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

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

dont rock the boat

Project Wow! Don’t rock the boat!
By Jon Neafcy
Going Afloat
A poll on the internet no too long ago by Pike & Predators demonstrated just how popular boat fishing for pike is now, compared with several years ago. Many threads often crop up on the P&P boat fishing forum regarding boat refurbishment, which I thought I would cover in this article.
My own boat fishing experience started as a boy. I often fished on lake Windermere for trout, Eel’s & Char with my uncle from his Orkney spinner type boat. Apart from the Char men we never used to see many other fishing boats, the lake was rarely pike fished & there was hardly a roach in sight, a far cry from the Windermere of today indeed. I loved being out in the boat & learned how to row, use the engine, anchor up, troll artifices, float-fish from a boat using homemade sliding floats etc. It was inevitable I suppose that one day I would want a boat of my own. I will relate the events leading upto & the way that me & my mate went about refurbishing the current boat.
I have now owned several boats over the years in various shapes & sizes & these include an Orkney Spinner with cuddy, a Seasafe 15ft cabin boat, a CJR Dory cabin boat, a 10ft low sided Orkney Dory, a Shetland 498 & one of my favourites a Dejon 14. Engines again have varied from a 2hp Suzuki 2 stroke upto a Mariner 25hp 4 stroke Bigfoot. All of these boats & engines have served me well but I have never found one boat that ideally suited all of my boat fishing needs. Over the last few years I have always owned more than one boat to cater for a range of boat fishing situations.
‘Don’t rock the boat’
Fast forward some 25 years since my first boat fishing session. On a still, crisp, fogy morning, me & my mate ‘Cookey’ were afloat on a very picturesque, scenic, Scottish loch, one we had not fished before, we had received good reports of it’s form for big pike & we were the only ones boat fishing, hopes of a good day were high. Then ‘WOW’ the boat rocked violently & waves of ripples disrupted the flat calm mirror like surface of this tranquil loch. Had the wind got up? Was there other boat activity? No! It was my mate Andy Cooke ‘punching’ his bait out ‘rocking the boat’. ‘WOW’ says I, ‘your going to sink us Cookey’ (the rest of the statement is not printable here, James could never permit that!)! Cookey looks back with the usual big grin on his face. The loch had a no petrol outboard policy & no proper slipway so we used my 10ft boat & electric engine, my other boat at the time a Dejon 14 had a 20hp Mariner on remotes fitted so no chance of using that here. The old 10ft boat had served me well for several years & is a very robust little boat that I have used for fishing alone on places such as Hickling Broad in Norfolk to the mighty Bala in North Wales (electric engines only hence boat size), it has never let me down & being the first boat I owned had a bit of sentimental value too. This boat had also been very useful on a localish council run reservoir where there is limited fishing boat access & I had taken some good pike on it. However it’s just not a two man boat it’s as simple as that & if weather conditions had not been favourable I would not have used it with 2 of us on the loch that day. After a good days piking with 11 pike to my rods & 4 to Cookey’s we retired to the bank. The boat had been on it’s limits that day, we decided that we needed another boat something that we could use on a variety of waters, with a tiller control engine so that we could change engine size easily. Initially the idea was to purchase an additional boat something like my uncle’s old Orkney spinner, but an open top version, however the birth of my daughter restricted my finances, so a re-think was needed. I would sell my other 2 boats & we would just buy one boat between us. We had discounted Aluminium boats or buying a new boat (unless a real bargain came up) due to cost. My Dejon 14ft cabin boat in very good condition, was sold to a mate without even being advertised (cheers Matt). The 10ft boat was also quickly sold to a guy from the Midlands.
Boat Specification
There are pros & cons with both open top & cabin boats, having owned both. Cabin’s restrict fishing room but are good for when the weather gets bad & you can sleep in them. Likewise there are pros & cons with different hull designs & with the materials the boat itself is made from & of the internal design (storage etc.). We decided that we wanted an open top boat, tiller control engine, plenty of deck space, nice & stable & roomy enough for two. I was not too bothered about buying a combined boat, trailer & engine package as past experience has shown it can be difficult to find a package where all three items are exactly what you want or indeed where all three items are all in good condition, especially with older equipment.
There are not too many boats that fit the spec we wanted for sale in Wigan & the surrounding area where we live & that’s not favourable to obtain a good price (Cookey is a real tight wad, tighter infact than two coats of paint). We were planning a fishing trip to Norfolk, from previous trips to the area I know there are a lot more boats (everyone has one?) & hence more boats for sale than in Wigan so we hatched a cunning plan to have a look for a suitable boat there. So the method behind our madness, or so to speak, was that we would have a reasonable choice at a competitive price. Add to this that we were in February when typically boat prices can be low, in my experience if you purchase a second hand boat, motor bike or open top car in summer then, as that’s when people want them inevitably prices go up, supply & demand. We made initial enquiries & initially were going towards an open top Orkney type 14ft boat with a built in floor & bilge keels for added stability. However a high sided 14ft Dory came up. I have had a Dory before although it was a 10ft low sided dory, it had many good features although it was too low for my liking. The high sided Dory sounded the part. Many Dory’s have a tri hull design making them very stable & also often have built in floors with under floor buoyancy, although they can be a little on the heavy side & can slap at anchor. We arranged to view the high sided Dory & met the likely lad in Norfolk. I know what to look for in boats & Cookey knows his stuff with trailers (he used to make them) so between us we took our time to investigate. The boat was structurally sound & very robust, it was on a decent galvanised road worthy trailer, the trailer however had not been set up correctly to suit the boat on the adjustable rollers (easy enough to remedy). The boat needed fully stripping down & a full re-paint it has obviously been several different colours in its time. The boat had potential, 14ft long, about 5 & half feet wide, plenty deck space, built in floor, if we removed the benches it could be a walk through, it had a tackle locker/casting deck at the front & being a tri-hull design it would be very stable, it also had stainless steel bow & side rails which we figured would be useful. We agreed a bargain price & the likely lad guaranteed us the boat was watertight & that the trailer was good however we think that our guarantee ran out once the money exchanged hands!
Test launch
We launched the boat on a river not far from where we bought it & tested it whilst it was tied up, it was very stable & didn’t leak in. It was late afternoon, we locked it up & left it overnight to ensure it really was watertight. After a dry night we arrived the next day to find to our relief that the boat really was watertight & had not sunk. We put the small outboard we had brought with us & off we went. Well we were not going to waste the opportunity to fish in Norfolk. We had a reasonable trip & I christened the boat with 4 doubles to 15.10 (pictured) & a couple of smaller fish. The boat towed the 250+ miles home without any problem & was parked up on my back drive. Now the real fun (Ok hard work) began.

