Feature Article
Jon Neafcy
Without a doubt the single most important aspect in pike fishing has to be locating the venues that hold big pike & then locating the pike in them, Jon Neafcy explains why in the long haul to catch any number of decent pike consistently that there are no short-cuts to success
Into
It stands to reason & indeed its common sense that the single most important factor in pike fishing has to be location, location location! The simple fact is that in order to be in with a chance of catching large pike that you need to be fishing waters that contain them. Furthermore to consistently catch any number of large pike (excluding a large amount of repeat captures) then you either have to be fishing a venue with a decent head of large pike or several different venues each containing a reasonable stock of decent pike. The best gear in then world the best rigs & freshest bait won’t catch you big pike if they are not in the waters that you fish.
Having selected a venue containing a few nice pike there is a bit more to locating where the pike are in the venue than just chucking a couple of baits or lures about willy-nilly. I will share with you some of my own theory & experiences on the subject.
Results
Sure if you are fishing a reasonable venue you may be able to catch the odd fish just by slinging a Mackerel out in any direction, but with a little more effort on location you could turn that one run into many more. Most experienced anglers will recall a day or days fishing where adjacent anglers have had two very different days fishing one bagging up & the other blanking using similar approaches indeed it could be as if they were fishing two completely different venues. If the fish are not in the area where you are casting then you wont catch them its as simple as that, sue at some point the fish may enter your swim but then again they may not.
The best of pike anglers on a water containing very few decent pike with the best tackle & tactics cannot hope to do as well as they may do on a good water containing a number of large pike. Indeed the less experienced angler fishing the better water could well do better than the experienced guy fishing the poorer water.
So above all else & before we decide upon which swims to fish & the exacts of how to fish venue selection is of paramount importance.
Local Scene
A long time ago I moved on from spending the majority of my pike fishing time near to home to spending the majority of my pike fishing time further afield, quite simply because there are not too many great pike waters where I live in Wigan. If there are only a few decent doubles in the water that you are fishing then at most that is all that you will catch, on some waters you may be catching the same fish as your mates or having any number of repeat captures. A water with only a few decent pike in that gets pike fished a lot the pike are likely to be difficult to catch & I think in my earlier years fishing hard venues near to home embedded the importance of location & secondary tactics employed to me, firstly I didn’t expect too much from the waters in the local area but secondly I found out the importance of where I put my baits & how I presented them to maximise my chances of catching sometimes the knowledge amassed giving the angler an edge over the less experienced when the chips are down. Now for the occasional pike angler or those who aren’t able to travel far or have very little fishing time due to other commitments to be in with a chance of catching one of a few nice doubles in a water near to home may be OK, however if you want to be in with a chance of a better quality of fishing then you have to be more selective where you fish. Just worth a mention here though that comparatively to me personally a 20+ from a prolific water is no better an achievement than a decent double from one of my local waters - where an upper double is still a big fish. The opportunities to grow & expand knowledge & skill in my own fishing were no longer apparent locally so I moved on. Knowing when you had had the best out of water or area & when to move on is also one of the keystone pieces of the location game.
Great Expectations
It makes sense to target the type of water that contains the type of fish you are realistically aiming to catch, that may be good doubles water if you have set yourself a target of catching so many doubles in a season or it may be a water with a low density of pike but of high average weight as you are going all out to crack your P.B. As I have explained to newcomers to the sport don’t go expecting to catch a big pike on your first visit to a venue, like most things that are worthwhile to consistently catch a number of good sized pike then you have to work at it putting in the hard work and effort taking the blanks that may come your way in your stead. Most of my fishing with few exceptions has been done the hard way learning various water types until reasonable results came, such results I feel justify & reward the hard work & effort through experience gained. People who have been at the sport for years invariably won’t give away all their secrets, indeed why should they however sometimes those who have done well may give handy hints & tips or suggestions, clues as to which piece of the jigsaw goes where rather than giving away the whole puzzle & these little gems often help others to improve their fishing.
Location
In essence there are 3 steps to pike location, firstly locating a venue that holds the quality/number/size of fish that we are looking to catch, 2 finding the key areas on the venue where the fish are likely to frequent & thirdly finding the area/s on the day in question where the fish are & where they are feeding – location, location, location!
So for step one how do we select our waters, simple answer carefully! , Some may be lucky enough to live in areas where there are many good pike waters near by, others may have to search them out. There are several ploys that no doubt many of us use to locate the waters we fish, I will briefly describe a few.
Pioneer – The pioneering approach of searching out a new or forgotten venue, the first on may be likely to bag up. This has worked for me before but I’ve also had my fair share of waters that turned out not to be worth the effort. This approach is very rewarding & gives you a sense of achievement.
Privileged Access Events – Booking onto every privilege access even that you can get on with the PAC, PAAS & the trout waters that open their doors each winter can no doubt be a good ploy to catch some good pike. Someone somewhere has done the homework for you & come up with a good venue or obtained access to a known water. However don’t go expecting to catch a monster pike on the first trip, you may do but invariably you have to put the effort in & you only get out of it what you put in, the fishing can be hard amongst stiff competition. I occasionally book onto some of these events but they are not the main proportion of my fishing.
Angling Press – Keep a watchful eye on the comics, sorry I mean weeklies & the monthly’s, sometimes people name the venues (not many) – however the venue may get packed out after that, so personally I don’t name venues in this way as it can see the water getting too much pressure. Some articles may disclose the authors chosen approach to fishing certain water types or a certain method which it pays to keep an open mind to. You may get subtle hints of where the fish are coming from or of the general geographical area that the fish are from, you may even recognise the area from a photo it its not had the background changed. However tread carefully some people deliberately mislead others as to where they are actually catching their big fish, indeed this is a ploy that my late uncle often used to protect his fishing sending others on wild goose chases. These publications may also contain other good sources of information including match results.
Do your homework – This can range from contacting local tackle shops near to venues, contacting clubs who control the venue, research on the internet etc. one of the best of these ways is to go for a walk around the venue if the geographical location in proximity to where you live & physical size of the venue permit this before you fish. Some anglers on the bank will tell you what they are catching & others wont & others are just bullshitters. During the walk round you can look for potential areas to fish, signs of prey fish etc.
Networking – Networking with other like minders anglers pooling knowledge for mutual gain, however as I’ve said before beware of those who have nothing to bring to the table to return the favour or those who only take information & never give it.
Clubs – Joining a club such as the PAC or the PAAS can reap its rewards, many regions arrange their own club outings (such as the region of the PAC that I am R/O for where we will be having monthly club outings in the winter)
So step one has to be selecting the right water to fish, having completed step one having now selected a couple or a few decent venues that contain what we are looking for how do we located them within the water? If you are extremely lucky then you may find a very small water that contains a number of good pike where you can cast to them from the first peg off the car park however I cant think of any examples where I have found this to be the case personally. On many waters I have fished the most popular swims are often ones those right next to a car parking location, now is that always because it’s a good fishing spot or is it sometimes just human nature to take the easy option?
Location location
So what are we looking for? Is it just a case of finding one likely looking area & sitting it out waiting for the fish to come to us? Or should we do the opposite & fish as many areas as we can? Both of these approaches may or could catch you fish & if time is no object to you then could do OK with both approaches, however they both have their drawbacks – firstly sitting it out, what if the fish aren’t there? Secondly how much time will you waste fishing un-productive areas if you just set off in a hap-hazard manner fishing any & every area of the venue until you find the fish? If like me fishing time is precious to you then there is more that you can do to stack the odds more in your favour by selecting a number of likely looking areas & fishing these, if you are fishing with a mate together you may be able to pool knowledge & get to know the venue quicker, however there is the equation now of 2 anglers fishing & still the same amount of fish in the venue.
At first light prey fish can often be seen topping, this classic can be a good indicator of where to try. Match results or walking round & seeing where the lads fishing for the silver fish are catching can be another good tactic. Most anglers will know that points, stream inlets & islands etc. can be good spots to fish from the bank (or boats). Other areas that provide cover such as bays, reedbeds, moored boats etc can all be worth a try. An obvious feature on one drain that I fish is its confluence with another watercourse & this can be a prolific hotspot to fish. Other areas that have man made features can be good areas, dam walls, pump houses, valve towers & the like. All of these features can be seen above the water line from the bank with little effort & so can tend to be popular places to fish.
At certain times of year we may know (or think we know) where its best to fish such as the boat dyke on a broad lands river or a deeper area on a large pit in the depths of winter or fishing the shallows on many venues at the back end of the season & often these areas produce the fish.
However on many venues there are more interesting underwater features that cannot be seen above the water line & can take a little more effort to suss out but the rewards are there to be reaped by those who take the time, trouble & effort to do so.
On some venues that I can think off there are amounts of underwater features that attract the fish, these vary in type & amount from venue to venue. Some in my experience only attract fish at certain times or in certain conditions where as others there is a reasonable chance of catching in that area on a regular basis.
Ploys & approaches to try, some examples – another classic approach on drains for example it can be a good tactic to employ leap-frog tactics to find the fish, in a boat it can be a good ploy to move every hour or so. Combine this with where you start off or where you move to, as opposed to hap-hazard & you could be onto a winner. For example starting off near to features such as a lone tree or a bridge or other man made structure may bring the results, in a boat fishing drop-offs & other features can produce the goods, perhaps giving these ‘feature areas’ a little longer is the order of the day. There are venues that have very little in the way of features, or their may be more subtle underwater features & you may have to move around a lot or work to suss out subtle underwater features to find the fish. When bank fishing a large pit you may want to suss out a few likely areas & try a different one each visit or travel light & fish more than one spot in a day to give you a feel for the place, the key being to find some likely areas & concentrate on these.
Tools of the Trade
From a boat its wise to use a fish-finder as most people do, I tend to use this more for locating features than I do for locating features & the cheaper models may not be that effective at locating fish anyway. Fishing from the bank many years ago I used to plumb the depth with rod float & line often making a mental note, a diary note or in some cases even a basic depth map of the venue for future reference. Nowadays I tend to use the smart-cast wireless fish finder when fishing from the bank, these are very quick & easy to use & have often sorted out likely looking spots quickly & easily for me. The drawback if you can call it that is their range, I use the one that has a base station rather than the rod or wrist mounted version as the one with the base station has a greater range. Conversion kits are available to extend the range on these set ups but I haven’t looked into that yet. On the odd occasion that I use a bait-boat mine has a built in Echo-sounder giving my a good indication of the depth & if anything is underneath the boat, other models of bait boat are available with all signing all dancing fish finders but they come at a price. As regular readers will know I have purchased a small carryable boat, this can also be used to map out a venue before fishing in effect hopefully maximising catch potential during my fishing time. Making a diary note of where you caught, when & the conditions is worth-while for future reference using the good old diary to link together the key factors of the results of you fishing exploits to assist you in where to fish when.. You could you a PC programme to chart or database this information if you want although I don’t go that far myself. Markers are another useful bit of kit, to mark up features especially if you intend to return to an area again later of the next day, however on the more popular venues they may give the game away to others where your fish have come from & I once even had a H block marker stolen & as no one others than anglers were out on the water it could have only been stolen by a fellow angler which I think is pretty pathetic really.
Location, location location
So we have selected our water & found some reasonably likely looking areas, is that it then have we cracked it? Or is there still a little more work to do? On some of the large venues I have fished there are many, many underwater features, many drop offs, many deep holes etc. etc. & it is sometimes only by putting in the hard work & effort that you get to recognise which ones of these produce the goods on the venue & when they produce. On some venues I fish there are a couple of good areas to fish when its milder but you wont catch fish in said areas in the depths of winter. There are other areas that have a couple or even a few features & a range of depths surrounding them where they can be a reasonable bet at most times & in a variety of conditions. A few venues I have fished for several seasons I know which areas will produce the fish at certain times of the year or during certain conditions & others that will produce the goods time & time again. Not every single feature will produce fish & if you can find a feature with prey fish in the area then you could be onto a good thing at the time, the spot in effect providing a good ambush spot for the pike & a full dinner table for them.
On some venues it may be the same areas that produce fish time & time again, with some seasonal variation. I have seen anglers in a current ‘hot swim’ fail to catch or struggle because although they knew the area produced fish (through seeing others catch) they didn’t place their baits in the key area of the swim, on more than one occasion I have moved into such an area after another angler has left & I have caught. On some more pressured waters fish may move because of angling pressure, on the larger glacial lakes there may be but a few areas that produce fish on any one given day, use the experience & knowledge that you build up to your advantage to maximise your chances of having a good day. My mate Andy Cooke has a bit of a hap-hazard approach a bit like a kid in a sweet shop wanting to try every possible area he can & if time was no object they we could fish in this way in a very laid back manner, on a new venue this can pay off if you find the fish, however as I’ve said you could waste a lot of time fishing unproductive areas until you find the fish, personally I prefer to be a little more selective & to spend a little time finding likely looking areas rather than going in at the deep end with all guns blazing, a little time selecting a number of likely areas will be well spent. Once you get to know the venue a picture or pattern may emerge where certain areas produce the goods time & time again or at certain times or in certain conditions (taking into account/linked into local conditions/seasonal variations) so it can sometimes pay to concentrate on these ‘hot-spots’ when you find them in effect reaping the rewards of the effort that you have put in to find them in the first place for not every area of a large venue is likely to fish so good.
The margins themselves can be an under fished feature on some venues & it can pay to fish a bait close in, this worked for me & mate Paul Houghton recently we used this tactic on a large pit when the venue was failing to produce the goods, we both caught by fishing baits very close in me taking a scraper double & Paul taking a nice 15.5. More on fishing the margins in a future article.
There is no substitute for getting out their & fishing & finding the fish yourself. I can think of venues where there are drop-offs next to streams that often attract prey fish & hence are good pike swims, however sometimes the feature/s producing the good fish may be more subtle & I can think of examples where this has been the case bringing the rewards for those who have sought these areas out whilst others who have put in lass effort may not do as well.
When it comes right
On a fishing trip to a reasonable sized glacial lake a venue that I know quite well, there are two areas that consistently produce pike in the colder of the winter months. The first is a good walk to the far side of the venue fishing from a point with a drop off into a small deep hole, an obvious but well fished spot for those who can handle the walk. The second area is on the near bank casting to a slightly deeper area that I have previously found during the course of my explorations, in both these areas of features where you will sometimes get run after run yet a bait slightly miscast or not in these areas is likely to be ignored as occurred on this occasion. During a day & a half’s fishing we had some reasonable sport & fishing the features I took some nice doubles, two of which came from rods fished to the slightly deeper area at the same time. Two nice doubles were literally caught at the same time, my mate netted the first one whilst I hand landed the second one. This is not the first time that I have had two good fish literally at once fishing features – both obvious & the more subtle ones & no doubt others will have had similar experiences.
