It is clear that the food coefficient must be higher in cold water than warmer water. Therefore there has to be a certain difference when it comes to pike's need for food in Canada vs. England. On the other hand, there are studies that indicate a pike's food coefficient never exceeds 30.

It reasons to believe that small pike under Canadian conditions need 4-7 grams of food to gain 1 gram of weight, while larger pike need 8-12 grams. Small pike transform the food they consume to pike meat significantly more efficiently than large pike.

With small pike, approx. 70% of the nutrition goes to growth, but with large pike, it's only approx. 20%. Small pike, therefore, use less energy for movement, breathing and other functions that are necessary to live.

Spawning and the preparations for spawning also demands a lot of energy.

In relation to other fish it shows that the pike make use of nutrition rather effectively. Something that contributes to this is that pike move relatively little amounts and one can see that demonstrated by the pike's hunting technique, which consumes very little energy.

In many places the pike is a very valuable fish because it transforms a lot of less edible fish to first class fish meat.

The food coefficient also shows that it is uneconomic to feed large pike if one wants to have the greatest possible return in fish meat. If pike are caught when they are 1.1 -2.2 lbs even when larger pike live in the water, one will have significantly larger return in pounds of fish than if the pike get the opportunity to grow a lot bigger.

When it comes to inland fishing, however, it's not just a question of how many pounds one gets in return. The watercourse's value has to be measured for what significance it has for sport fishing. If the possibility to catch really big fish is something that matters it increases the value of a body of water.

Harald Hoel, expert of pike fishing.

Why Target Monster Pike? By Mark Jenner

Back in the Sixteenth Century famous angling author Izaak Walton was describing the pike as a fresh-water wolf! The predator has been blamed for many stories of lost dogs, lost livestock and even lost people! It adds to the mystery of this fearsome predator and provides the attraction to the hunter.

It is Britain's biggest native freshwater fish and ranks also as one of North America's leading quarry. Catching the big one needs stronger rods, larger nets and clever tactics. Holding up this heavy beast for the camera makes the hunt worthwhile. Taking the hooks from the pike's mouth require strong equipment and a stronger nerve. A slip of the hand can result in deep and painful wounds that are easily infected. Many pike fisherman use a steel gauntlet of the type worn by knights of old, such is the danger when unhooking this fearsome beast.

But it is this fear and respect that attracts us to angling for pike. I think back to my last visit to the canal, where it joins the river not far from where I live. It was close to dawn when I left my house, cold and very still. There was no frost but the mist was thick. When I got to the water I found a good spot that would allow me to cast upstream almost to the canal lock where there was a deep pool and also downstream to the far bank around thirty yards away.

I wandered along the bank peering through the gloom hoping to see signs of active pike. The surface of the canal was like a glassy mirror, broken only by the sporadic splash or ripple as a bait fish darted here and there. Something was feeding! Seeing the water like this urges you on, you want to make haste and present your baits to the unseen foe. This desire to challenge and best the majestic fish is what makes us want to seek out bigger and stronger pike.

I quickly tackled up, attaching a still frozen half herring dead-bait to my treble hooked trace. Casting upstream about twenty five yards to the spot where I was walking just minutes earlier, I could just see the splash as the bait hit the water. I thought the line would follow the bait as it sank but something seemed odd. Puzzled, I lifted the rod to take in the slack, only the feel the line go taught. I struck quickly and sure enough, a fish was on and I realized that it did not want to be simply drawn towards the net. After three strong runs including a worrying spell downstream I drew the monster pike over the lip of my oversized landing net. This was my best pike, at just over twenty pounds. Not really a monster maybe, but a success for me. There are reports of thirty pound plus fish at the same venue, and it is this that will lure me back for more!

Mark Jenner is an angling writer who lives in the North of England. He writes blogs that look at detailed aspects of sport fishing including pike fishing tackle and carp tackle

Winter Pike Fishing Begins

Here we go, the weather has finally turned and its time to start pike fishing. Met up with my old mate Mick for a trip to the tackle shop. A couple of new semi-barbless traces later, and we're off to the fish monger; 5 herring, 5 sardines and a handful of spratts (just encase we need to scale down). These, along with the roach deadbaits from the tackle shop, should be plenty for a days pike fishing.
The venue is the Ringstead Complex in Northants on the WDNAC. The complex gives us plenty of options as it comprises of a backbrook, main river Nene, a lock cut and 2 large lakes. What ever conditions your faced with on arrival, there is always somewhere suitable to fish.

Well, thats all for now, weather doesn't look great for Saturday(wet and windy, 12-14*C)

We'll let you know how we get on.........