Boat Re-furbishment
Firstly it was obvious that the boat had been painted several times on the hull before (the top of the boat was original gel coat but pitted & faded) so the hull needed fully stripping down. We stripped off the side & bow rails & removed the bench seats & after preparing the top of the boat we turned it upside down & jet washed off the loose paint on the hull, I then applied some paint stripper & removed all the loose stuff before we sanded it down to finish off removing all the paint going from coarse to fine sand paper. The boat needed a little filling here & there, fibreglass kit is readily available from boat shops & car spares shops alike as are the various types of filler, however we later found a fibreglass supplier who sold the stuff much cheaper. Our advice is to read the boxes & ask in the shop for advise if your not sure what to use. Andy’s has done up a few classic cars in his time so this job was easy to him, even me who has not done too much before filling etc. before found it easy enough.
Timings
The key we found was to do a little work on the boat often, an hour or two here & there on a regular basis was better than trying to rush it all in one go. We had all the usual comments that you would expect from passers by including from an old submariner telling us about his experiences ‘during the war’ to comments like ‘they built the QE2 quicker’! At last all the sanding & filling was done & the boat was nice & smooth & beginning to look OK.
Painting
We toyed with the idea of painting the boat green but as it had originally been white with a blue top that’s what we went for, keeping the boat as original as possible. We went for white undercoat & White Gloss top coat for the hull & mid blue undercoat & mid blue gloss for the top. The best value boat paint we found was from the Rylard’s range, having used this & other paint ranges before, Rylard’s represents quality at a sensible price. We decided we did not have the facility available to us to spray the boat so it would be hand painted. We didn’t have anywhere inside to paint the boat so it would be painted outside on my back drive in the open air. We raised the boat up onto drums for painting to avoid excessive bending & to avoid dust. Fortunately we did not have to wait too long for some nice warm, dry weather in April suitable for painting. After some enquiries & advice on the web forum (thanks lads) we opted for long handled rollers with 4 inch foam rollers & foam brushes, which I must say saved time over brushing & gave a very nice finish. We gave the boat a test coat of undercoat & thankfully it looked good enough to continue to the top coat. The next day we applied another coat of undercoat & the day after gave it a very light sanding with fine sand paper. Then it was time to apply the top coat, we applied 3 coats of top coat, with the final coat left for a few days. I have seen the keel of many a boat get damaged & one boat I have owned the Orkney spinner had a strip of metal along the keel to prevent this, ‘keel band strip’ which prevented damage (found out this it’s official name on the P&P forum). After a bit of a tour of the internet I found some places that sold ‘keel band strip’ & although not cheap we figured if a jobs worth doing its worth doing properly so we bought some & it was easy enough to fit to the boat hull, sealing the screws as we went along. After this we turned the boat back upright & onto the trailer to finish off painting the top, which fortunately needed much less work.
Power
This gave us a bit of a challenge, due to the different waters we would be fishing & the various rules & regulations governing them, we decided that we needed the some options, as following –
Main engine - A powerful engine to get the boat on the plane to cope with the big lakes & lochs
Smaller/Auxilary engine - A smaller engine to be used as the main engine for the waters where we go that have a 5hp maximum rule, this could also be used as an auxiliary engine on the bigger waters (good idea face)
Electric - An electric trolling engine for waters where petrol outboards are not permitted such as Bala in North-Wales & for other uses such as float trailing
Main Engine -
We took advise on what it would take go get the boat on the plain & also found the boat to be rated to 40hp (at least). We decided to look for a big lump of an engine in the 20-30hp range, tiller control. As most boat owners probably know there are generally two sizes of engine short shaft & long shaft, this is dependant on the height of the transom(back) of the boat. Typically anything upto 16 ¾ inch is short shaft & anything over this although typically 20-22 inch is long shaft. There are added complications though lifeboats can be 18 inch (medium shaft) & some boats require an extra long shaft engine (transom of around 25 inch I believe). I read somewhere that there is an optimum for the trim plate to be 50mm under the water, it’s always best to check with a reputable supplier or the manufacturer if you are unsure, anyway I digress, our dory is 21 inch at the transom so it’s a long shaft. Our quest for the main engine was a bit of drawn out one, just when we thought we had found one the dealer we went to let us down, the owner constantly telling us to ‘ring him back next week’ it became like a vicious circle. In the end it became clear there was a problem so we didn’t ‘ring him back’ yet again. As 2 stroke engines are being phased out (by 2016 I believe on existing & can no longer be made/imported new) our preference was for a 4 stroke, they are also more economical, less polluting & quieter, on the down side they cost more to buy & are heavier than a 2 stroke. However a second hand 4 stroke matching our requirements can be a rare beast to find. My uncle came up trumps & found us a 25hp, 4 stroke Tohuatsu, 2005 model from a main dealer a trade in at a good price (thanks uncle Ed). It was a long drive down to Aldershot to collect the engine, but well worth it. Tohatsu I believe are made by Nissan & the reports from other anglers are very favourable, they are quite light for their class too. This engine will give us plenty of power when we need it moving long distance from swim to swim on large glacial lakes & when the weather gets bad, however it will slow right down for trolling deep diving lures. For really slow trolling & float trailing we will use an electric engine.
Smaller Engine/Auxilary -
Our old 4hp Yamaha would be no use on the venues we fish where power is restricted to a maximum of 5hp as it is a short shaft & the boat is long shaft, although it would have done for an auxiliary had we wished to fit a variable auxiliary bracket. So the 4HP Yamaha was sold. A smart 2006 model 4hp long shaft Tohatsu came up on the P&P boat fishing web forum at a reasonable price, this sounded just the ticket & as luck would have it was local to us, I nipped down to Southport & looked at the engine it was like brand-new & we bought it off its previous owner a keen Southport piker called Steve (thanks mate) & another good contact was made.