On a trip to Scotland we spent some time searching out likely looking areas of the venue we were fishing & in my own mind I’d narrowed it down to several potential areas as we would not have enough time with one trip to fish the whole of the large loch, where as Andy Cooke would have liked to go for the kid in the sweet shop approach fishing from the off in a hap hazard way anywhere all around the loch which in my opinion maybe wasting precious time that we didn’t have in some unproductive areas & not really giving each decent area enough time to do them justice. Fishing from one boat together we both managed runs in all of the several carefully selected spots out taking fish to double figures, all of the areas selected contained some prey fish & likely looking features. At the end of the second day we were fishing one of the spots picked out a drop off from the shallows into deeper water & I was fortunate enough to find a small, narrow level area laying in-between the deep drop-off & the shallows. This was a very narrow band & fishing from a boat you could only really get one rod in the area. We fished this area at the end of the second day of the trip with me having my rod in what was to be the ‘hot spot’ (on the small narrow level area between the drop off & the shallows) again taking fish to double figures whilst my other rod cast off the back of the boat which I moved around on the drop off & into the deeper water went runless, fishing from the boat with Andy Cooke he took one pike to the side shallow side of the hotspot. The next day we again spent some time in the ‘hot’ area this time with both Andy’s rods moved closer towards but not on the exact area of the ‘hot spot’ where most of my fish had come from, my own rod in that one small area doing the business again & me taking pike upto 26.8. Again my other rod went untouched, again Andy managed one fish in the area just to the side of the hotspot. The final day we only had a few hours in the morning to fish, we both knew where we were heading for - Andy absolutely insisted that it would be his rod fishing the ‘hot’ area today & not mine & so it was that my rod was cast slightly out of the area & Andy’s rod took pole position. That last morning the one rod of Andy’s in the hotspot got 4 runs, he managed 2 pike best going 16. His other rod remained runless as did my two. I figure that this was a decent area because the pike were using it as an ambush point either down into the deep water or up into the shallows or just lying in wait as the prey fish moved from deep to shallow or visa versa at the time of our trip. We did fish other areas of the loch & caught fish but on the days of our trip that small area mentioned was the hotspot, had I just turned up & chucked out a couple of baits would I have had the 26, I doubt it? If we had just used the hap hazard approach would we have ever found reached or fished that spot? I doubt it. If we get another go at that venue the hot area may well have changed but using the methods & tactics described then we may just be lucky enough to find another one.
Conclusion
Without a doubt locating the fish it the number one key to successful pike angling get this right & combine it with successful methods & tactics & your sure to be onto a winner. There is a balance to be struck between sitting it one in one area all day for a run & fishing as many areas as you possibly can, for me picking several likely areas often linked to prey fish location & features has worked well for me. So next time you decide where your going fishing be sure to make the right choice & think before you just cast out a couple of baits.
Tight lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
R/O Region 31 PAC South Lancashire
Thursday, 13 December 2007
as one door closes
As one door closes another door opens?!
It is with mixed feelings that I write this my last piece in the Wakefield Region newsletter, I have very fond memories of my all too short time with the region & consider you all to be my friends. You have restored my faith in PAC regions, my last encounter with the regional scene was some 15 years ago, which was a bitter sweet experience, however that was a different region in the distant past. Life changes & I now find myself spending more time nearer to home (Wigan ‘over t hill’), this means that I will no longer be able to make my frequent visits to the Wakefield region & I would no longer be able to give the input to the club that I would like to. An opportunity has arisen for me to resurrect an old PAC region, region 31, the one that I was first a member of as a junior member. So I will be becoming an R/O!
There is currently no active PAC region in the Wigan area & the area has been much in need of a PAC region for too long. Some match clubs still kill pike en-masse & pike welfare by those who fish for them can leave a lot to be desired. I have agreed with Pete & Mick to have a ‘Cross Pennines’ outing (South Lancs. ‘V’ Wakefield) & I will provide a trophy for this, I would like to see this become an annual event & would like to foster a link between the two regions for mutual benefit.
I look forward to picking the 2006 trophies at the September meeting, which will be a last as a Wakey member for me. I have made an entry for the Wakey club awards (2007-2008) as it was a fish I caught back in April, it’s a 23.7, caught on a lure, I was particularly proud of this fish as it was from Coniston & anyone who fishes there will know that whilst it’s a good doubles water 20+ fish are VERY rare on their & what few that are caught tend to be scraper 20’s, so I guess that gives you lads something to aim for with biggest fish & best lure caught fish. It really has been a pleasure knowing & fishing with each & everyone of you lads, you are all a credit to the good name of the PAC. It is more of a ‘see you soon mucker’ rather than a goodbye as I will be doing a slideshow for you in February, a few of the lads have asked me about fishing in the Lake district & North Wales so I will include some slides to cover that for you as well as lots of other stuff. If any of you lads are venturing to these areas then you are welcome to get in touch & have a trip with me no problem at all.
I have as always been out there fishing hard (although not as much as I would like), doing two boats up since March a 14ft high sided dell-quay dory & a Shetland 498 cabin boat & arranging my immanent house move have taken up most of my time over the last 6 months. I’ve also just started another project namely refurbishing two old fibreglass rods, a couple of 25+ year old North-Western blanks an SS6 & a SC7, I’m going to refurbish these & put them back into service, I had my 1st 20+ pike on an SS6 I built myself when I was 13, I also had a SC7 again a home made job & I took pike to 18 ½ on that so it will be a bit of nostalgia for my using these classic rods!
I have been doing a bit of pioneering, mainly short sessions after work or a few hours here & there with the occasional full day or weekend thrown in & enduring some gruelling blanks, however I have had some good hard fighting summer pike from the waters from the Lake district to North-Wales, Wigan to Wakefield. I have done some articles in P&P which you may have read as well as a chapter in the PAC’s 30TH anniversary book PAC 30.
What a busy activity being an R/O for the PAC is a room to book for meetings & then there is getting a projector, arranging speakers, arranging club outings, obtaining trophies, someone has donated a club boat to me so I’ve had to do that up a bit & arrange insurance. I’ve already received calls from local lads in Wigan asking what the club can do about the problem of the polish eating the fish from local waters, a PAC member from Scotland is coming down to fish for carp & pike in my area & rang asking for advise, the local organiser of the NAC & ZAC has been in touch to see if the clubs can network for mutual benefit. Myself & Eric Edwards are holding an ‘introduction into pike angling’ for newcomers & juniors on a local water & that has taken a fair bit of organising. So I take my hat off to Pete, Mick & all the other R/O’s up & down the country for all their hard work & effort & think that quite often we can take the hard work & effort that goes on behind the scenes for granted.
Attached is a photo of the one to beat to wet you appetites for the season, I have also included a short summary of the summer lure event on the river hull.
Tight lines & a prosperous season for you all
Jon Neafcy
Living the dream!
Lure outing
River Hull
I was working the Saturday day & I rushed down after work, I called in at Hornsea Mere on the way to check that out & I will have a day there sometime. Anyway I managed to find the venue despite Pete’s directions! (No chance of that job with Ordinance Survey for you then Pete!) joking aside I enjoyed the event. It was a nice to fish with you all again & it was a nice evening for it. All manner of creatures were used to thrash the water with foam, however we were lacking a lure expert (where was Mick?) & the cunning Essox in the river preferred to eat the shoals of roach that were evident rather than chomp on a piece of wood or plastic & who can blame them! Myself & Pete had a few casts for a decent pike that had gone into the back drain but sadly our efforts to catch it on our lures failed as it happily chomped on the roach shoaled up in the drain. Andy Naylor totally gave up with the lure fishing (a wise move on this occasion) preferring to free line a dead-bait under a weed bed & this cunning improvisation paid off with two hard fighting pike. The jury was out on if Andy should receive the trophy or not, but as no one else caught & I’m not too big on too many rules anyway I though he deserved it. So how’s that a man who won a lure trophy for 2 fish caught on dead baits! James wanted half the trophy though because Andy caught the fish on his Smelt & his wire trace! (I’d say Andy owes you for a packet of Smelt & a wire trace as well as a couple of pints mate). There were certainly pike about & the river does them to 30+ so they will be there for next time…………………………………………………………………………………..
It is with mixed feelings that I write this my last piece in the Wakefield Region newsletter, I have very fond memories of my all too short time with the region & consider you all to be my friends. You have restored my faith in PAC regions, my last encounter with the regional scene was some 15 years ago, which was a bitter sweet experience, however that was a different region in the distant past. Life changes & I now find myself spending more time nearer to home (Wigan ‘over t hill’), this means that I will no longer be able to make my frequent visits to the Wakefield region & I would no longer be able to give the input to the club that I would like to. An opportunity has arisen for me to resurrect an old PAC region, region 31, the one that I was first a member of as a junior member. So I will be becoming an R/O!
There is currently no active PAC region in the Wigan area & the area has been much in need of a PAC region for too long. Some match clubs still kill pike en-masse & pike welfare by those who fish for them can leave a lot to be desired. I have agreed with Pete & Mick to have a ‘Cross Pennines’ outing (South Lancs. ‘V’ Wakefield) & I will provide a trophy for this, I would like to see this become an annual event & would like to foster a link between the two regions for mutual benefit.
I look forward to picking the 2006 trophies at the September meeting, which will be a last as a Wakey member for me. I have made an entry for the Wakey club awards (2007-2008) as it was a fish I caught back in April, it’s a 23.7, caught on a lure, I was particularly proud of this fish as it was from Coniston & anyone who fishes there will know that whilst it’s a good doubles water 20+ fish are VERY rare on their & what few that are caught tend to be scraper 20’s, so I guess that gives you lads something to aim for with biggest fish & best lure caught fish. It really has been a pleasure knowing & fishing with each & everyone of you lads, you are all a credit to the good name of the PAC. It is more of a ‘see you soon mucker’ rather than a goodbye as I will be doing a slideshow for you in February, a few of the lads have asked me about fishing in the Lake district & North Wales so I will include some slides to cover that for you as well as lots of other stuff. If any of you lads are venturing to these areas then you are welcome to get in touch & have a trip with me no problem at all.
I have as always been out there fishing hard (although not as much as I would like), doing two boats up since March a 14ft high sided dell-quay dory & a Shetland 498 cabin boat & arranging my immanent house move have taken up most of my time over the last 6 months. I’ve also just started another project namely refurbishing two old fibreglass rods, a couple of 25+ year old North-Western blanks an SS6 & a SC7, I’m going to refurbish these & put them back into service, I had my 1st 20+ pike on an SS6 I built myself when I was 13, I also had a SC7 again a home made job & I took pike to 18 ½ on that so it will be a bit of nostalgia for my using these classic rods!
I have been doing a bit of pioneering, mainly short sessions after work or a few hours here & there with the occasional full day or weekend thrown in & enduring some gruelling blanks, however I have had some good hard fighting summer pike from the waters from the Lake district to North-Wales, Wigan to Wakefield. I have done some articles in P&P which you may have read as well as a chapter in the PAC’s 30TH anniversary book PAC 30.
What a busy activity being an R/O for the PAC is a room to book for meetings & then there is getting a projector, arranging speakers, arranging club outings, obtaining trophies, someone has donated a club boat to me so I’ve had to do that up a bit & arrange insurance. I’ve already received calls from local lads in Wigan asking what the club can do about the problem of the polish eating the fish from local waters, a PAC member from Scotland is coming down to fish for carp & pike in my area & rang asking for advise, the local organiser of the NAC & ZAC has been in touch to see if the clubs can network for mutual benefit. Myself & Eric Edwards are holding an ‘introduction into pike angling’ for newcomers & juniors on a local water & that has taken a fair bit of organising. So I take my hat off to Pete, Mick & all the other R/O’s up & down the country for all their hard work & effort & think that quite often we can take the hard work & effort that goes on behind the scenes for granted.
Attached is a photo of the one to beat to wet you appetites for the season, I have also included a short summary of the summer lure event on the river hull.
Tight lines & a prosperous season for you all
Jon Neafcy
Living the dream!
Lure outing
River Hull
I was working the Saturday day & I rushed down after work, I called in at Hornsea Mere on the way to check that out & I will have a day there sometime. Anyway I managed to find the venue despite Pete’s directions! (No chance of that job with Ordinance Survey for you then Pete!) joking aside I enjoyed the event. It was a nice to fish with you all again & it was a nice evening for it. All manner of creatures were used to thrash the water with foam, however we were lacking a lure expert (where was Mick?) & the cunning Essox in the river preferred to eat the shoals of roach that were evident rather than chomp on a piece of wood or plastic & who can blame them! Myself & Pete had a few casts for a decent pike that had gone into the back drain but sadly our efforts to catch it on our lures failed as it happily chomped on the roach shoaled up in the drain. Andy Naylor totally gave up with the lure fishing (a wise move on this occasion) preferring to free line a dead-bait under a weed bed & this cunning improvisation paid off with two hard fighting pike. The jury was out on if Andy should receive the trophy or not, but as no one else caught & I’m not too big on too many rules anyway I though he deserved it. So how’s that a man who won a lure trophy for 2 fish caught on dead baits! James wanted half the trophy though because Andy caught the fish on his Smelt & his wire trace! (I’d say Andy owes you for a packet of Smelt & a wire trace as well as a couple of pints mate). There were certainly pike about & the river does them to 30+ so they will be there for next time…………………………………………………………………………………..
Angling coaching
Angling Coaching
A fair bit of my job at work involves presenting training of one type or another so last year I took the plunge & took the first sport Angling Coaching level 1 qualification WADAA were kind enough to sponsor me for this training. I completed my training in the Lake District, made some new friends & useful contacts. There is a lot more to it than just the fishing as you can imagine including having to undergo Police vetting to work with kids, indeed angling coaching teaches you nothing about fishing its all health & safety, child protection, codes of conduct & the like. This year I have done a bit of coaching & a bit of guiding. In June along with other coaches from WADAA I attended the Jackie Charlton Disabled anglers federation event at Esthwaite water, acting as a ghillie/guide for two severely disabled fly fishermen from the North East, as I told WAADA manager Neil Birkshaw I don’t fly fish but they just wanted me to control the boat for them & take them to likely spots around the lake & do the safety bit. One lad was wheelchair bound & the other was a hunchback with a club foot so as you can imagine it was a bit of a challenge getting onboard one of the standard trout fishing boats. Both of these lads had to take numerous tablets whilst we were fishing. Sod’s law it was windy & cold for June & it also threw it down with rain (not ideal conditions for fly fishing from a boat), however never have I met two more good spirited anglers, mad keen who love their fishing, not once did they complain about the weather or anything, I know some able bodied anglers who would have been moaning most of the day about the wind & the rain. That day Esthwaite didn’t fish it was highly coloured due to all the rain & it contained a lot of algae, its certainly not the Eshtwaite that I knew of 20 years ago, however despite that the lads couldn’t thank me enough for the days fishing & I think that next time anyone is tempted to moan about conditions not being right on the day they are fishing or other such trivialities they should spare a though for these two lads who were an inspiration to us all. I am looking forward to (hopefully) completing my advanced angling coaching level 2 qualification in the near future if I can find a sponsor!
Eric Edwards contacted me about setting up a teach-in in the local area for juniors & newcomers to the sport. I thought this was a fantastic idea as it’s good to put something back into our sport & I think this is definitely a way to shape future attitudes to pike angling in the area. Eric went along to the St Helens AA meeting & obtained permission to use a section or Carmill Dam. Eric mithered fellow anglers to donate gear for the event & he was inundated with stuff which included about 9 rods & 6 reels, my thanks to all who gave (the rods & reels will be retained for future events). We nearly had a show stopped when the PAC said that the insurance would not cover the event, my coaching insurance said they wouldn’t cover it either & in the claims culture we live in I just couldn’t risk running the event without adequate 3rd party liability insurance, this was a bit of a nightmare to obtain many insurers just would not take the risk, one insurer quoted over £1000! But after a bit of negotiating & limiting the number of events I finally obtained it to cover 3rd party liability for club meetings, outings, events & the club boat for £190 + tax. Myself & Eric co-ordinated the event & Eric made up 25 pike packs for participants. We promoted the event on the internet, in local tackle shops via a flyer that I made up & event in the local press. I had to make up a safety briefing, lesson plan & risk assessment for the event all pre-requisites enforced on us angling coaches by the powers that be. Myself & Eric met up the week before to finalise our plans. Although there was a lot of interest in the event you can never be certain that any number (if anyone) will turn up to these events, or on the other-hand you could be over-run with attendees. The unknown variables including the weather could make or break the event. The weekend of the event arrived & late notice I also had the nod from the solicitor that me & my family were moving house that weekend, hectic to say the least. I put up posters around the event area informing others not to fish there whilst Eric was busy sorting all the tackle for the event. I returned home Saturday to complete my move, early to bed & up & down at Carmill for 8am. Eric was already there waiting as was one young lad who had peddled down on his pushbike with full kit! Eric was I think close to the point of being thrown in by two burly match-men, the area had been double-booked for us & a match! Anyhow we negotiated a compromise with the Match lads moving round & we all managed to stay dry.