Electric
There are several makes & models available, personally I’ve found the Minn-Kota range to be the best, but with all the money we had already spent this was a luxury that we could not afford so it was back on e bay for a bargain. We needed something with as high a pounds thrust as possible (engines are generally rated in pounds thrust as opposed to horsepower). I have used several types before & the Zebco Rhino & Shakespeare outboards represent good value for money, I have used them before in the lower pounds thrust on smaller boats, so that’s what we were looking for but in the highest pounds thrust rating they do in these makes which is 54lb thrust (equivalent to about 2hp, or so I am told). Initially we drew a blank trying to find a bargain then a 54lb Shakespeare came up at a bargain price & it was less than an hour’s drive away. I went over & checked it out it was in good condition & another purchase was made.
Trailer
The trailer needed a little work re-aligning the rollers which we did before we did any work on the boat. Once the rollers were aligned the bolts were re-tightened & tack welded into place. For the cost of it, its always advisable to replace the wheel bearings on any second hand trailer you buy, so we did this & bought a spare set of bearings just incase. We replaced the trailer tyres with mini wheel tyres as these have a better rating, however with tyres its often better to spend a few extra quid rather than buy the cheapest make (as we found out!).
Extras
We decided to make the dory self draining into the bilge under the fitted floor so we fitted a boat plug to the rear of the boat floor & cut out a square of the fibreglass floor & fitted an electric bilge pump & then replaced the glass adding some matting. When we cut out the fibreglass to fit the bilge pump we found out that under the floor had been filled with buoyant foam so we dug some out to make a gallon or two’s bilge. We put a carpet throughout the floor of the boat, I have previously found gel back (rubber back) carpet very good for boats & use the office style (like carpet tiles but on a roll), a suitable sized piece in dark blue was obtained for £35 from the local carpet roll end place, this was easy enough to cut to shape with a sharp Stanley type knife. We decided not to fit boat seats & would use seat-boxes as this gave us the flexibility to move them around in the boat to suit the methods & venue etc. For rod holders I have used 40mm waste pipe & associated fittings before & this was no exception so the rods could be transported out of the way. I have always found bow & keel rollers to be very hand especially for good sized anchors, so these were also purchased & added. We are looking to add a charging circuit/lead to the engine to charge up a 12v battery for various uses, until then we have fitted a small solar panel to the battery box. We replaced the worn rope cleats with new ones. The boat transom engine mounting plates were taken off, cleaned up & re-fitted.
Fish finder/GPS
I have previously used a mid range Eagle fish finder & found them competitively priced & easy to use. I have also use a hand held GPS in the past, however both of these were sold to Matt with my Dejon boat. I have always liked the look of the combined fish finder/GPS units but it’s only the price that has ever put me off. I though I had found a reasonable priced second hand one but the seller would not budge on price, a price which I thought was a bit too much, then another one came up, a nearly new Eagle Cuda 240 Combined fish finder/GPS was purchased at a price that didn’t break the bank. This was mounted onto of a battery box so that we could move it around in the boat if we needed to.