We had several stewards & assistant coaches including James Dean, Dave Cottrial, K. Devlen, John Woods, K. March, N. Stubbs & Dennis Bird. The event was split into 4 sections to cover various methods – ledgered dead-bait & trace making, float-ledger, lure & drifting & paternoster, the event ran 10-2 this giving 4 of 1 hour slots of each method. We had 4 coaches & a steward to accompany each group with a couple of extra stewards to take photo's take the registration, now all we needed were some attendees. By 10 we had about 25 kids accompanied by parents & about 5 adult newcomers to piking & the show was well & truly on the road. It was a bit repetitive for the coaches going through the same subject with 4 different groups, but the feedback from the coaches & the stewards was that they all very much enjoyed it, the kids were very well behaved & no doubt some very keen young anglers amongst them. All the kids received one of the pike starter packs made up by Eric from the stuff that had been donated.
Overall the event was an astounding success, even the idiot in the speedboat couldn’t spoil it for us despite his best efforts, St. Helens AA have kindly left an open door to us for future events. My thanks to everyone who attended & to all those who gave gear for us to give away, without each & every one of you the event could not have succeeded. My special thanks to Eric Edwards for all his time & effort in co-ordinating the event with me. Sadly we never got chance to show unhooking a pike as we all blanked, well you cant have everything can you now!
A fair bit of my job at work involves presenting training of one type or another so last year I took the plunge & took the first sport Angling Coaching level 1 qualification WADAA were kind enough to sponsor me for this training. I completed my training in the Lake District, made some new friends & useful contacts. There is a lot more to it than just the fishing as you can imagine including having to undergo Police vetting to work with kids, indeed angling coaching teaches you nothing about fishing its all health & safety, child protection, codes of conduct & the like. This year I have done a bit of coaching & a bit of guiding. In June along with other coaches from WADAA I attended the Jackie Charlton Disabled anglers federation event at Esthwaite water, acting as a ghillie/guide for two severely disabled fly fishermen from the North East, as I told WAADA manager Neil Birkshaw I don’t fly fish but they just wanted me to control the boat for them & take them to likely spots around the lake & do the safety bit. One lad was wheelchair bound & the other was a hunchback with a club foot so as you can imagine it was a bit of a challenge getting onboard one of the standard trout fishing boats. Both of these lads had to take numerous tablets whilst we were fishing. Sod’s law it was windy & cold for June & it also threw it down with rain (not ideal conditions for fly fishing from a boat), however never have I met two more good spirited anglers, mad keen who love their fishing, not once did they complain about the weather or anything, I know some able bodied anglers who would have been moaning most of the day about the wind & the rain. That day Esthwaite didn’t fish it was highly coloured due to all the rain & it contained a lot of algae, its certainly not the Eshtwaite that I knew of 20 years ago, however despite that the lads couldn’t thank me enough for the days fishing & I think that next time anyone is tempted to moan about conditions not being right on the day they are fishing or other such trivialities they should spare a though for these two lads who were an inspiration to us all. I am looking forward to (hopefully) completing my advanced angling coaching level 2 qualification in the near future if I can find a sponsor!
Eric Edwards contacted me about setting up a teach-in in the local area for juniors & newcomers to the sport. I thought this was a fantastic idea as it’s good to put something back into our sport & I think this is definitely a way to shape future attitudes to pike angling in the area. Eric went along to the St Helens AA meeting & obtained permission to use a section or Carmill Dam. Eric mithered fellow anglers to donate gear for the event & he was inundated with stuff which included about 9 rods & 6 reels, my thanks to all who gave (the rods & reels will be retained for future events). We nearly had a show stopped when the PAC said that the insurance would not cover the event, my coaching insurance said they wouldn’t cover it either & in the claims culture we live in I just couldn’t risk running the event without adequate 3rd party liability insurance, this was a bit of a nightmare to obtain many insurers just would not take the risk, one insurer quoted over £1000! But after a bit of negotiating & limiting the number of events I finally obtained it to cover 3rd party liability for club meetings, outings, events & the club boat for £190 + tax. Myself & Eric co-ordinated the event & Eric made up 25 pike packs for participants. We promoted the event on the internet, in local tackle shops via a flyer that I made up & event in the local press. I had to make up a safety briefing, lesson plan & risk assessment for the event all pre-requisites enforced on us angling coaches by the powers that be. Myself & Eric met up the week before to finalise our plans. Although there was a lot of interest in the event you can never be certain that any number (if anyone) will turn up to these events, or on the other-hand you could be over-run with attendees. The unknown variables including the weather could make or break the event. The weekend of the event arrived & late notice I also had the nod from the solicitor that me & my family were moving house that weekend, hectic to say the least. I put up posters around the event area informing others not to fish there whilst Eric was busy sorting all the tackle for the event. I returned home Saturday to complete my move, early to bed & up & down at Carmill for 8am. Eric was already there waiting as was one young lad who had peddled down on his pushbike with full kit! Eric was I think close to the point of being thrown in by two burly match-men, the area had been double-booked for us & a match! Anyhow we negotiated a compromise with the Match lads moving round & we all managed to stay dry.
We had several stewards & assistant coaches including James Dean, Dave Cottrial, K. Devlen, John Woods, K. March, N. Stubbs & Dennis Bird. The event was split into 4 sections to cover various methods – ledgered dead-bait & trace making, float-ledger, lure & drifting & paternoster, the event ran 10-2 this giving 4 of 1 hour slots of each method. We had 4 coaches & a steward to accompany each group with a couple of extra stewards to take photo's take the registration, now all we needed were some attendees. By 10 we had about 25 kids accompanied by parents & about 5 adult newcomers to piking & the show was well & truly on the road. It was a bit repetitive for the coaches going through the same subject with 4 different groups, but the feedback from the coaches & the stewards was that they all very much enjoyed it, the kids were very well behaved & no doubt some very keen young anglers amongst them. All the kids received one of the pike starter packs made up by Eric from the stuff that had been donated.
Overall the event was an astounding success, even the idiot in the speedboat couldn’t spoil it for us despite his best efforts, St. Helens AA have kindly left an open door to us for future events. My thanks to everyone who attended & to all those who gave gear for us to give away, without each & every one of you the event could not have succeeded. My special thanks to Eric Edwards for all his time & effort in co-ordinating the event with me. Sadly we never got chance to show unhooking a pike as we all blanked, well you cant have everything can you now!
Avoiding sods law
Avoiding ‘Sod’s Law’
And they are off…………………. Traditionally the piking season runs the course of the winter months from October-March & many a piker confines their pike fishing to these 6 months of the year. In this article Jon Neafcy takes a timely look at preparing for the coming season suggesting that September may be the time to get your piking house in order to avoid sod’s law
Sod’s law as it is often referred to is as most of us are only too well aware is the unscientific principle that if things can go wrong then invariably they will do. Sod & his law have took their toll on most of us at some time & our fishing is often no exception to this. Just ask my mate Andy Cooke about the twist of fate that led to him losing a big pike at the net in Norfolk, a fish which would undoubtedly have been a new p.b. for him at the time. I myself have encountered sod & his law on numerous times, perhaps on more than my fair share of occasions such as in my quest for unfished waters, invariably just as I think I’ve found one another angler turns up or what about the time my outboard cut out & the pull-cord then snapped on my auxiliary engine & still at least we had a contingency plan namely the oars & we had to row the boat back. Sometimes I’ve been told by others ‘Neafcy if you didn’t have bad luck you would have no luck at all’! Are there however ways & means by which we can avoid sod & his law or at least reduce the odds of the likelihood of him striking, or is it merely all just that bad luck that we have to accept it regardless? With October being the traditional start of the piking season we want to do all we can to ensure a good winters piking, which may take a bit more than just a lucky talisman to avoid the pitfalls & sod & his law.
In contrast to Sod’s law I cast my mind back to fond memories of a time when it all went according to plan & the gods were for once in my favour, it was the first of October many years ago & I arrived at the venue before first light, as the rays of first light broke & the mist rose from the water everything was sorted, the baits went in, not too long after the float bobbed under & the line peeled from the spool, a swift strike was met with firm resistance, after a spirited fight a nice pike lay in the net, it was carefully unhooked & then weighed, a nice double, the first pike of the season & a double at that, a double whammy & a nice start to the piking season.
Does this nostalgic situation sound familiar to those of you who predominantly fish for pike during the traditional ‘season’ from Oct-March? October the 1st used to be like June 16th is on the rivers to me & no doubt it still is for many others, that sense of anticipation building upto that first trip & that first cast & ultimately the first pike of the season. The first pike of the season was always a special one regardless of its size Let’s think about that extract from my memory bank for a second & how different that situation could have been say if I had had a lie in, maybe someone else would have got the swim, maybe the fish were only feeding early morning & I would have missed the dawn feeding spell, if I’d left my old line on from last season would it have handled the fish?, if I hadn’t used fresh bait would I have got a run at all? That day could have ended so differently, it could indeed have been an anti-climax had it not been for the preparation that had got in before hand. If I’d blanked would poor old ‘Sod’ & his law have been blamed (again)?
Nowadays I only fish for pike, so I fish for them all year round. I have jokingly called my mate Andy Blunty, who only fishes for pike in the winter months a part time piker. When I used to be an all-round specimen hunter, traditionally for me September used to be the month where I used to get all my piking gear sorted, or put my ‘piking head’ on as others have referred to it as. So in this article I thought I’d cover looking forward & getting prepared for the winters piking campaign, for all those pikers who start their piking in October (or later) & try to avoid some of the common pitfalls that can be attributed to good old ‘Sod’ & his law. There are several waters that I know that can fish well early on in the season, maybe you know of similar venues yourself where good October sport can be had with the opportunity to get your winter’s piking campaign off to a flying start, so to make the most of it, it pays to be well prepared & ready.
I love it when a plan comes together!
Like the ‘A’ team I find that its always good to have a plan, often this requires a little time before your winter piking campaign begins. This ranges from re-search such as which venues to fish & how to fish them to arranging tackle, deciding on methods & approach, bait selection & obtaining your chosen supply, permits – cost/availability/rules, travel arrangements - going alone or with mates etc., you may also want to set yourself a target or a goal to achieve such as catching a certain number of doubles in a season or breaking your P.B. (although that’s very much a personal thing). As the old saying goes remember the 6 P’s ‘Prior, Preparation & Planning, Prevents Poor Performance’. So lets look at each one of these in turn to give us the best possible chance of ensuring a good start to our piking season.
Venue Selection
In my opinion the single most important factor, if the big pike are not in there then you can’t catch them (as has often been said before). Pick the waters that suit your own goals, this could be for example a good doubles water to hit your desired target in terms of a certain number of doubles caught or somewhere that you are prepared to sit out blank after blank in the quest for a real big girl if your quest is solely for a new p.b.. I find it’s always useful to have a back up venue just incase e.g. a Stillwater incase your favourite stretch of river is in flood. There may be waters from last or previous seasons that you are itching to get back on or you may seek pastures new. You may have gained information on pike potential during the summer months whilst fishing for other species, maybe you have fished a water during the summer that has good pike potential for the winter months. Maybe you fancy a change of venue type from stillwaters to a river, or maybe you want to try a venue from the ranks of piking history or legend that you want to have a go. If at all possible its always a good idea to walk the banks, making useful observations, talking to others whilst you are there. Ask about the venue at local tackle shops, get a decent Ordinance survey map of the area, sometimes you can get depth maps of venues (normally larger venues) online. Perhaps like I sometimes do you could use a pre-baiting campaign. Sometimes sending a Personal Message (PM) on one of the fishing forums such as P&P T.C.F. to an angler who knows the area you are looking to fish can get you some information, however it’s not the done thing to name venues in the public domain on these forums. Maybe the R/O of the local branch of the PAC can provide some help & information to you. When networking in this way remember to return the favour for those who help you where you can, don’t expect to get details of someone else’s favourite peg or where they caught their latest 20+ but just maybe you will get some good general information to steer you in the right direction. I find that it’s also good to be able to help others out such as keen newcomers to the sport, we all had to start somewhere – you may be able to help a less experienced piker improve their results on last season yourself without giving away any secrets. Keep an open mind but beware that sometimes people may try to lead you down a wrong track. I once re-visited a venue that I’d fished for roach many years before, returning to have a look at its piking potential. I was in the area as I’d been fishing another venue not too far away, two lads who looked like very keen pikers were fishing it, they told us it was not worth bothering with for pike as there were only one or two decent pike in. These lads really did try their absolute best to put us off fishing the venue, a little too much if you ask me, so the question was if it was as poor a venue as they portrayed it to be then why were they fishing it? Obviously we all do what we can to protect our own fishing, so fair play to these lads. I didn’t bother with the venue in question that season & those lads probably had it to themselves, however I returned to fish it another season & had a lot of good doubles from it. However in contrast information gained whilst fishing one venue can lead you to some good fishing elsewhere. I was once fishing alone on a venue & on a couple of occasions an old boy arrived & came over for a chat before setting up, he put me onto another water that led to quite a few good fish being caught, thanks old timer! However a cautionary word with information sharing, be selective & don’t just give information away willy-nilly, there are those who just want to take, take, take, OK I will get off the soapbox now then. Information gathering is great but there is no substitute for getting out there & fishing the venue yourself! Some venues don’t fish consistently throughout the season, for example a pressured water that I used to fish would fish best in the first few weeks of October as the first pikers started to arrive & then it would go quite, possibly due to angling pressure as hordes of pikers descended upon the venue. I have fished other venues where the bigger pike don’t tend come out in any number until it gets cold & others that seem to fish better back end of the season. If you can work these patterns out then you can often see yourself having consistently good sport throughout the winter months by chopping & changing between venues to suit the conditions & feeding patterns of the fish.
A subsection of venue selection has to be fishing rights & the rights of other water users. You need to establish if it’s a club water, members only, day ticket or free fishing. Are there any matches that may restrict your chosen fishing days? What are the rules & restrictions for the chosen venues? What of other water based activities? One reservoir I fish it’s pointless boat fishing at weekend until it gets really cold as it’s full of sailing & rowing boats & they can be a right nuisance, during reasonable weather conditions. A smaller venue I have fished is usually packed out during decent weather often by ‘fine weather anglers’, if you go there when it’s cold, raining & windy you are very likely to have the place to yourself & will still catch fish. For me the amount of pike angling pressure a water is likely to get is also another important factor of when (or if) I fish it.
Bait
Bait is an obvious essential, maybe you go sea fishing over the summer & catch your own to freeze up for dead-bait or maybe you like me buy it & freeze it. You may find that as October arrives dead-bait in the local tackle-shop may be sold out (not that I tend to use these) or your local fishmonger may not have adequate supplies of your favourite bait readily available. Far better in my book to get your order in early to ensure you can get what you want. I individually wrap all my baits in freezer bags & then put them in carrier bags by bait type, I have two chest freezers in my garage for my bait. Sometimes we obtain some natural baits over the summer & freeze them, however we are very careful not to take baits from waters where it would be of detriment to fish stocks. Sometimes I occasionally add oils or flavourings to my baits prior to freezing them. Obtaining bait as fresh as possible is important to me. Personally I don’t re-freeze bait which has de-frosted, left over from previous sessions to use as hook-bait again, instead I use these for pre-bait. I have a small telescopic pole & a telescopic rod for catching live-baits, these take up a minimum amount of room & are both lightweight. I use a decent quality cool box to keep baits nice & fresh (much better I find than a cool bag), for longer sessions I have a 12v cool box.