Maiden Voyage
The time finally came for the boats maiden voyage, the boat was trailered upto a large glacial lake, she towed easily, we were keen to get the rods out at long last as most of our free time over the last three months had been spend doing up the boat. She launched no problem at all & off we went & she was soon christened with a couple of fighting fresh snappers. The weather was quite fine when we launched however as the day went on it deteriorated & the waves got upto over 3ft, with the wind howling & the rain lashing it down, it got to a point where some sailors on the lake had to be taken to safety by the rescue boat but the high sided dory handled it & the lake warden gave us a casual wave as he passed us on another mission. I managed one low double & Andy Cooke took the honours with two good doubles. The project now almost complete & the maiden voyage very much a success. At the end of the trip the boat was easily recovered back onto the trailer for the journey home, another piker came over admiring the boat telling us what a decent looking boat he thought it was, this was the icing on the cake for us.
So there we have it our bespoke high sided tri-hull Dory, long, wide, stable open top with a pull up cuddy & engine options for a reasonable price. So did we save any money doing it this way? Well that depends on how you look at it, you could buy a combined Dory, engine & trailer package for less than what we paid, in the end, however I have not seen any for sale that would have met our exact requirements so to me it’s been money well spent. Having just one boat (or half a boat actually being a co-owner) will certainly reduce my service & maintenance costs & trailering the boat eliminates costly storage fees. Also I feel that I will have an added sense of pride & achievement in the fish we catch from the boat & being able to tell other anglers that we re-furbished the boat our selves. I hope that this article is useful to you if you have a boat to buy or are thinking of refurbishing your existing boat. Since the test launch we have added some boat name & pike stickers to the hull to personalise it (see photos) & we are looking to add a spray screen, we have now had several good trips in the boat & we are both more than happy with its performance & specification, will this boat satisfy my boat requirements all round & long term though, well only time will tell…………….!
Tight Lines Jon Neafcy Wigan Piker

Pike welfare

Pike Welfare
The Pike…………….
The Pike an awesome beast of a predatory fish, king of its watery domain, hundreds of razor sharp teeth, perfect camouflage adapted to its surroundings, the ‘water wolf’, ‘fresh water shark’ are just a couple of it’s ‘nick-names’. I think the pike is the most impressive looking of fish, an efficient predatory machine, untouched by time! Tales of the pike go back as far as time itself. ‘The predator becomes the prey’ as is the title of that legendary book! On the bank however the pike is more vulnerable than many other species & needs the greatest of care.

This article covers what is undoubtedly the single most important topic in Pike fishing, pike welfare. The welfare of each & every pike we catch always has to be top of our list of priorities each & every-time we fish. As ET once said ‘we are not inheriting the pike we catch from the previous captor we are borrowing it from its next captor’. Today’s jacks are tomorrows 20’s! Pike welfare & pike fishing is primarily what the PAC stands for & on a personal basis it’s the primary reason of what my own membership is all about. If you don’t do all you can to care for the pike you catch & if you don’t return them in as good a condition as you catch them in, then in my opinion you do not deserve to call yourself a pike angler! Waters can & have been devastated by a lack of fish care.

The past
I started my piking as a lad back in the late 70’s (don’t I sound old!) catching my first pike at 8 years old, it was a huge monster of a fish of about 7 or 8 pounds, well at least it seemed like a monster to me as a young lad at the time! It was caught from a Lakeland venue that hardly saw any pike anglers around that time, these days its banks see many a piker! In those days pike welfare was not what it can be today. Fish were put in keepnets, some folk used gags & big pike were on occasion killed as ‘trophy fish’ & set up by the taxidermist. Many local clubs in my native north-west area were match orientated & pike were not well thought of & were often killed ‘as vermin’. Fortunately I had a forward thinking ‘mentor’ to show me the way & the PAC has come a long way in changing attitudes. However in contrast to today most of the ‘specialist’ items of tackle that we take for granted today were not readily available in them days & in a lot of cases if you wanted something ‘special’ you had to make it yourself. One of my favourite old items of tackle was a North-Western blanks fibreglass SS6 11ft 2.5lb test rod that I built myself at an early age, a rod that caught me many good doubles & my first 20 pound plus pike at the age of 13! Most of the piking was done from the bank except in areas such as Norfolk, there were no bait boats & casting distances were limited compared to today, so the fish in most waters had some ‘sanctuary’. We did not have the full workings of a motorway network (love it or hate it!) & not everyone had a car (or at least not a reliable one!). Digital Fish finders as we know them were unheard of & bite alarms were in their infancy, being at best electric as opposed to electronic. A computer would have filled a whole room & there was no world wide web!

Along the Way
I would like to recall a couple of memorable captures along the way one positive & one experience that left a nasty taste in the mouth…………………
The first occurred many years ago when I did not have many of the small luxuries of today. Fishing had to fit around doing lots of overtime at work & had to be very local. Living in sunny Wigan in Lancashire I had access to a couple of pike waters but I was by no means spoiled for choice! I opted for a local pit only a couple of miles from home to concentrate my efforts on it had been pike fished a little & had done a couple of decent doubles. The pit gave me a few reasonable fish for my efforts, nothing massive but some good doubles. One fish a 14lb pike I caught 3 times within the space of a year! It fought every inch of the way each time being taken from 3 different areas on 3 different baits & using different rigs! It put on a little weight which was good to see & had a naturally very distinguishing feature. When I moved on I put a mate onto the water who took a new PB – the very same fish a little bigger, he was made up. However that fish met a very sticky end when it was caught by someone with no angling ethics! He killed it as a trophy & took it down the local pub in a bin bag! A keen piker heard the tale & a heated exchange took place! The excuse given was that the person could not unhook the fish & had no camera – totally unacceptable! That fish had given me & others the pleasure of catching it & this was a disgraceful end to a fish that had the potential to grow much bigger.