Artificials
Being a bit of a lure enthusiast October can be a good month for lures, I always check the hooks & ensure that they are nice & sharp, replacing them where necessary. Often I make up a small box of various lures to suit the venue I’m tackling. Combining lure fishing with bait fishing can bring bonus fish & sometimes the lure will ‘wake up’ the pike in the swim & you will get a take on the baits after the lure goes past them. You can also cover a fair bit of water lure fishing perhaps opting to chuck some baits in when you find the fish. Unlike my mate Andy Cooke I don’t really believe that every splash in the water attracts fish, (maybe that’s just Cookey’s excuse for constantly wading in the water & his constant re-casting of his baits! Ha ha). The warmer days may see the lures out fishing the baits as I have seen before. So we now have our chosen venues to go at & some bait/artificial options, so what next.
Tackle
It’s important to check your gear over, I have a basic check of my gear before each time I fish, however you could call this an annual inspection come service. Replace old line, make up new traces, change the batteries in your alarms & camera & carry some spare batteries just incase. Download all those old photos from your digital camera or buy a new memory card so that you have plenty capacity for the photos of all the big pike you are going to catch. Re-waterproofing you foul weather gear & your umbrella/shelter is a good idea. Check your waders & wellies aren’t leaking in, its never a good experience when they do. Check & ensure that you have all those bits & bobs that you need, swivels, leads & the like. Whilst transporting your gear ensure that your line does not become damaged, although I use a quiver style holdall instead of a full one, I use rod bands & rod tip protectors to protect the rod & line during transit. Each time I fish I check my terminal tackle & my line over, cutting off any damaged lengths. Carrying some spare line just incase is a good idea, I can remember on more than one occasion being ‘spooled’ by a passing boat! Replace anything that looks a bit suspect. Check your pike rods over, are there any flaws in the rings, are the reel seats secure etc., your piking reels do they need opening up & greasing or maybe even a service? Some of the smaller tackle shops may only stock up on pike terminal gear & the like in winter (if you ask they may get stuff in early for you), whilst in general there is likely to be increased demand in for all things pikey as October arrives, check earlier rather than later with who you buy from to ensure your requirements are met & that you get the trace material you want in your preferred breaking strain, the make model & size of your favourite hooks & the like. It’s disappointing & can affect your confidence if you have to settle for second best, it could also cost you some fish. Overall I find that its better to check everything even if your findings are that your gear is in good order & ready to go rather than to just presume, if you do just presume & if there is a defect then the gear could well let you down. If the gear lets you down, say you get snapped it affects pikes welfare, a trace left in a pike or a baited rig that snaps off could equal a dead pike.
Boat & Trailer
Many of these items are safety essentials for your own well being & that of others, not just whilst you are fishing but in the case of your trailer ensuring that you get there & back safely. Have a good general check of your trailer, in particular check, grease & replace if necessary trailer wheel bearings, check your suspension units, check wheels, tyres& spares are in good repair, ensure that you have a wheel brace that fits your trailer wheels (it may not be the same size as the one for your car). Some trailer centres offer a trailer service if you don’t want to mess about yourself. Ensure that your grease gun has a cartridge in it with plenty grease in it (you do carry one right?). It’s a good idea to have an annual service on your outboard & your auxiliary engine, you don’t want them to let you down (if you haven’t got an auxiliary engine you may want to consider getting one). Check that your leisure batteries for your electric motor etc are still charging correctly & holding a decent amount of charge, a battery meter is a useful tool. Check the boat over & carry out any little jobs that need doing. Renew any insurance policy/s & boat registration. Check that your anchor ropes are not overly worn. Check your life jacket out, do the gas cartridges need replacing? Check your fishfinder/gps over obviously you cant fully test it until you are out on the water, but as a minimum ensure that it still switches on, maybe run it in simulator mode, out don’t want that to let you down.
Other gear
If you own a bait boat or perhaps a wire-less fish finder are they in good order (are you sure!)? Do you have other specialist equipment that you haven’t used since last season? We all have those extra items that we like to use & I’m sure that you can add to my checklist with many other items of your own.
Organisation
Organisation can be one of the keys to successful piking & this is afterall what we want to achieve. Once you have everything you need then organise it so that you know where everything is to maximise the available fishing time that you have available to you. If your chosen venue involves a long walk then minimise your gear accordingly. If you intend doing a lot of boat fishing ensure your boat fishing bag/box is well organised. If you are going to be sitting it out for long periods of time, days on end ensure that you have all the creature comforts that you are likely to need to survive the elements. Consider when exactly are you going to fish, a couple of venues that I have fished you can only legally pike fish them at certain times of the year. Do you need to arrange to swap a shift or book a days holiday at work? Are there privileged access events that you are hoping to get on? Are there long haul piking trips you are going to go on with your mates? All of these are better off being organised sooner rather than later.
Other Activates
There is the annual PAC conference in September to look forward to, maybe buying a new pike fishing book to read or some bargain gear & not least listening the talks from a wealth of experienced anglers. Many of the PAC regions hold monthly meetings often with a slideshow & club outings during the winter months. I myself am starting a PAC region in South-Lancashire this winter, so I have been doing a lot of preparation for that, if you are from the area why not come along?
Conclusion
So there we have it a bit of an action plan to keep you busy during September if you are a winter only piker, whilst you are looking forward to your winter piking campaign. I wish you all a productive piking season…………………………………………………………………...
And they are off…………………. Traditionally the piking season runs the course of the winter months from October-March & many a piker confines their pike fishing to these 6 months of the year. In this article Jon Neafcy takes a timely look at preparing for the coming season suggesting that September may be the time to get your piking house in order to avoid sod’s law
Sod’s law as it is often referred to is as most of us are only too well aware is the unscientific principle that if things can go wrong then invariably they will do. Sod & his law have took their toll on most of us at some time & our fishing is often no exception to this. Just ask my mate Andy Cooke about the twist of fate that led to him losing a big pike at the net in Norfolk, a fish which would undoubtedly have been a new p.b. for him at the time. I myself have encountered sod & his law on numerous times, perhaps on more than my fair share of occasions such as in my quest for unfished waters, invariably just as I think I’ve found one another angler turns up or what about the time my outboard cut out & the pull-cord then snapped on my auxiliary engine & still at least we had a contingency plan namely the oars & we had to row the boat back. Sometimes I’ve been told by others ‘Neafcy if you didn’t have bad luck you would have no luck at all’! Are there however ways & means by which we can avoid sod & his law or at least reduce the odds of the likelihood of him striking, or is it merely all just that bad luck that we have to accept it regardless? With October being the traditional start of the piking season we want to do all we can to ensure a good winters piking, which may take a bit more than just a lucky talisman to avoid the pitfalls & sod & his law.
In contrast to Sod’s law I cast my mind back to fond memories of a time when it all went according to plan & the gods were for once in my favour, it was the first of October many years ago & I arrived at the venue before first light, as the rays of first light broke & the mist rose from the water everything was sorted, the baits went in, not too long after the float bobbed under & the line peeled from the spool, a swift strike was met with firm resistance, after a spirited fight a nice pike lay in the net, it was carefully unhooked & then weighed, a nice double, the first pike of the season & a double at that, a double whammy & a nice start to the piking season.
Does this nostalgic situation sound familiar to those of you who predominantly fish for pike during the traditional ‘season’ from Oct-March? October the 1st used to be like June 16th is on the rivers to me & no doubt it still is for many others, that sense of anticipation building upto that first trip & that first cast & ultimately the first pike of the season. The first pike of the season was always a special one regardless of its size Let’s think about that extract from my memory bank for a second & how different that situation could have been say if I had had a lie in, maybe someone else would have got the swim, maybe the fish were only feeding early morning & I would have missed the dawn feeding spell, if I’d left my old line on from last season would it have handled the fish?, if I hadn’t used fresh bait would I have got a run at all? That day could have ended so differently, it could indeed have been an anti-climax had it not been for the preparation that had got in before hand. If I’d blanked would poor old ‘Sod’ & his law have been blamed (again)?
Nowadays I only fish for pike, so I fish for them all year round. I have jokingly called my mate Andy Blunty, who only fishes for pike in the winter months a part time piker. When I used to be an all-round specimen hunter, traditionally for me September used to be the month where I used to get all my piking gear sorted, or put my ‘piking head’ on as others have referred to it as. So in this article I thought I’d cover looking forward & getting prepared for the winters piking campaign, for all those pikers who start their piking in October (or later) & try to avoid some of the common pitfalls that can be attributed to good old ‘Sod’ & his law. There are several waters that I know that can fish well early on in the season, maybe you know of similar venues yourself where good October sport can be had with the opportunity to get your winter’s piking campaign off to a flying start, so to make the most of it, it pays to be well prepared & ready.
I love it when a plan comes together!
Like the ‘A’ team I find that its always good to have a plan, often this requires a little time before your winter piking campaign begins. This ranges from re-search such as which venues to fish & how to fish them to arranging tackle, deciding on methods & approach, bait selection & obtaining your chosen supply, permits – cost/availability/rules, travel arrangements - going alone or with mates etc., you may also want to set yourself a target or a goal to achieve such as catching a certain number of doubles in a season or breaking your P.B. (although that’s very much a personal thing). As the old saying goes remember the 6 P’s ‘Prior, Preparation & Planning, Prevents Poor Performance’. So lets look at each one of these in turn to give us the best possible chance of ensuring a good start to our piking season.
Venue Selection
In my opinion the single most important factor, if the big pike are not in there then you can’t catch them (as has often been said before). Pick the waters that suit your own goals, this could be for example a good doubles water to hit your desired target in terms of a certain number of doubles caught or somewhere that you are prepared to sit out blank after blank in the quest for a real big girl if your quest is solely for a new p.b.. I find it’s always useful to have a back up venue just incase e.g. a Stillwater incase your favourite stretch of river is in flood. There may be waters from last or previous seasons that you are itching to get back on or you may seek pastures new. You may have gained information on pike potential during the summer months whilst fishing for other species, maybe you have fished a water during the summer that has good pike potential for the winter months. Maybe you fancy a change of venue type from stillwaters to a river, or maybe you want to try a venue from the ranks of piking history or legend that you want to have a go. If at all possible its always a good idea to walk the banks, making useful observations, talking to others whilst you are there. Ask about the venue at local tackle shops, get a decent Ordinance survey map of the area, sometimes you can get depth maps of venues (normally larger venues) online. Perhaps like I sometimes do you could use a pre-baiting campaign. Sometimes sending a Personal Message (PM) on one of the fishing forums such as P&P T.C.F. to an angler who knows the area you are looking to fish can get you some information, however it’s not the done thing to name venues in the public domain on these forums. Maybe the R/O of the local branch of the PAC can provide some help & information to you. When networking in this way remember to return the favour for those who help you where you can, don’t expect to get details of someone else’s favourite peg or where they caught their latest 20+ but just maybe you will get some good general information to steer you in the right direction. I find that it’s also good to be able to help others out such as keen newcomers to the sport, we all had to start somewhere – you may be able to help a less experienced piker improve their results on last season yourself without giving away any secrets. Keep an open mind but beware that sometimes people may try to lead you down a wrong track. I once re-visited a venue that I’d fished for roach many years before, returning to have a look at its piking potential. I was in the area as I’d been fishing another venue not too far away, two lads who looked like very keen pikers were fishing it, they told us it was not worth bothering with for pike as there were only one or two decent pike in. These lads really did try their absolute best to put us off fishing the venue, a little too much if you ask me, so the question was if it was as poor a venue as they portrayed it to be then why were they fishing it? Obviously we all do what we can to protect our own fishing, so fair play to these lads. I didn’t bother with the venue in question that season & those lads probably had it to themselves, however I returned to fish it another season & had a lot of good doubles from it. However in contrast information gained whilst fishing one venue can lead you to some good fishing elsewhere. I was once fishing alone on a venue & on a couple of occasions an old boy arrived & came over for a chat before setting up, he put me onto another water that led to quite a few good fish being caught, thanks old timer! However a cautionary word with information sharing, be selective & don’t just give information away willy-nilly, there are those who just want to take, take, take, OK I will get off the soapbox now then. Information gathering is great but there is no substitute for getting out there & fishing the venue yourself! Some venues don’t fish consistently throughout the season, for example a pressured water that I used to fish would fish best in the first few weeks of October as the first pikers started to arrive & then it would go quite, possibly due to angling pressure as hordes of pikers descended upon the venue. I have fished other venues where the bigger pike don’t tend come out in any number until it gets cold & others that seem to fish better back end of the season. If you can work these patterns out then you can often see yourself having consistently good sport throughout the winter months by chopping & changing between venues to suit the conditions & feeding patterns of the fish.
A subsection of venue selection has to be fishing rights & the rights of other water users. You need to establish if it’s a club water, members only, day ticket or free fishing. Are there any matches that may restrict your chosen fishing days? What are the rules & restrictions for the chosen venues? What of other water based activities? One reservoir I fish it’s pointless boat fishing at weekend until it gets really cold as it’s full of sailing & rowing boats & they can be a right nuisance, during reasonable weather conditions. A smaller venue I have fished is usually packed out during decent weather often by ‘fine weather anglers’, if you go there when it’s cold, raining & windy you are very likely to have the place to yourself & will still catch fish. For me the amount of pike angling pressure a water is likely to get is also another important factor of when (or if) I fish it.
Bait
Bait is an obvious essential, maybe you go sea fishing over the summer & catch your own to freeze up for dead-bait or maybe you like me buy it & freeze it. You may find that as October arrives dead-bait in the local tackle-shop may be sold out (not that I tend to use these) or your local fishmonger may not have adequate supplies of your favourite bait readily available. Far better in my book to get your order in early to ensure you can get what you want. I individually wrap all my baits in freezer bags & then put them in carrier bags by bait type, I have two chest freezers in my garage for my bait. Sometimes we obtain some natural baits over the summer & freeze them, however we are very careful not to take baits from waters where it would be of detriment to fish stocks. Sometimes I occasionally add oils or flavourings to my baits prior to freezing them. Obtaining bait as fresh as possible is important to me. Personally I don’t re-freeze bait which has de-frosted, left over from previous sessions to use as hook-bait again, instead I use these for pre-bait. I have a small telescopic pole & a telescopic rod for catching live-baits, these take up a minimum amount of room & are both lightweight. I use a decent quality cool box to keep baits nice & fresh (much better I find than a cool bag), for longer sessions I have a 12v cool box.
Artificials
Being a bit of a lure enthusiast October can be a good month for lures, I always check the hooks & ensure that they are nice & sharp, replacing them where necessary. Often I make up a small box of various lures to suit the venue I’m tackling. Combining lure fishing with bait fishing can bring bonus fish & sometimes the lure will ‘wake up’ the pike in the swim & you will get a take on the baits after the lure goes past them. You can also cover a fair bit of water lure fishing perhaps opting to chuck some baits in when you find the fish. Unlike my mate Andy Cooke I don’t really believe that every splash in the water attracts fish, (maybe that’s just Cookey’s excuse for constantly wading in the water & his constant re-casting of his baits! Ha ha). The warmer days may see the lures out fishing the baits as I have seen before. So we now have our chosen venues to go at & some bait/artificial options, so what next.
Tackle
It’s important to check your gear over, I have a basic check of my gear before each time I fish, however you could call this an annual inspection come service. Replace old line, make up new traces, change the batteries in your alarms & camera & carry some spare batteries just incase. Download all those old photos from your digital camera or buy a new memory card so that you have plenty capacity for the photos of all the big pike you are going to catch. Re-waterproofing you foul weather gear & your umbrella/shelter is a good idea. Check your waders & wellies aren’t leaking in, its never a good experience when they do. Check & ensure that you have all those bits & bobs that you need, swivels, leads & the like. Whilst transporting your gear ensure that your line does not become damaged, although I use a quiver style holdall instead of a full one, I use rod bands & rod tip protectors to protect the rod & line during transit. Each time I fish I check my terminal tackle & my line over, cutting off any damaged lengths. Carrying some spare line just incase is a good idea, I can remember on more than one occasion being ‘spooled’ by a passing boat! Replace anything that looks a bit suspect. Check your pike rods over, are there any flaws in the rings, are the reel seats secure etc., your piking reels do they need opening up & greasing or maybe even a service? Some of the smaller tackle shops may only stock up on pike terminal gear & the like in winter (if you ask they may get stuff in early for you), whilst in general there is likely to be increased demand in for all things pikey as October arrives, check earlier rather than later with who you buy from to ensure your requirements are met & that you get the trace material you want in your preferred breaking strain, the make model & size of your favourite hooks & the like. It’s disappointing & can affect your confidence if you have to settle for second best, it could also cost you some fish. Overall I find that its better to check everything even if your findings are that your gear is in good order & ready to go rather than to just presume, if you do just presume & if there is a defect then the gear could well let you down. If the gear lets you down, say you get snapped it affects pikes welfare, a trace left in a pike or a baited rig that snaps off could equal a dead pike.
Boat & Trailer
Many of these items are safety essentials for your own well being & that of others, not just whilst you are fishing but in the case of your trailer ensuring that you get there & back safely. Have a good general check of your trailer, in particular check, grease & replace if necessary trailer wheel bearings, check your suspension units, check wheels, tyres& spares are in good repair, ensure that you have a wheel brace that fits your trailer wheels (it may not be the same size as the one for your car). Some trailer centres offer a trailer service if you don’t want to mess about yourself. Ensure that your grease gun has a cartridge in it with plenty grease in it (you do carry one right?). It’s a good idea to have an annual service on your outboard & your auxiliary engine, you don’t want them to let you down (if you haven’t got an auxiliary engine you may want to consider getting one). Check that your leisure batteries for your electric motor etc are still charging correctly & holding a decent amount of charge, a battery meter is a useful tool. Check the boat over & carry out any little jobs that need doing. Renew any insurance policy/s & boat registration. Check that your anchor ropes are not overly worn. Check your life jacket out, do the gas cartridges need replacing? Check your fishfinder/gps over obviously you cant fully test it until you are out on the water, but as a minimum ensure that it still switches on, maybe run it in simulator mode, out don’t want that to let you down.
Other gear
If you own a bait boat or perhaps a wire-less fish finder are they in good order (are you sure!)? Do you have other specialist equipment that you haven’t used since last season? We all have those extra items that we like to use & I’m sure that you can add to my checklist with many other items of your own.
Organisation
Organisation can be one of the keys to successful piking & this is afterall what we want to achieve. Once you have everything you need then organise it so that you know where everything is to maximise the available fishing time that you have available to you. If your chosen venue involves a long walk then minimise your gear accordingly. If you intend doing a lot of boat fishing ensure your boat fishing bag/box is well organised. If you are going to be sitting it out for long periods of time, days on end ensure that you have all the creature comforts that you are likely to need to survive the elements. Consider when exactly are you going to fish, a couple of venues that I have fished you can only legally pike fish them at certain times of the year. Do you need to arrange to swap a shift or book a days holiday at work? Are there privileged access events that you are hoping to get on? Are there long haul piking trips you are going to go on with your mates? All of these are better off being organised sooner rather than later.
Other Activates
There is the annual PAC conference in September to look forward to, maybe buying a new pike fishing book to read or some bargain gear & not least listening the talks from a wealth of experienced anglers. Many of the PAC regions hold monthly meetings often with a slideshow & club outings during the winter months. I myself am starting a PAC region in South-Lancashire this winter, so I have been doing a lot of preparation for that, if you are from the area why not come along?
Conclusion
So there we have it a bit of an action plan to keep you busy during September if you are a winter only piker, whilst you are looking forward to your winter piking campaign. I wish you all a productive piking season…………………………………………………………………...
An Englishman in the PAAS
An Englishman in the P.A.A.S.
My passion for Scotland stems from my childhood, as a boy I lived in Glenrothes for about 12 months, my dad being on the management team that built the Bertha B oil platform. The house we lived in backed onto a park, that led down to a river & a small loch & I often fished in these for perch, trout & pike. When we moved back to England we returned over the boarder to loch Ken for leisure & whilst my dad went out on a speedboat I fished the loch. When I was at colleage on the Duke of Edinburghs award scheme I did a 165 mile self sufficient bike ride over 3 days from Edinburgh to Amnbleside, a feat I am not fit enough to accomplish today! As a teenager I remember watching in awe at talks from Gord Burton, John Watson & Neil Wheater amongst others with tales of mighty hard fighting Loch Lomond pike (a place I have still yet to fish – still there is always next time!), I had my first trip ‘going it on my own’ to Scotland fishing Loch Foot, following that up with another trip to loch Ken (well before the crayfish appeared!) we caught some nice pike, although no monsters. At work for 6 years I had sites in Scotland visiting the Coatbridge, Bellshill & Airdrie areas, I used to stay at the Bothwell Bridge hotel where the hospitality was first class, unfortunately there was very little time for fishing however I did manage to wet a line once or twice. I shamefully have to admit that the hospitality & helpfulness of the Scottish is much better that that of the English!
In recent years I have been over the border many times on pike fishing trips, some just for fishing & others with my family for short breaks, whatever the reason I have always thourghly enjoyed the trips. I have mainly travelled to the South-West area of Scotland because its not too far from where I live in Wigan Lancashire to go for a weekends piking in the region of a 3-4hour journey. More recently I have ventured a little further to Central Scotland. This year I joined the P.A.A.S., on one occasion I did on a 450 mile round trip in one day to fish a privileged access event! I know that I am not the only Englishman in the P.A.A.S. & my mates from Chester who are P.A.A.S. members encouraged me to join, they having thourghly enjoyed the privileged access events that they have attended.
On one trip to a particularly scenic Scottish Loch I joked with a mate saying God would never have put this place in England, whys that my mate said, I told him well God wanted everyone to enjoy the place & if it was in England it would be no fishing, a nature reserve, no boating etc.!
The only negative thing about my pike fishing trips to Scotland has been the midges & if anyone has any tips on how to cope with these winged devils then let me know!
I have a trip to the Isle of Bute planned shortly & next year I’m also planning a fishing trip up in the Highlands. I hope to see some of you on the fishing bank, I will be the one with the dodgy Wigan accent!
Tight lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
My passion for Scotland stems from my childhood, as a boy I lived in Glenrothes for about 12 months, my dad being on the management team that built the Bertha B oil platform. The house we lived in backed onto a park, that led down to a river & a small loch & I often fished in these for perch, trout & pike. When we moved back to England we returned over the boarder to loch Ken for leisure & whilst my dad went out on a speedboat I fished the loch. When I was at colleage on the Duke of Edinburghs award scheme I did a 165 mile self sufficient bike ride over 3 days from Edinburgh to Amnbleside, a feat I am not fit enough to accomplish today! As a teenager I remember watching in awe at talks from Gord Burton, John Watson & Neil Wheater amongst others with tales of mighty hard fighting Loch Lomond pike (a place I have still yet to fish – still there is always next time!), I had my first trip ‘going it on my own’ to Scotland fishing Loch Foot, following that up with another trip to loch Ken (well before the crayfish appeared!) we caught some nice pike, although no monsters. At work for 6 years I had sites in Scotland visiting the Coatbridge, Bellshill & Airdrie areas, I used to stay at the Bothwell Bridge hotel where the hospitality was first class, unfortunately there was very little time for fishing however I did manage to wet a line once or twice. I shamefully have to admit that the hospitality & helpfulness of the Scottish is much better that that of the English!
In recent years I have been over the border many times on pike fishing trips, some just for fishing & others with my family for short breaks, whatever the reason I have always thourghly enjoyed the trips. I have mainly travelled to the South-West area of Scotland because its not too far from where I live in Wigan Lancashire to go for a weekends piking in the region of a 3-4hour journey. More recently I have ventured a little further to Central Scotland. This year I joined the P.A.A.S., on one occasion I did on a 450 mile round trip in one day to fish a privileged access event! I know that I am not the only Englishman in the P.A.A.S. & my mates from Chester who are P.A.A.S. members encouraged me to join, they having thourghly enjoyed the privileged access events that they have attended.
On one trip to a particularly scenic Scottish Loch I joked with a mate saying God would never have put this place in England, whys that my mate said, I told him well God wanted everyone to enjoy the place & if it was in England it would be no fishing, a nature reserve, no boating etc.!
The only negative thing about my pike fishing trips to Scotland has been the midges & if anyone has any tips on how to cope with these winged devils then let me know!
I have a trip to the Isle of Bute planned shortly & next year I’m also planning a fishing trip up in the Highlands. I hope to see some of you on the fishing bank, I will be the one with the dodgy Wigan accent!
Tight lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Something a BIC different
Something a BIC different
Types of boat fishing
Typically thoughts of boat fishing for pike can cunjer up images of large aluminium or fibreglass boats, high horsepower engines, loaded to the gunnels with a plithera of tackle & a fair amount of my own fishing falls into this category. I like others have had many good days boat fishing often fishing on the larges waters, glacial lakes, reservoirs & such like as well as a few trips each year to the broads. Regular readers may recall my recent my article on boat re-furbishment covering my & Andy Cookes 14ft high sided walk through dory boat. A decent sized boat like this needs a reasonable slipway to launch it from, even with 4x4 vehicles I have known people get stuck when launching from inappropriate areas.
There is also another type of boat fishing that is commonly practiced & that is fishing with bait-boats. Many years ago before the birth of the electronic bait-boat I used to use a two man blow up dinghy for baiting up for bream & other species & on occasion I rowed baits out to features whilst pike fishing. I suppose that they were the first bait-boats. I never felt safe in a blow up dinghy although I always wore a life jacket. They were in my experience plagued with problems not least punctures & invariably you got wet using them. There were fatalities that occurred with anglers who were using blow-up dinghies to bait up & that was enough to put me off & I stopped using one. The arrival of electronic bait boats was good to see & I have owned a couple & used them to good effect, the modern ones have removed many of the problems associated with the early models, although I have still managed to turn one over in windy conditions wrecking it! Bait boats to however can have their limitations, however I wont dwell on bait boats too much here as much has already been wrote on the subject.
I have seen people fishing from canoes but that’s just not something that I have ever fancied doing myself.
Initial Thoughts
I have owned my fair share of boats both small & large but even the smaller ones I have owned were quite heavy & required a trailer & usually some form of slipway to get them into & out of the water. Whilst being one who perhaps owns more than my fair fare of fishing gear, when possible I prefer to keep things simple, as using a lot of gear can tend to tie you don’t in your approach a little making your approach less mobile, even when boat fishing if your boat is loaded to the gunnels with a plethora of tackle, a mountain of bait, box upon box of lures, loads of rods, heavy anchors etc it can be tempting to have a less mobile approach & I have seen anglers sitting in just one spot all day in such scenarios using the boat in effect as a temporary platform, now that’s great if your on the fish but what if your not? I have often thought before of purchasing a carry on boat for those smaller places or those venues where boat fishing is permitted but where there is no actual slipway. On some venues there is not bank access all round, some may be too wide to bait-boat over to the far side, or obstacles like islands (although these can be great features to fish to) may limit where you can get a bait with a bait-boat or drifting techniques. So a small carry on boat could see you fishing where the fish have seldom seen another anglers bait, indeed I know of venues where I could put a small boat to good use. However it wasn’t until recently that thoughts of owning a carry-on boat were anything more than pie-in the sky (no Wigan jokes please!) to me.
A couple of recent experiences got me to thinking more seriously about the possibilities of a small, lightweight car-topable boat. Firstly a fishing trip with a competent Cumbrian piker, he uses a moderate sized plastic boat as a vehicle to transport his gear, for feature/fish-finding & taking baits out, interesting I though. He speced out the swims with his boat fish finder & also carried most of our gear in it, we both caught fish despite not ideal conditions for the venue. Secondly a trip over the border to Scotland found us stranded on dry land despite towing the 14ft Dory boat up there as the two lochs that we went up to fish were we were told had slipways actually didn’t! The trip wasn’t a wasted one as we still caught a number of pike from the bank, however we had to restrict ourselves to a spot near the car/boat for security reasons. On this trip we looked at a 3rd loch where boat fishing is permitted but there is no proper slipway, I have heard reports of good pike from the venue & it certainly looked very pikey but there was no way we could have got the 14ft Dory on their, if only I had a small carriable boat with me! This situation raised a discussion point again between me & Andy Cooke regarding ‘carry on’ boats, again we debated the matter, with the conclusion being that a carry on boat could be used for a variety of purposes such as feature finding, taking baits out & transporting gear to & from swims whilst bank fishing as well as actually fishing from. We left it that I would re-search what was available out there & the associated costs.
Matter of Concern
One thing that has always put me off buying such a small boat before is the safety aspect, a lot of the small tender types I have seen being used for various different recreational uses just don’t look all that stable to me, they may well be fine for one or two people to row a few yards to a moored up cruiser but not for fishing purposes. Unfortunately accounts of boating tragedies are all too common & I don’t want to become just another statistic. Whilst fishing bad weather can often come out of no-where & I’m by no means a fine weather only angler. Whilst on holiday in Ireland a mate of mine was fishing with his elderly father in a tow-along boat that came with their cruiser, they encountered bad weather on the trip & my mates dad ended up overboard, fortunately he didn’t come to any harm, but it just does not bare thinking about just how different that day could have ended. I love my fishing but its not worth risking your life for a days fishing, whilst going afloat safety always has to be a top priority. I will get off my soap box now. So the specification of our craft would need careful consideration to ensure that the correct type was selected. Having fished 2 people in a 10ft boat before it’s far from ideal so me & Andy Cooke had already decided that if we bought a carry-on boat we would buy one each. As I have fished many places where tenders are used to go out to cruisers & I have also had the odd nosey at small boats at chandlers etc. I had a rough idea of what we wanted as a starting point.
Research & Specification
Middle of the next week saw me trolling, this time not on water but on the internet! Looking at details of small boats, e bay, P&P boat fishing forum, Boats & Outboards, Boat Sales & manufacturers web sites etc. Various makes, models & all manner of designs & colours were available from numerous manufacturers such as Plastimo, Fun-Yak, BIC etc. We were looking for something carryable by two men, light but with a decent load capacity & reasonably stable. An interesting feature that I found was that some of these small boats were fitted with wheels in or on the transom so that you can push them along & this was a feature that I decided I would like to include on my boat. There are pro’s & con’s with buying new & second hand, the drawback with a brand new boat is the cost, something I just cant afford & so here again I would be looking to buy second hand.
After many hours on the internet I decided that one of the first models that I had seen was the one for me the BIC 252 Sportyak. BIC I know from carp angling acquaintances to be a reputable make as some of the carp lads use the smaller version to put amounts of bait out. Here is the specification of the boat that I decided suited my purpose:
252 cm long (about 8.4ft in old money) 140 cm wide
Load capacity 254kg (about 571 lb), or 3 people plus gear
Plastic design
Dual hull design
Foam filled
3 rowlocks
Painter
Engine capacity 4hp (I think it would pull a wheelie with a 4hp on it though!)