More recently a more positive memory. I caught a pike from a large lake, in the summer months it went well over 19 pounds. I took it again in the winter at over 20, which was the angling highlight of the year for me. I later found out that a fellow piker had taken it the year before at 19. We were both pleased that the fish was doing well & had given us both memorable captures. The pike being well cared for on each encounter & continuing to grow, & there to give good sport to the next angler as it did when a fellow PAC member caught it slightly bigger, last I heard it had been caught again, again bigger & doing well.
The moral of these stories is that it only takes one careless angler to put a fish in danger or worse. If a fish is cared for by each & every captor then there is no reason why it can’t continue to thrive. If one angler miss-treats the fish on the bank then that could be its last capture!
Present
I myself have had a couple of enforced breaks from the sport due to working away & other things. I have seen great developments in tackle & techniques since my early days……………… boat fishing is extremely popular, electronic alarms are often the norm & most specialist items are readily available from the local tackle shop & if not by mail order or internet shopping. There is a wealth of pike fishing literature readily available, both electronic & paper, & angling has regular media coverage in weekly & monthly magazines & even on TV. We are more affluent as a nation than in the days of our forefathers & we seem to travel further a-field more & more & our fishing often seems to be no exception to this.
Until recently, over the past few seasons I have concentrated on boat fishing on large glacial lakes & as such have been able to ‘get away from the crowds’ or so to speak. Recently when a couple of old mates returned to the sport after a 20 year break I have spent a lot of time bank fishing ‘showing them the ropes’. It has been good to see them learn to handle the pike correctly & become proficient at it & take a few good fish. I have been surprised at how many people there are fishing for pike. A lot of anglers I have seen on the bank are recent converts to pike fishing or only fish for pike when chances of catching their usual quarry are not favourable. On many occasion these guys are not fishing with experienced pike anglers. Although I will always offer help & guidance to individuals I meet on the bank, this is not always well received & has been ‘thrown back in my face’ on more than one occasion, however it is still given none-the-less! Each to their own & not everyone is or has to be an out & out piker like me! I have no problem with anyone fishing for pike provided that they do so in a responsible manner that does not compromise the welfare of the pike or others fishing. For some piking will be a flash in the pan & for others it will become an obsession, almost a way of life. We have to face it, like it or not there are more people out there fishing for pike so pike welfare is even more paramount.
The PAC
I first joined the PAC as a junior member & the RO of the local branch was kind enough to take me piking now & again & on my very first club outing I took a sizable ‘pot’ for biggest fish, the prize money being an awesome amount of about £30 pounds! That was enough to buy me a new rod I had my eye on! Until recently I had dropped out of the regional scene. Many of the anglers I have seen pike fishing are still not members of the PAC. We are all missing out on a golden opportunity here! None PAC members are missing out on a wealth of experience, guidance & a social side to the sport within the club. The sport is missing out on increased PAC funds with which to protect the fish, the fishing & our rights as pike anglers. We as individual piker’s are missing out as the pike are endangered by being caught by anglers who are unable to care for them correctly. Guidance given on behalf of the PAC at a meeting, a PAC outing or in a pikelines magazine or on the web-site may be much more well received than from an unknown nosey ‘no it all’ on the bank! The region of the PAC I am currently in has a very enthusiastic & experienced RO & assistance RO & a great set of keen pike anglers of varying experience from the novice to the veteran, well attended monthly meetings, often with a slideshow, a great monthly newsletter & a regular club outing, we all learn from each other. In the greater PAC there are privileged access events & a great magazine in pikelines, a great web site & a whole host of other membership benefits.
Do’s & Don’ts
The PAC has given us a great ‘bible’ in the code of conduct to guide us. From a personal point of view:-
Landing net – of a good size my bank net is a 50 inch triangular mixed mesh & my boat net is a large round lure-safe mesh net with folding handle, always the first item set up & the last to be put away
Always use a good sized unhooking matt, I keep a large sized weigh sling (both wet), scales & forceps at the side of this
Unhooking equipment – 8 & 12 inch forceps or similar with the unhooking mat & a spare pair in my top pocket.
Camera – if fishing alone I set this up on a tri-pod in advance (kept in my rucksack for security)
Sack the sack! Don’t retain fish unnecessarily only do so as an absolute last resort for the minimum amount of time & not for trophy shots of multiple catches etc. If you do need to retain a fish only do so in a decent pike tube.
Ensure you have good early bite indication & strike immediately!
Remember that if each & every captor treats the pike well & looks after its safety & welfare on the bank, then it can prosper & grow. Visa-versa if just one captor mistreats the pike it could die. Pike suffer through ignorance & complacency, the former being generally apportioned to the ‘newer’ pike anglers, however the latter can be just as bad. I once witnessed a large pike caught by a very experienced piker that after weighing & photographing although it looked ready to be put back, it was ‘sacked up’ all day & well into if not overnight for reasons only known to the captor, possibly hoping to catch another big pike for a multiple capture photo? Who knows. That pike was undoubtable one of (if not the biggest) in the venue. Two weeks later I found a large pike with the same certain characteristics dead, was this the fish the very same one that had been sacked up? (I certainly suspect so!) If so did sacking it up so long lead to its demise? I fished the unfortunate creature out of the water & buried it, R.I.P, a tragic waste of a good fish that looked as though it had been stuck down in it’s prime!
The future
The future of the sport we love would not be as secure without the work of the good work of the PAC. If there is no voice for the sport or if the PAC took its eye off the ball then we could easily see a deteriation. If you are a novice reading this publication then I hope that this will encourage you to join the PAC. If you are veteran piker I would urge you to protect ‘your’ pike & your own fishing by instilling good angling practice in others, by example & in a positive manner.
‘Doing your bit’……………………….
An essential is that we look after the welfare of each & every pike we catch. The more experienced should ‘lead by good example’. Recently I went ‘on air’ at BBC Radio Lancashire with Martin James on his programme ‘at the water’s edge’ on the subject of Pike welfare as it’s something that I feel strongly about.
A change of work locations will see me spending more time in my native town & I am hoping to start up a region of the PAC to promote pike fishing in the local area & to pick up where others have left off. If you are a piker in my area I hope to see you there………………………… Who ever you are & wherever you live do your bit, look after your Pike & your pike fishing & do your bit………………
Tight lines Jon Neafcy