Extra’s -
Transom mounted blow up wheels
Now regardless of the impressive load capacity personally I think that you would be mad to fish three men in one of these, for me for fishing they are a one man fishing boat with a minimum of tackle. Also safety first it would not be wise to consider fishing from something like this on places like the larger glacial lakes where adverse weather conditions can come out of no-where or there are lots of big powered craft about or other hazards.
Purchasing
Now for the tricky bit, finding one, if at all possible second hand. There were many tender style boat available second hand however many were battered or did not fit my specification & I was holding out for a BIC 252. I got offered a good deal on a new one however that was not within the budget. At first the search for a decent second hand one over a couple of weeks was fruitless, then out of the blue one came up on e bay that had been kitted out for fishing but it had a custom made trailer & I figured that I didn’t need another trailer anyway so it was a no go. Shortly afterwards another one came up & it looked like new so I went for it. I got it for a good price & the only hick-up was getting lost on country roads when we went to collect it. On arrival at the chap said that it had come free with a Yacht he bought, he had never used it & it was surplus to his requirements. It certainly looked like new & was a bargain & was very much a done deal, it was easily light enough for two of us to carry & had quite large wheels fitted to the transom & pushed along the ground no problem at all, it had a set of new ali oars, row locks etc & was quite literally ready to go fishing. Never ones to miss an opportunity we decided to use it that day as we had brought the fishing gear along with us.
Testing it out
We arrived at the chosen venue quite late in the day & it wouldn’t have been good for me to leave Andy stranded on the bank whilst I boat fished, he had been good enough to come along & collect the boat with me. So we opted to bank fish but to use the boat for putting a couple of baits out. We chose to bank-fish what can be a decent area, an area I would normally boat fish, there is a couple of drop off’s in the chosen area however they are a fair way out & you are talking big leads & small baits to reach them, also there are a couple of interesting features that would require very accurate distance casting from the bank. To save a bit of a walk I decided to use the boat as a vehicle to carry some of our gear plus myself whilst Andy & my dog Rocky walked round. I fitted the electric engine to the boat & it handled me plus the tackle I’d loaded into it no problem & I arrived at the swim fresh whilst Andy cursed me & arrived panting after his walk. We decided to use the boat to find & mark the drop off/features & put a couple of rods out each with the boat, Andy was also maggot bashing & Eel fishing so I baited up from the boat for him to save time consuming spodding & catapulting etc. Without the gear in the boat was very easy to row & I used the smart cast to accurately locate the drop off & a couple of features from the boat & the marker/s were set. I rowed the baits out with pinpoint accuracy, Andy stayed on the bank & set the rods, hardly had I finished the task & beached the boat than one of the rods went, a drop back. A swift strike met with firm resistance, this was the type of big fish we had come for, of that I had no doubt. After a very lively fight a suburb fish came to the net, we anticipated that it just may go twenty, a scraper perhaps? It was not to be & after deducting the weight of the combine unhooking matt/sling I have just purchased it went 18.12 my best fish from the venue, (incidentally the combined unhooking mat/sling is a cracking piece of kit & minimises fish handling) a couple of quick pics were taken on the ever-ready digital camera with the BIC boat in the background & she was returned to her watery home none the worse for wear. Quickly the bait was rowed back out, we then had a brew & contemplated over the events of the day deciding the purchase of the BIC had been a good idea. The weather turned for the worse & it hammered it down with rain & we retired to the bivvy’s for the night. I was up at first light to answer the call of nature, not too long after the alarm sounded & I was in again with another nice double (on the second rod I had rowed the bait out on). Overnight Andy who had kept this options open fishing a maggot rod, an Eel rod & a pike rod had managed two nice Eel’s & some silver-fish from the area baited with the boat. We had to leave early morning to fulfil other commitments, the boat was loaded with a fair bit of the gear & then pulled up the bank near the car-park like a big tackle barrow with the gear still in it, the initial trip had been a success.
At home initially the boat was stored at the side of the house in the yard, strong winds blew it over putting a dint in the underside (this came back out itself though) so I put it between the conservatory & the fence, using the painter rope to secure it to the fence, where it has stayed no problem.
Timesaving
A recent thread on the P&P web forum enquired about how long it takes pikers from getting to the venue to fishing i.e. launching their boat, put the gear in, pull the trailer back out etc. With the BIC wasted time is absolutely minimised, there is no trailer, you can take it off the car roof & throw your gear in & wheel it to the water & away you go, it really is as simple as that. As its only a small lightweight boat you only need small lightweight anchors & I use a couple of lightweight mud weights, they are quick & easy to use. Carrying a minimum of gear like this means that you can move quickly & easily covering a lot of water.
Stealth
I’m sure we have all seen lads with high HP outboards flying around, some going at speed right over the very water they intend to fish, I have seen this on shallow water like the broads not just on big deep glacial lakes (obviously this can be avoided). An electric outboard is all that you need for the BIC & if you wanted to its light enough to row. This means that you can get it into position quietly & with the absolute minimum of disturbance. Indeed it would be easily to row gently along float trailing a couple of baits using the BIC.
Transportation
Andy is a white van man, a great big transit van he drives, so we collected the boat & transported it for the first trip in that. Since however I have purchased a set of roof bars for my VW Touran & the boat goes on no problem at all (see photo).
Andy’s Boat
We struggled to find a BIC 252 second hand for Andy, however we managed to find the slightly smaller version the sport-yak at a bargain price second hand, this boat is also a fair bit lighter & can be carried by one man & is really easy to row & as it will only get used on smaller venues this is what Andy bought.
Extras
Portable fish-finders have been purchased for both boats, again second hand, these are powered from the 12v leisure battery for the electric outboard, as the boats are so lightweight a decent battery will run the engine & fish-finder all day. To save drilling into the boat etc. we are going to use the fox clamp on boat rests. The portable fish-finders & the clamp on rod rests will also come in handy for when we fish venues where you have to hire their boats.
Thinks to come
I have a few trips coming up where I can put the boat to good use, I will be going back to the two lochs I mentioned where boat fishing is permitted but there is no slipway as well as other venues. There is a nice reservoir I have fished before that’s a good lure water & I think the small boat can be put to good use there. There are also other venues that I know of where you can use a boat for leisure use but not for fishing from, so I will be able to use the small boat to map the place out, gaining useful information for bank fishing.
Footnote: A keen piker called James Dean from Wigan has kindly given me a 9.6ft fibreglass boat, & this has been donated this to the region of the PAC that I am R/O for, it’s lightweight enough to be car stoppable & can easily be carried by two men. I field tested the boat on a reasonable sized Scottish loch & it performed admirably. I have arranged 3rd party insurance for the boat & this will give PAC Region 31 South-Lancashire members who are not boat owners the opportunity of a taste of boat fishing.
Conclusion
I hope that I have given you an insight into another option when it comes to going afloat & the variety of uses & the fun that can be had with ownership of a small carryable boat.
Tight lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
Types of boat fishing
Typically thoughts of boat fishing for pike can cunjer up images of large aluminium or fibreglass boats, high horsepower engines, loaded to the gunnels with a plithera of tackle & a fair amount of my own fishing falls into this category. I like others have had many good days boat fishing often fishing on the larges waters, glacial lakes, reservoirs & such like as well as a few trips each year to the broads. Regular readers may recall my recent my article on boat re-furbishment covering my & Andy Cookes 14ft high sided walk through dory boat. A decent sized boat like this needs a reasonable slipway to launch it from, even with 4x4 vehicles I have known people get stuck when launching from inappropriate areas.
There is also another type of boat fishing that is commonly practiced & that is fishing with bait-boats. Many years ago before the birth of the electronic bait-boat I used to use a two man blow up dinghy for baiting up for bream & other species & on occasion I rowed baits out to features whilst pike fishing. I suppose that they were the first bait-boats. I never felt safe in a blow up dinghy although I always wore a life jacket. They were in my experience plagued with problems not least punctures & invariably you got wet using them. There were fatalities that occurred with anglers who were using blow-up dinghies to bait up & that was enough to put me off & I stopped using one. The arrival of electronic bait boats was good to see & I have owned a couple & used them to good effect, the modern ones have removed many of the problems associated with the early models, although I have still managed to turn one over in windy conditions wrecking it! Bait boats to however can have their limitations, however I wont dwell on bait boats too much here as much has already been wrote on the subject.
I have seen people fishing from canoes but that’s just not something that I have ever fancied doing myself.
Initial Thoughts
I have owned my fair share of boats both small & large but even the smaller ones I have owned were quite heavy & required a trailer & usually some form of slipway to get them into & out of the water. Whilst being one who perhaps owns more than my fair fare of fishing gear, when possible I prefer to keep things simple, as using a lot of gear can tend to tie you don’t in your approach a little making your approach less mobile, even when boat fishing if your boat is loaded to the gunnels with a plethora of tackle, a mountain of bait, box upon box of lures, loads of rods, heavy anchors etc it can be tempting to have a less mobile approach & I have seen anglers sitting in just one spot all day in such scenarios using the boat in effect as a temporary platform, now that’s great if your on the fish but what if your not? I have often thought before of purchasing a carry on boat for those smaller places or those venues where boat fishing is permitted but where there is no actual slipway. On some venues there is not bank access all round, some may be too wide to bait-boat over to the far side, or obstacles like islands (although these can be great features to fish to) may limit where you can get a bait with a bait-boat or drifting techniques. So a small carry on boat could see you fishing where the fish have seldom seen another anglers bait, indeed I know of venues where I could put a small boat to good use. However it wasn’t until recently that thoughts of owning a carry-on boat were anything more than pie-in the sky (no Wigan jokes please!) to me.
A couple of recent experiences got me to thinking more seriously about the possibilities of a small, lightweight car-topable boat. Firstly a fishing trip with a competent Cumbrian piker, he uses a moderate sized plastic boat as a vehicle to transport his gear, for feature/fish-finding & taking baits out, interesting I though. He speced out the swims with his boat fish finder & also carried most of our gear in it, we both caught fish despite not ideal conditions for the venue. Secondly a trip over the border to Scotland found us stranded on dry land despite towing the 14ft Dory boat up there as the two lochs that we went up to fish were we were told had slipways actually didn’t! The trip wasn’t a wasted one as we still caught a number of pike from the bank, however we had to restrict ourselves to a spot near the car/boat for security reasons. On this trip we looked at a 3rd loch where boat fishing is permitted but there is no proper slipway, I have heard reports of good pike from the venue & it certainly looked very pikey but there was no way we could have got the 14ft Dory on their, if only I had a small carriable boat with me! This situation raised a discussion point again between me & Andy Cooke regarding ‘carry on’ boats, again we debated the matter, with the conclusion being that a carry on boat could be used for a variety of purposes such as feature finding, taking baits out & transporting gear to & from swims whilst bank fishing as well as actually fishing from. We left it that I would re-search what was available out there & the associated costs.
Matter of Concern
One thing that has always put me off buying such a small boat before is the safety aspect, a lot of the small tender types I have seen being used for various different recreational uses just don’t look all that stable to me, they may well be fine for one or two people to row a few yards to a moored up cruiser but not for fishing purposes. Unfortunately accounts of boating tragedies are all too common & I don’t want to become just another statistic. Whilst fishing bad weather can often come out of no-where & I’m by no means a fine weather only angler. Whilst on holiday in Ireland a mate of mine was fishing with his elderly father in a tow-along boat that came with their cruiser, they encountered bad weather on the trip & my mates dad ended up overboard, fortunately he didn’t come to any harm, but it just does not bare thinking about just how different that day could have ended. I love my fishing but its not worth risking your life for a days fishing, whilst going afloat safety always has to be a top priority. I will get off my soap box now. So the specification of our craft would need careful consideration to ensure that the correct type was selected. Having fished 2 people in a 10ft boat before it’s far from ideal so me & Andy Cooke had already decided that if we bought a carry-on boat we would buy one each. As I have fished many places where tenders are used to go out to cruisers & I have also had the odd nosey at small boats at chandlers etc. I had a rough idea of what we wanted as a starting point.
Research & Specification
Middle of the next week saw me trolling, this time not on water but on the internet! Looking at details of small boats, e bay, P&P boat fishing forum, Boats & Outboards, Boat Sales & manufacturers web sites etc. Various makes, models & all manner of designs & colours were available from numerous manufacturers such as Plastimo, Fun-Yak, BIC etc. We were looking for something carryable by two men, light but with a decent load capacity & reasonably stable. An interesting feature that I found was that some of these small boats were fitted with wheels in or on the transom so that you can push them along & this was a feature that I decided I would like to include on my boat. There are pro’s & con’s with buying new & second hand, the drawback with a brand new boat is the cost, something I just cant afford & so here again I would be looking to buy second hand.
After many hours on the internet I decided that one of the first models that I had seen was the one for me the BIC 252 Sportyak. BIC I know from carp angling acquaintances to be a reputable make as some of the carp lads use the smaller version to put amounts of bait out. Here is the specification of the boat that I decided suited my purpose:
252 cm long (about 8.4ft in old money) 140 cm wide
Load capacity 254kg (about 571 lb), or 3 people plus gear
Plastic design
Dual hull design
Foam filled
3 rowlocks
Painter
Engine capacity 4hp (I think it would pull a wheelie with a 4hp on it though!)
Extra’s -
Transom mounted blow up wheels
Now regardless of the impressive load capacity personally I think that you would be mad to fish three men in one of these, for me for fishing they are a one man fishing boat with a minimum of tackle. Also safety first it would not be wise to consider fishing from something like this on places like the larger glacial lakes where adverse weather conditions can come out of no-where or there are lots of big powered craft about or other hazards.
Purchasing
Now for the tricky bit, finding one, if at all possible second hand. There were many tender style boat available second hand however many were battered or did not fit my specification & I was holding out for a BIC 252. I got offered a good deal on a new one however that was not within the budget. At first the search for a decent second hand one over a couple of weeks was fruitless, then out of the blue one came up on e bay that had been kitted out for fishing but it had a custom made trailer & I figured that I didn’t need another trailer anyway so it was a no go. Shortly afterwards another one came up & it looked like new so I went for it. I got it for a good price & the only hick-up was getting lost on country roads when we went to collect it. On arrival at the chap said that it had come free with a Yacht he bought, he had never used it & it was surplus to his requirements. It certainly looked like new & was a bargain & was very much a done deal, it was easily light enough for two of us to carry & had quite large wheels fitted to the transom & pushed along the ground no problem at all, it had a set of new ali oars, row locks etc & was quite literally ready to go fishing. Never ones to miss an opportunity we decided to use it that day as we had brought the fishing gear along with us.
Testing it out
We arrived at the chosen venue quite late in the day & it wouldn’t have been good for me to leave Andy stranded on the bank whilst I boat fished, he had been good enough to come along & collect the boat with me. So we opted to bank fish but to use the boat for putting a couple of baits out. We chose to bank-fish what can be a decent area, an area I would normally boat fish, there is a couple of drop off’s in the chosen area however they are a fair way out & you are talking big leads & small baits to reach them, also there are a couple of interesting features that would require very accurate distance casting from the bank. To save a bit of a walk I decided to use the boat as a vehicle to carry some of our gear plus myself whilst Andy & my dog Rocky walked round. I fitted the electric engine to the boat & it handled me plus the tackle I’d loaded into it no problem & I arrived at the swim fresh whilst Andy cursed me & arrived panting after his walk. We decided to use the boat to find & mark the drop off/features & put a couple of rods out each with the boat, Andy was also maggot bashing & Eel fishing so I baited up from the boat for him to save time consuming spodding & catapulting etc. Without the gear in the boat was very easy to row & I used the smart cast to accurately locate the drop off & a couple of features from the boat & the marker/s were set. I rowed the baits out with pinpoint accuracy, Andy stayed on the bank & set the rods, hardly had I finished the task & beached the boat than one of the rods went, a drop back. A swift strike met with firm resistance, this was the type of big fish we had come for, of that I had no doubt. After a very lively fight a suburb fish came to the net, we anticipated that it just may go twenty, a scraper perhaps? It was not to be & after deducting the weight of the combine unhooking matt/sling I have just purchased it went 18.12 my best fish from the venue, (incidentally the combined unhooking mat/sling is a cracking piece of kit & minimises fish handling) a couple of quick pics were taken on the ever-ready digital camera with the BIC boat in the background & she was returned to her watery home none the worse for wear. Quickly the bait was rowed back out, we then had a brew & contemplated over the events of the day deciding the purchase of the BIC had been a good idea. The weather turned for the worse & it hammered it down with rain & we retired to the bivvy’s for the night. I was up at first light to answer the call of nature, not too long after the alarm sounded & I was in again with another nice double (on the second rod I had rowed the bait out on). Overnight Andy who had kept this options open fishing a maggot rod, an Eel rod & a pike rod had managed two nice Eel’s & some silver-fish from the area baited with the boat. We had to leave early morning to fulfil other commitments, the boat was loaded with a fair bit of the gear & then pulled up the bank near the car-park like a big tackle barrow with the gear still in it, the initial trip had been a success.
At home initially the boat was stored at the side of the house in the yard, strong winds blew it over putting a dint in the underside (this came back out itself though) so I put it between the conservatory & the fence, using the painter rope to secure it to the fence, where it has stayed no problem.
Timesaving
A recent thread on the P&P web forum enquired about how long it takes pikers from getting to the venue to fishing i.e. launching their boat, put the gear in, pull the trailer back out etc. With the BIC wasted time is absolutely minimised, there is no trailer, you can take it off the car roof & throw your gear in & wheel it to the water & away you go, it really is as simple as that. As its only a small lightweight boat you only need small lightweight anchors & I use a couple of lightweight mud weights, they are quick & easy to use. Carrying a minimum of gear like this means that you can move quickly & easily covering a lot of water.
Stealth
I’m sure we have all seen lads with high HP outboards flying around, some going at speed right over the very water they intend to fish, I have seen this on shallow water like the broads not just on big deep glacial lakes (obviously this can be avoided). An electric outboard is all that you need for the BIC & if you wanted to its light enough to row. This means that you can get it into position quietly & with the absolute minimum of disturbance. Indeed it would be easily to row gently along float trailing a couple of baits using the BIC.
Transportation
Andy is a white van man, a great big transit van he drives, so we collected the boat & transported it for the first trip in that. Since however I have purchased a set of roof bars for my VW Touran & the boat goes on no problem at all (see photo).
Andy’s Boat
We struggled to find a BIC 252 second hand for Andy, however we managed to find the slightly smaller version the sport-yak at a bargain price second hand, this boat is also a fair bit lighter & can be carried by one man & is really easy to row & as it will only get used on smaller venues this is what Andy bought.
Extras
Portable fish-finders have been purchased for both boats, again second hand, these are powered from the 12v leisure battery for the electric outboard, as the boats are so lightweight a decent battery will run the engine & fish-finder all day. To save drilling into the boat etc. we are going to use the fox clamp on boat rests. The portable fish-finders & the clamp on rod rests will also come in handy for when we fish venues where you have to hire their boats.
Thinks to come
I have a few trips coming up where I can put the boat to good use, I will be going back to the two lochs I mentioned where boat fishing is permitted but there is no slipway as well as other venues. There is a nice reservoir I have fished before that’s a good lure water & I think the small boat can be put to good use there. There are also other venues that I know of where you can use a boat for leisure use but not for fishing from, so I will be able to use the small boat to map the place out, gaining useful information for bank fishing.
Footnote: A keen piker called James Dean from Wigan has kindly given me a 9.6ft fibreglass boat, & this has been donated this to the region of the PAC that I am R/O for, it’s lightweight enough to be car stoppable & can easily be carried by two men. I field tested the boat on a reasonable sized Scottish loch & it performed admirably. I have arranged 3rd party insurance for the boat & this will give PAC Region 31 South-Lancashire members who are not boat owners the opportunity of a taste of boat fishing.
Conclusion
I hope that I have given you an insight into another option when it comes to going afloat & the variety of uses & the fun that can be had with ownership of a small carryable boat.
Tight lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
Monday, 15 October 2007
In the dark
‘In the Dark……………’
By Jon Neafcy
Don’t be ‘in the dark’ about fishing for pike at night!
Within some sectors of Angling such as Carp fishing, fishing at night is an accepted norm& is indeed very much common practice & the done thing, however in Pike fishing although there are those of us who fish at night it seems much less the norm, indeed there are those who say that ‘Predator experts can fill their boats from 9-5!’ (a bold statement indeed) & there are some very experienced pike anglers who seldom, if ever, fish for pike at night. So from that should it just be totally dismissed that if so & so does not fish for pike at night that those who do choose to fish for pike at night just wasting their time? Or is there more to it than that? Can pike fishing at night sometimes give you an edge over other pikers who only fish during the day? We have seen thought provoking articles on fishing with lures at night in this publication, so I thought I would take another look at bait fishing at night in this piece. I will endeavour to put across my own experiences of bait fishing at night in this article……
Firstly I recall my own first night fishing session as a child on a large Welsh glacial lake, with my uncle, his mate & his mate's kids, fishing for Eels. It was like an adventure to me as a young lad, getting to stay out all night, quite exciting really. When it went dark it was surprising to me as a young lad just how dark actually was, there was no background illumination from street lamps & the like. There were no bite alarms, bed-chairs or bivvy’s then. We had a paraffin lamp so that we could see our bobbins (washing up liquid bottle tops) whilst we were sat on our deck chairs. We caught a few Eel’s that night & there was also a nice double figure pike caught by accident on a fish bait too (this is where my first thoughts of piking at night stem from), we stayed awake all night & went home & slept the next day. Since then, too many years ago, I have enjoyed night fishing for many species, in my teens it was carp, then tench & bream, then catfish amongst other species. Night fishing can be productive & one river I used to fish for barbell always fished much better at night, in fact so much so that after a while we rarely bothered fishing it during the day. Many, many years ago a lad I used to fish with at the time had a 30+ pike at night from a hard fished water, a rare beast indeed for the venue & area, a possible venue best, he kept the capture a closely guarded secret only telling a couple of close angling companions I was privilege to see the photo’s of that truly awesome best. The lad was one of only a few who night fished the venue for pike at the time with the majority of pikers packing up at dusk. It made us laugh one day when an experienced pike angler on the very same venue told us that pike ‘did not feed at night’ on that venue, little did he know………!
Creature Comforts
Since that first night fishing session of mine over 20 years ago the age of electronic bite alarms, bed-chairs & bivvy’s has arrived & we now have a plethora of ‘creature comforts’ to make those night fishing sessions so much more bearable. There are bivvy’s with winter skins, padded bedchairs, 4 & even 5 season sleeping bags, bivvy heaters & all manner of other gucci kit. I have tried one of the 5 season carp style sleeping bags which I have found to be excellent in winter, however the only drawback is their sheer size & bulk when carrying them, I now use a mountaineers style 5 season micro-pile sleeping bag that folds into a tiny compression sack. How far you go is an individual choice & is upto you. A decent bivvy bag is a good idea, firstly if your sleeping bag is in this & your gear gets wet at lest your sleeping-bag should stay dry & secondly if you sleep with the bivvy door open or under just a brolly as I sometimes do then it will keep your dry, thirdly it keeps in extra warmth. One item of clothing I find invaluable for night fishing is neoprene socks, no need to sleep in your shoes or boots or waste time putting footwear on when you get a run. Before purchasing these I never did bother putting my boots on when I got a run & usually ended up with wet & cold feet. Another must for me is a decent head torch so that you have both hands free, although the more experienced you get at night fishing the less you seem to have need of a torch. I have learnt by experience & I can net my own pike at night without the need for a torch, torches can sometimes spook the fish at the net, however if you use a torch for this consider a red lens or a dimming the lens. When my mate Cookey started night fishing he must have gone through a pack of batteries a night in his head torch as it was on permanently (maybe he was scared of the dark) he uses the torch less now though (the batteries must be expensive) however joking aside don’t compromise your own safety on the bank for the sake of not using a torch, many head torches have adjustable beams so you can dim them down anyway. I have a couple of different bivvys but prefer to use an umbrella system, this has fold down sides from open brolly to storm sides to full shelter, this is simple easy to use & flexible to suit the conditions. I can roll up the sides & watch the rods during the day, sometimes I even leave the sides rolled up at night when the weather is nice.
Pike Welfare
Lets examine the most important aspect – pike welfare. Bite detection, there is currently a wide range of accurate, reliable & immediate response electronic alarms available to suit most budgets, remote sets are also available. Having tried many types of alarms the Delkims are the ones for me & they are one of very few front alarms that will still activate after the drop off has fell off with an open bail-arm (when the line is free running), which is how I like to fish. From my old carp fishing days, educated by the wrightings of Maddock’s in that great original book Carp Fever we used to have the rods as close to the bivvy as possible (often in striking distance whilst sat on the bedchair), not normally closing the bivvy door, with the sleeping bag not zipped up & the wellies at the side of the bedchair, good idea. These days there are also Bivvy’s with ‘crash doors’ (Velcro or crash zips are available) & sleeping bags with crash zips, if you feel the need. If you are going to fish for pike at night examine your own set up so that you are well organised & so that the time taken to strike is absolutely minimised. Get to know the banks & area of the swim before it goes dark where ever possible. Organise your gear before it goes dark a place for everything & everything in its place. Remember organisation is one of the key’s to successful fishing at night. Indeed it is not only fishing at night where correct organisation applies, I have seen people fishing for pike with rods out in the day who have fallen asleep. I have seen people with rods spread over large distances during the day or those who wander the banks chatting & stray from their own tackle during the day, leaving the rods to fish for themselves – how prompt do you think that they strike when they get a run? Food for thought!
‘Code of conduct’
When I talk about night fishing I mean just that fishing at night & I do not mean partying & I detest the ‘chav’ element who get drunk on the bank & leave litter, play loud music etc. I don’t get drunk on the bank whilst I’m fishing & I never leave litter! If I want to get drunk I won’t go fishing I’ll go down the pub instead! Those who get drunk on the bank & leave litter are in my book not fit to be called anglers as they give us all a bad name & endanger our sport for the rest of us. Irresponsible fishing sees prohibitive rules implemented & enforced & in some cases fishing rights lost so act responsibly. I don’t generally believe in ‘sacking’ the pike I catch & at night is no exception, a good camera with a decent flash & if fishing alone a small tri-pod & camera with self timer should ensure a good quality photograph before the pike is quickly returned to the water so there is no need to sack it up overnight.
Enjoy it………………………
As a mutli-method, travelling angler who fishes many different types of venues I don’t see night fishing as the be all & end all of pike fishing however I do see it as being a means to put a few extra fish on the bank. If you don’t enjoy night fishing then quite simply it is not for you, it’s as simple as that. Select your venues don’t night fish, especially not alone, somewhere where you are worried about getting mugged, always put safety first. Personally I don’t agree with the views of those who say that we should not fish for pike at night, I think there are enough rules governing pike fishing & I see no harm in pike fishing at night as long as when ever you fish for pike it should be in a responsible & pike welfare orientated manner.
Potential
The potential of fishing at dawn & dusk are well known so I won’t duplicate too much of what has been said by others here, however if you are night fishing then you have your stall set out or so to speak to cover both of these key times. Some waters receive quite a lot of angling pressure, if I fish such waters I try to do my own thing a little rather than using the lottery approach & try no to do the same thing as everyone else. Here is a situation where if the majority of pikers are only fishing in the day then night fishing could see your catch rate improve. Some venues can be quite notorious for pike being caught at night.
Some years ago whilst fishing for bream on a large Stillwater for the weekend in early autumn I put a pike rod out in the same swim. The bream in the water were renowned to be night feeders & it was rare to catch anything of any size during the day. I caught quite a few bream, nothing special though, however I had 3 nice double figure pike upto 15.11, all 3 caught at night. These bonus fish made the trip a worthwhile one for me. Did the ‘switch on’ of the bream feeding at night trigger the pike into feeding whilst the bream were off guard a little, who knows. All I do know for sure is that I got the runs on the pike rod around similar times to when I had caught bream. I had combined my bream fishing, involving the use of large amounts of bait with my pike fishing, the theory being where the bream & other fish were the pike would not be far away. So if you fish for other species at night (or day) there is still the potential to combine this with a little pike fishing. I don’t do this personally myself anymore however as now due to time restraints etc I only fish for pike.
On a trip to Norfolk in the winter of 2006 my mate Andy ‘Blunt Hooks’ Dixon caught a superb 20+ pike at night. We were bivvied up, with it being a 250+ mile trip each way we obviously could not go home each day & our finances did not stretch to such luxuries as hotels. Would he have caught this fish, the biggest of the trip, if we had not night fished?, personally I doubt it. That fish by the way was Blunty’s best pike of the 2006/2007 season making it a very memorable capture, well done Blunty mate!
Whilst fishing a large gravel pit that can at times see more than it’s fair share of angling pressure during the day, runs on dead baits in the day became less frequent & more finiky. At the end of the days fishing many pikers threw their left over baits before going home. Fishing close in just over the shelf at night found the fish feeding on the freebies & accounted for some good fish for me, again would these fish have been taken in the day?, I doubt it. It could even be said that day anglers were in-effect inadvertently without knowing it baiting up for those few who night fished.
In between Christmas & New Year 2006 saw me & Blunty arranging another long haul piking trip. Blunty lives an hours drive from me & another 3 & half hour drive saw us arrive early morning at our chosen destination. Due to the distance of our trip it was too include an overnighter, we were accompanied by Midlands man & very keen piker Paul ‘Yam Yam’ Humpries. Despite promising info on conditions the day before on arrival the river was up & coloured, we along with the locals failed to catch in the day. That night it was raining heavy, with strong winds. At 1am Blunty had a run on a full Herring producing a fine 16+ pike. If we had slept in the car or opted for a B&B then he would not have caught this fish. This fish is also Blunty’s best fish from the venue to date making the capture extra special.
Being an angler who fishes for pike all year round night piking can offer an alternative. In summer I choose my venues carefully as the pike can be lethargic & pike welfare always must be your first priority. Last summer on a large deep gravel pit I gave up piking in the day & opted for evening or night sessions when the temperatures were lower. This paid off on the very first attempt with a low double caught at 1.30am. The pike just did not appear to be feeding, or at least were not taking baits in the day on that water, at that time. This approach also gave me some extra time to spend with the family on the Saturday day, an unusual bonus for me. A few extra fish were caught as a result of changing from day to night time fishing.
Fishing at night does not have to be confined to the bank. I have also boat fished at night, however consider the safety aspect & don’t put yourself at risk. Not all the night feeders are monsters as the photo of a modest Lakeland pike caught at night from my boat shows, however all are good fun! The Lakeland pike pictured along with a couple of other pike was taken at night following a day on which both me & my mate John Sands had failed to get a run, unfortunately John was not able to stay that night & so he missed out on catching a few night feeders. I have just purchased a set of the fox boat rests which facilitate the use of conventional front mounted electronic bite alarms from a boat however to date at night I have used starlight’s on my floats in-conjunction with clip on electronic boat bite alarms without a problem.