My best lure caught pike

My Best Lure Caught Pike
Jon Neafcy (Wigan Piker!)
The memorable capture that I am about to relate to you took place at Easter Weekend 2007, at Coniston Water (Coniston) or Thurston Water as it is less commonly known, which lies in the South of the Cumbrian Lake-district. The lake is over 5 miles long & 800m wide with depths of upto approximately 170ft covering an area of 1.89 square miles, it drains into the sea via the River Crake. It sits in a glaciated valley scoured out during the last ice age, so it’s about as natural a lake as you can get! It is in truly splendid scenery & is much less busy than near by Windermere & it truly is a most magnificent venue to fish.
I guess the beginnings of this story starts when I first fished Coniston as a child, with my uncle, we fished for the lake trout, char & pike & my uncle had pike upto 18lb. My first days fishing at the venue was for lake (brown) trout) off a large rock on the East shore, we caught a few trout that day. Me, my uncle & his mate had some good catches amidst the terrific Lakeland scenery. Ever since my first visit, I have been drawn to the place both for fishing & other pursuits, for a number of reasons. As a Donald Campbell fan the nostalgia & tragic history of the Bluebird has always been of interest to me. The Island from the book ‘Swallows & Amazons’ by Arthur Ransome is infact Piel Island on Coniston, Brantwood house the home of John Ruskin is on the East Shore, shrouded in history & all it’s grandeur, the steam ‘yacht' Gondola that frequents the lake, the mighty hill that is the Coniston ‘old man’, the Blackball pub in the village with its own brewery (good stuff, too good, trust me!) & mouth watering home made food, all bring back fond memories for me. So what of the pike of the mighty Coniston? Well it has produced a 33 that turned up again at 38 (see Neville’s book), & there is a photo of a 25+ in one of the local shops, so it has to be well worth a go, however don’t go expecting to catch such a fish as what there are of such ‘lumps’ are very thin on the ground & they are very, very elusive. Add to this that Coniston is one of the venues covered by the lake-district bait ban of no live baits & no fresh water dead baits, however I like a challenge!
From that first trip to Coniston as a child, fishing for trout, fast forward more years than I care to remember, to just over three years ago when I had my first decent boat an Orkney Spinner, boat storage at Windermere proved unavailable or too expensive, I dropped on & secured a place at Coniston boating centre from Easter, fees were reasonable & for a rolling 12 months as opposed to Jan-Dec, excellent, just what I needed. The lads that have their boats in the yard & who work there are a friendly bunch. Initially I fished from the boat alone whilst I got to know the lake, as usual I ‘did it my way’. One lad from Manchester who has a boat in the yard & regularly fishes the lake for pike told me ‘It will take you 3 years to catch a 20 from here mate, that’s what it took me’! In three years he had had some good catches but he had only caught, & had only seen one over the magical 20+ mark, a low 20. So that was to be my aim to catch a 20+ Coniston pike, quite a challenge indeed! My first pike from the boat on Coniston went 7.10 no monster but a memorable capture as a first Coniston boat caught Pike. Since then I have fished the lake many, many times both from the boat & from the bank, I have had some excellent fishing trips with upto 16 fish in a weekend being boated, & many, many good doubles being caught. It has not been all ‘easy’ I have endured some terrible weather conditions & some grueling blanks. It seemed for a while that just when you though you were doing well & getting to know the venue & getting amongst the fish the next trip would be a total blank! Many experienced anglers who have fished or who do fish the venue have not had a 20+ pike from it, making them very much sought after elusive beasts! A summary of all the info from all manner of sources that I gathered along the way all pointed to the same conclusion ‘can be a good doubles water, very, very few 20’s but it has done the odd ‘lump’’.
I have had some memorable fishing trips in the boat & on the bank at Coniston, both alone, with my family, & with good mates such as John Sands from Chester & fellow Wiganer’s Andy Cooke & Paul Haughton. I have many photos of the lake & of its pike, every picture speaking a thousand words & each & every one a catalyst to good memories for me. It has been good to share these trips with both my family & my good mates. It’s good to see a mate catch his first pike from Coniston on a mark that you have put him onto.
Fast forward again, this time to three years on, to the day ‘or so to speak’ from my first putting the boat on Coniston, ‘Easter weekend’. The Orkney spinner replaced some while ago by a Dejon 14, now with three years boat fishing the lake ‘under my belt’, a few ‘new tricks’ learned & many fish, including many good doubles caught, but still no 20 to my rods from Coniston, I’ve had 20’s from other venues during this time but not from Coniston, never seen a 20 caught on Coniston either & I have heard of very few over 20 caught during that period! I have not lost many pike on Coniston at all & the odd one I have lost has certainly not been any better fish than the ones I have caught, so no tales of ‘the one that got away’ for me here! During the last 3 years I had on several occasions considered switching ‘target venues’ from Coniston to Windermere which I fished much more lightly & which had a much better pedigree for 20’s, however being a stubborn man I just couldn’t move on without achieving my target of catching a 20+ pike from Coniston! Experience on some grueling waters including some rock hard local Wigan venues over the years had taught me that perseverance usually pays off, so I stuck it out on Coniston. Due to the birth of my daughter restricting my finances the Dejon is going to have to be sold, me & my mate Andy Cook (Cookey two brews) have bought an old high sided Dory between us to do up. No more luxuries of boat storage for me, I will be trailering to & from venues from now on! A mate fire fighter Matt Keoh offers to buy the Dejon, so I don’t even need to advertise it! Matt’s boat fishing experience is on the Norfolk Broads & shallow rivers, a different ‘ball-game’ than the big, deep, glacial lakes. We agree a weekend’s fishing to hand over the boat & show Matt the ropes.
It is with mixed feelings that I make my way upto Coniston, Easter weekend 2007, on the one hand it’s the ‘end of an era’ in some ways to me. The Dejon has served me well, is totally original & in mint condition, I will be sorry to see it go, but such is life, no doubt she will serve her new owner equally as well. Doing up the Dory is hard going, it needs a full re-ferb & we never anticipated that it would take as long as it is doing, I digress as the mind wanders on the hour & a half’s journey to Coniston, one I have made many, many times before! On the other hand, I am also, as always, glad to be going on a weekends fishing trip. It will be Matt’s first fishing trip on the venue, so I’m keen that he catches, I don’t want to let him down. After a very good start to 2007 with many decent pike caught to my rods me & Andy have not fished for a month due to our boat project, we are desperate to get the rods out fishing again!
Arrival & the boat is launched ‘one last time’, me & Andy Cooke fish the morning & early afternoon on the boat, Matt is coming up later. Me & Andy try several what can be often be good spots, we bait-fish & lure fish, we fail to catch, one dropped run to me (very unusually) & Andy lost one on a lure (that would have been his first ever lure caught pike – unlucky Andy mate!). We meet up with Matt in the afternoon & use the boat as a vehicle to trans-ship the gear to an area we can all bank-fish from. The rods go out just over the shelf on ledgered dead-baits, almost immediately, as can often happen on the large glacial lakes, the move produces the results & I’m in, as my rod ‘comes to life’! It’s just below double, the typical stamp of Coniston pike. These Coniston pike are in top condition, the water is so clear they can be very dark backed, they have terrific markings & are good fighters pound for pound, being true wild beats! The rod with the very same bait on is cast back out onto a drop off. Matt’s rod is next to go producing a lively ‘snapper’, Matt is made up even if its only small it’s his first Coniston fish, we all have to start somewhere. Shortly after my rod goes again, with a similar stamp of fish. Again the same bait goes back to the same spot. Andy Cooke’s is anxious & full of anticipation, as he always is if someone else catches before him, his rod goes next & he lands a small snapper, good sport we have all caught! What is now my ‘3rd time lucky bait’ goes & I get a modest double, Matt insists on a quick photo, as it’s the first Coniston double that he has seen. I’m glad we have all caught, all be it slightly for personal reasons, the lads would have given me some right stick if we had blanked! Then it goes quiet & just as quickly as the action started it has ceased. The evening is spent swapping fish tales & giving Matt some more gen-up on Coniston, Andy Cooke re-counts the capture of his first Coniston pike to Matt, I already know the tale as I was their (it was taken on one of my rods that I lent to him & it was an immaculate low double), enthusiasm is, as always high, we always enjoy our fishing.
The next morning the baits are in, mine goes just after first light, & a small snapper puts in an appearance. Andy Cook elects to bank fish & me & Matt go out on the boat. It’s windy early morning that day which makes Matt’s first attempts at deep water anchoring fun! I show Matt a few marks, working our way up the lake as we go. The phone goes a text from Andy he’s in just below double & maybe his luck is flagging as he has also lost a bigger one. Matt gets a run & a lively snapper is boated, Matt’s first Coniston boat caught pike, no monster but good fun. We bait fish a couple more areas to no avail. The silence is broken in a quiet bay on the West side of the lake that we are fishing in by ‘beep-beep’ as Andy’s white van goes past, he has to be back home in time for tea today.
The baits are not producing the goods for us in the boat today & it’s a little warmer now, maybe the pike want a moving target. Never one to give in easily I suggest a change of method, it’s time to try some deep water lure trolling in a different area of the lake, a method that I have had some success with & a method that Matt is keen to get to grips with. I let Matt use my most productive deep water trolling lure a deep invader, it’s a bit battered showing the war wounds of it’s conflicts with many a pike! I opt for a depth tail, this is a second generation version of the ‘infamous’ raider lures, it has a solid front body with a grub like rubber tail, this lure has produced a few fish for me. I show Matt the gear & explain the technique. We use the fish-finder to troll along the shelf, using the hand-held GPS to retain what I have founds to be the optimum ‘take’ speed on the lake. We troll for a couple of miles along marks which have produced well for me in the past, but they are not producing today, not so far anyway! At the end of the ‘productive area’ I suggest to Matt that we turn round & go over it again at a slightly different course, a ploy which has worked for me in the past. Matt offers to steer the boat & off we go, Matt is a quick learner & is doing well steering us over the drop off & adjacent to other underwater features any one of which could hold our sought after prize, a feeding pike! We get about half way along our chosen area & just as Matt steers the boat around a shallow ‘rock finger’ that comes up in the lake, working our lures in the deeper drop off just beyond it, suddenly my rod loops round, it’s not ‘springing or bouncing’ like it normally does with a fish, but it’s not quite the steady curve of a snag either. Engine quickly in neutral, bait run off, rod up & wind down! Initially there is totally solid resistance, is it a snag? Then it comes to life! The wind has got up again & we are very close to the shelf now & the back anchor is dropped down & tied off to keep us out of danger. This is no snag, I gain line, it’s a good fish, as she come to the top for the first time Matt says ‘she’s a 20 mate’ I agree, the adrenalin is now flowing & the old heart beat is racing, the anxious moment, so near but yet still so far as she nears the boat, her ample frame thrashing for freedom, to wait three long years to hook such a fish & then to lose her at the 11th hour would be a tragedy to me! I normally net all my own fish, I always have. Matt offers to do the honors of netting though & on this occasion without hesitation I accept, I pull her over the net & Matt nets her expertly (thanks mate). She is swiftly unhooked in the boat, as I look at her she is a true wild beast of a fish, immaculate, superb markings, pure power, in top condition, maybe she has not seen a hook before, who knows? We are both truly in awe of this awesome creature, she is carefully placed in the wet weigh sling like the precious treasure that she is, the Rueben Heaton scales are at the ready & Matt does the honors. As he lifts her in the sling we both guess her weight, Matt goes for 22 or 22.8 & I go for 23.8. Matt lets the needle settle on the scales & then shows me, we go for the lowest possible weight which turns out to be 23.7! What a guess I was only an once out! We are both absolutely made up & Matt takes a few quick photos before she is carefully slipped back no worse for wear, she swims off & straight back down to her deep watery home, flicking my face with water from her large tail as she goes. Matt is genuinely happy for me, never have I seen an angler so happy for a mate’s capture in fact! The mind strays to all my previous experiences on the lake as the achievement sinks in. We do a bit more trolling but no more fish are forthcoming. We decide unusually to celebrate by retiring to the pub, the Black bull I the village, we eat Haddock & chips each & sink a few pints of Bluebird bitter, nice! It sank in that not only was this my first Coniston 20+, it was in fact my first 20+ lure caught pike! It had took some time in coming, but in the end through sheer perseverance I had got their.
What was that the Manc lad said to me when I first put my boat on Coniston ‘It will take you three years to get a 20 from here’, I took this with the proverbial ‘pinch of salt’ at the time, but little did anyone know how right he would be, it actually took me 3 years to the exact weekend to catch a 20+ from the lake! Subsequent further enquiries about other 20’s from the lake reveal them to me most illusive & what there are of them to generally be ‘scraper’ 20’s with most ‘ceiling weights’ in high doubles, making the 23.7 extra special to me. There is no doubt that this was a very fitting way to end the era of my association with my Dejon boat & the boat storage yard at Coniston. We have very little time to admire the pike that we catch ‘in the flesh’, pike welfare must always come first & we need to get them back ASAP, however we have the photos to capture a ‘moment in time’ & this is a capture that will always be in my ‘minds eye’. My uncle Graham Boyle died tragically many years ago after a day’s boat fishing on Windermere & he never did get to catch a Lakeland 20+, so I hope that in his memory that this is a capture that he too would be most proud of.
Will I be back to Coniston again having now accomplished my ‘goal’? You bet I will as an enthusiastic piker they don’t all have to be 20’s do they? I enjoy fishing & each & every pike I catch is welcomed, looked after & returned safely. This is not the story of the capture of my personal best pike but it’s certainly the story of one of the most enjoyable & memorable ones.
This winter I will be setting up a PAC region in the area where I live in Soth Lancashire (Wigan), maybe I will see you there? I wish you all well in your own fishing.
Tight Lines
Jon Neafcy
Wigan Piker