Creature Comforts……………..
There are those who prefer to stay in self catering, B&B or Hotel accommodation whilst ‘long haul piking’. I don’t generally do this, for me, myself this is the exception rather than the rule, I enjoy night fishing & I quite simply I can’t afford the cost of going fishing & luxuries like accommodation too. Sometimes however I am forced not to be able to night fish due to enforcement of no over night fishing rules etc on some venues & sometimes on a lost trip I will book one nights accommodation in a B&B to dry off & as a break from the fishing, maybe going for a meal & a few pints & catching up on a decent nights sleep in a warm bed. On a recent trip to the lake district we enjoyed a night in a B&B due to no over night fishing rules on the chosen venue, we didn’t over indulge & we were up well before breakfast, before first light infact & back on the venue. On that occasion at least it could be said that a change was as good as a rest. I have heard some pikers say they prefer to stay in accommodation every night for their long distance piking so that they arrive on the bank fresh the next day, however I have seen some pikers who stay in accommodation arrive at the venue late morning with raging hangovers, sometimes missing out on getting the good swims &/or early morning feeding spells. Personally I doubt that I could fish effectively with a raging hangover anyway. If your disciplined enough not to over indulge & you can afford accommodation when you are on a long distance piking trip & if you enjoy a bit of a social to boot then good on you, each to their own. On a couple of occasions me & my mates have wound the rods in & left the tackle securely in the car etc. & had a stroll to a local pub for a good meal where we wanted a short break from the fishing on a long fishing session (any excuse to avoid Cookey’s cooking). On one or two occasions where I have been very tired due to long hours at work I have even wound the rods in at night to get a good nights sleep in the bivvy to be fresh for the next morning, again exeptions rather than the rule for me though.
One of the things that attracts me to pike fishing is variety & it’s a case of each to their own & in my opinion there is no single method or approach that will beat all others all the time consistently on all venues. I fish for pike because I enjoy it & I hope my enthusiasm & passion for the sport & pike welfare is foremost in what I write. The day (or night) that I become obsessed by the numbers game or try to put the dampers on others achievements is the day I will hang up my rods. As I said earlier night fishing is by no means the be all & end all of piking but I enjoy the night fishing & it has helped me & my mates to put some extra fish on the bank……………
Tight Lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
By Jon Neafcy
Don’t be ‘in the dark’ about fishing for pike at night!
Within some sectors of Angling such as Carp fishing, fishing at night is an accepted norm& is indeed very much common practice & the done thing, however in Pike fishing although there are those of us who fish at night it seems much less the norm, indeed there are those who say that ‘Predator experts can fill their boats from 9-5!’ (a bold statement indeed) & there are some very experienced pike anglers who seldom, if ever, fish for pike at night. So from that should it just be totally dismissed that if so & so does not fish for pike at night that those who do choose to fish for pike at night just wasting their time? Or is there more to it than that? Can pike fishing at night sometimes give you an edge over other pikers who only fish during the day? We have seen thought provoking articles on fishing with lures at night in this publication, so I thought I would take another look at bait fishing at night in this piece. I will endeavour to put across my own experiences of bait fishing at night in this article……
Firstly I recall my own first night fishing session as a child on a large Welsh glacial lake, with my uncle, his mate & his mate's kids, fishing for Eels. It was like an adventure to me as a young lad, getting to stay out all night, quite exciting really. When it went dark it was surprising to me as a young lad just how dark actually was, there was no background illumination from street lamps & the like. There were no bite alarms, bed-chairs or bivvy’s then. We had a paraffin lamp so that we could see our bobbins (washing up liquid bottle tops) whilst we were sat on our deck chairs. We caught a few Eel’s that night & there was also a nice double figure pike caught by accident on a fish bait too (this is where my first thoughts of piking at night stem from), we stayed awake all night & went home & slept the next day. Since then, too many years ago, I have enjoyed night fishing for many species, in my teens it was carp, then tench & bream, then catfish amongst other species. Night fishing can be productive & one river I used to fish for barbell always fished much better at night, in fact so much so that after a while we rarely bothered fishing it during the day. Many, many years ago a lad I used to fish with at the time had a 30+ pike at night from a hard fished water, a rare beast indeed for the venue & area, a possible venue best, he kept the capture a closely guarded secret only telling a couple of close angling companions I was privilege to see the photo’s of that truly awesome best. The lad was one of only a few who night fished the venue for pike at the time with the majority of pikers packing up at dusk. It made us laugh one day when an experienced pike angler on the very same venue told us that pike ‘did not feed at night’ on that venue, little did he know………!
Creature Comforts
Since that first night fishing session of mine over 20 years ago the age of electronic bite alarms, bed-chairs & bivvy’s has arrived & we now have a plethora of ‘creature comforts’ to make those night fishing sessions so much more bearable. There are bivvy’s with winter skins, padded bedchairs, 4 & even 5 season sleeping bags, bivvy heaters & all manner of other gucci kit. I have tried one of the 5 season carp style sleeping bags which I have found to be excellent in winter, however the only drawback is their sheer size & bulk when carrying them, I now use a mountaineers style 5 season micro-pile sleeping bag that folds into a tiny compression sack. How far you go is an individual choice & is upto you. A decent bivvy bag is a good idea, firstly if your sleeping bag is in this & your gear gets wet at lest your sleeping-bag should stay dry & secondly if you sleep with the bivvy door open or under just a brolly as I sometimes do then it will keep your dry, thirdly it keeps in extra warmth. One item of clothing I find invaluable for night fishing is neoprene socks, no need to sleep in your shoes or boots or waste time putting footwear on when you get a run. Before purchasing these I never did bother putting my boots on when I got a run & usually ended up with wet & cold feet. Another must for me is a decent head torch so that you have both hands free, although the more experienced you get at night fishing the less you seem to have need of a torch. I have learnt by experience & I can net my own pike at night without the need for a torch, torches can sometimes spook the fish at the net, however if you use a torch for this consider a red lens or a dimming the lens. When my mate Cookey started night fishing he must have gone through a pack of batteries a night in his head torch as it was on permanently (maybe he was scared of the dark) he uses the torch less now though (the batteries must be expensive) however joking aside don’t compromise your own safety on the bank for the sake of not using a torch, many head torches have adjustable beams so you can dim them down anyway. I have a couple of different bivvys but prefer to use an umbrella system, this has fold down sides from open brolly to storm sides to full shelter, this is simple easy to use & flexible to suit the conditions. I can roll up the sides & watch the rods during the day, sometimes I even leave the sides rolled up at night when the weather is nice.
Pike Welfare
Lets examine the most important aspect – pike welfare. Bite detection, there is currently a wide range of accurate, reliable & immediate response electronic alarms available to suit most budgets, remote sets are also available. Having tried many types of alarms the Delkims are the ones for me & they are one of very few front alarms that will still activate after the drop off has fell off with an open bail-arm (when the line is free running), which is how I like to fish. From my old carp fishing days, educated by the wrightings of Maddock’s in that great original book Carp Fever we used to have the rods as close to the bivvy as possible (often in striking distance whilst sat on the bedchair), not normally closing the bivvy door, with the sleeping bag not zipped up & the wellies at the side of the bedchair, good idea. These days there are also Bivvy’s with ‘crash doors’ (Velcro or crash zips are available) & sleeping bags with crash zips, if you feel the need. If you are going to fish for pike at night examine your own set up so that you are well organised & so that the time taken to strike is absolutely minimised. Get to know the banks & area of the swim before it goes dark where ever possible. Organise your gear before it goes dark a place for everything & everything in its place. Remember organisation is one of the key’s to successful fishing at night. Indeed it is not only fishing at night where correct organisation applies, I have seen people fishing for pike with rods out in the day who have fallen asleep. I have seen people with rods spread over large distances during the day or those who wander the banks chatting & stray from their own tackle during the day, leaving the rods to fish for themselves – how prompt do you think that they strike when they get a run? Food for thought!
‘Code of conduct’
When I talk about night fishing I mean just that fishing at night & I do not mean partying & I detest the ‘chav’ element who get drunk on the bank & leave litter, play loud music etc. I don’t get drunk on the bank whilst I’m fishing & I never leave litter! If I want to get drunk I won’t go fishing I’ll go down the pub instead! Those who get drunk on the bank & leave litter are in my book not fit to be called anglers as they give us all a bad name & endanger our sport for the rest of us. Irresponsible fishing sees prohibitive rules implemented & enforced & in some cases fishing rights lost so act responsibly. I don’t generally believe in ‘sacking’ the pike I catch & at night is no exception, a good camera with a decent flash & if fishing alone a small tri-pod & camera with self timer should ensure a good quality photograph before the pike is quickly returned to the water so there is no need to sack it up overnight.
Enjoy it………………………
As a mutli-method, travelling angler who fishes many different types of venues I don’t see night fishing as the be all & end all of pike fishing however I do see it as being a means to put a few extra fish on the bank. If you don’t enjoy night fishing then quite simply it is not for you, it’s as simple as that. Select your venues don’t night fish, especially not alone, somewhere where you are worried about getting mugged, always put safety first. Personally I don’t agree with the views of those who say that we should not fish for pike at night, I think there are enough rules governing pike fishing & I see no harm in pike fishing at night as long as when ever you fish for pike it should be in a responsible & pike welfare orientated manner.
Potential
The potential of fishing at dawn & dusk are well known so I won’t duplicate too much of what has been said by others here, however if you are night fishing then you have your stall set out or so to speak to cover both of these key times. Some waters receive quite a lot of angling pressure, if I fish such waters I try to do my own thing a little rather than using the lottery approach & try no to do the same thing as everyone else. Here is a situation where if the majority of pikers are only fishing in the day then night fishing could see your catch rate improve. Some venues can be quite notorious for pike being caught at night.
Some years ago whilst fishing for bream on a large Stillwater for the weekend in early autumn I put a pike rod out in the same swim. The bream in the water were renowned to be night feeders & it was rare to catch anything of any size during the day. I caught quite a few bream, nothing special though, however I had 3 nice double figure pike upto 15.11, all 3 caught at night. These bonus fish made the trip a worthwhile one for me. Did the ‘switch on’ of the bream feeding at night trigger the pike into feeding whilst the bream were off guard a little, who knows. All I do know for sure is that I got the runs on the pike rod around similar times to when I had caught bream. I had combined my bream fishing, involving the use of large amounts of bait with my pike fishing, the theory being where the bream & other fish were the pike would not be far away. So if you fish for other species at night (or day) there is still the potential to combine this with a little pike fishing. I don’t do this personally myself anymore however as now due to time restraints etc I only fish for pike.
On a trip to Norfolk in the winter of 2006 my mate Andy ‘Blunt Hooks’ Dixon caught a superb 20+ pike at night. We were bivvied up, with it being a 250+ mile trip each way we obviously could not go home each day & our finances did not stretch to such luxuries as hotels. Would he have caught this fish, the biggest of the trip, if we had not night fished?, personally I doubt it. That fish by the way was Blunty’s best pike of the 2006/2007 season making it a very memorable capture, well done Blunty mate!
Whilst fishing a large gravel pit that can at times see more than it’s fair share of angling pressure during the day, runs on dead baits in the day became less frequent & more finiky. At the end of the days fishing many pikers threw their left over baits before going home. Fishing close in just over the shelf at night found the fish feeding on the freebies & accounted for some good fish for me, again would these fish have been taken in the day?, I doubt it. It could even be said that day anglers were in-effect inadvertently without knowing it baiting up for those few who night fished.
In between Christmas & New Year 2006 saw me & Blunty arranging another long haul piking trip. Blunty lives an hours drive from me & another 3 & half hour drive saw us arrive early morning at our chosen destination. Due to the distance of our trip it was too include an overnighter, we were accompanied by Midlands man & very keen piker Paul ‘Yam Yam’ Humpries. Despite promising info on conditions the day before on arrival the river was up & coloured, we along with the locals failed to catch in the day. That night it was raining heavy, with strong winds. At 1am Blunty had a run on a full Herring producing a fine 16+ pike. If we had slept in the car or opted for a B&B then he would not have caught this fish. This fish is also Blunty’s best fish from the venue to date making the capture extra special.
Being an angler who fishes for pike all year round night piking can offer an alternative. In summer I choose my venues carefully as the pike can be lethargic & pike welfare always must be your first priority. Last summer on a large deep gravel pit I gave up piking in the day & opted for evening or night sessions when the temperatures were lower. This paid off on the very first attempt with a low double caught at 1.30am. The pike just did not appear to be feeding, or at least were not taking baits in the day on that water, at that time. This approach also gave me some extra time to spend with the family on the Saturday day, an unusual bonus for me. A few extra fish were caught as a result of changing from day to night time fishing.
Fishing at night does not have to be confined to the bank. I have also boat fished at night, however consider the safety aspect & don’t put yourself at risk. Not all the night feeders are monsters as the photo of a modest Lakeland pike caught at night from my boat shows, however all are good fun! The Lakeland pike pictured along with a couple of other pike was taken at night following a day on which both me & my mate John Sands had failed to get a run, unfortunately John was not able to stay that night & so he missed out on catching a few night feeders. I have just purchased a set of the fox boat rests which facilitate the use of conventional front mounted electronic bite alarms from a boat however to date at night I have used starlight’s on my floats in-conjunction with clip on electronic boat bite alarms without a problem.
Creature Comforts……………..
There are those who prefer to stay in self catering, B&B or Hotel accommodation whilst ‘long haul piking’. I don’t generally do this, for me, myself this is the exception rather than the rule, I enjoy night fishing & I quite simply I can’t afford the cost of going fishing & luxuries like accommodation too. Sometimes however I am forced not to be able to night fish due to enforcement of no over night fishing rules etc on some venues & sometimes on a lost trip I will book one nights accommodation in a B&B to dry off & as a break from the fishing, maybe going for a meal & a few pints & catching up on a decent nights sleep in a warm bed. On a recent trip to the lake district we enjoyed a night in a B&B due to no over night fishing rules on the chosen venue, we didn’t over indulge & we were up well before breakfast, before first light infact & back on the venue. On that occasion at least it could be said that a change was as good as a rest. I have heard some pikers say they prefer to stay in accommodation every night for their long distance piking so that they arrive on the bank fresh the next day, however I have seen some pikers who stay in accommodation arrive at the venue late morning with raging hangovers, sometimes missing out on getting the good swims &/or early morning feeding spells. Personally I doubt that I could fish effectively with a raging hangover anyway. If your disciplined enough not to over indulge & you can afford accommodation when you are on a long distance piking trip & if you enjoy a bit of a social to boot then good on you, each to their own. On a couple of occasions me & my mates have wound the rods in & left the tackle securely in the car etc. & had a stroll to a local pub for a good meal where we wanted a short break from the fishing on a long fishing session (any excuse to avoid Cookey’s cooking). On one or two occasions where I have been very tired due to long hours at work I have even wound the rods in at night to get a good nights sleep in the bivvy to be fresh for the next morning, again exeptions rather than the rule for me though.
One of the things that attracts me to pike fishing is variety & it’s a case of each to their own & in my opinion there is no single method or approach that will beat all others all the time consistently on all venues. I fish for pike because I enjoy it & I hope my enthusiasm & passion for the sport & pike welfare is foremost in what I write. The day (or night) that I become obsessed by the numbers game or try to put the dampers on others achievements is the day I will hang up my rods. As I said earlier night fishing is by no means the be all & end all of piking but I enjoy the night fishing & it has helped me & my mates to put some extra fish on the bank……………
Tight Lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker
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