Deep Deep Down

Deep, Deep, Down……………….
By Jon Neafcy
Controversy
Recent discussions suggest that there appears to be some controversy over the effectiveness of trolling lures, particularly on the large glacial lakes, without downriggers, as a method to catch big pike. Some experienced piker’s have tried & given up with the method, others discount it, so why is this? Some piker’s see the method as a means of catching small pike only, others doubt it’s capability as they do not feel that the lure is at the optimum depth, in the stike zone consistently enough. I thought that I would share my experiences of the method with you.
Fascination
I caught my first lure caught pike as a young boy on a tiny Mepps spinner & I have had a fascination with lures & lure fishing for many years, I own several lure rods & a large collection of lures, I have everything from surface crawlers, to lures that only dive just below the surface on the retrieve & all manner of sub-surface lures, numerous makes, designs, colours, shapes & sizes, some are very fish like & some are downright mutant looking creatures. In addition to casting lures the Trolling lures offers another valuable tool in our armoury as pike anglers, a method that can on its day, & has produced some excellent results for me. I like the variety that Pike fishing offers & I enjoy both bank & boat fishing, static & roving methods & whilst I have had many good days boat fishing with float-fished static baits, a method I often employ is trolling deep diving lures on large glacial lakes & reservoirs. However there are those who only bait fish or those who only use casting lures, so each to their own, personally I like the potential that using of a range of methods can offer. Many, many years ago I first trolled but not for pike, we fished for lake trout & Char, using a variety of spinners & spoons etc., the method proved very effective at times both with & without downriggers, we rowed the boat & that was often the hard part controlling the boat in the wind on a big glacial lake. That was how I cut my teeth at trolling so to speak. I have had some good days pike fishing trolling lures, I don’t claim to be a trolling expert or anything & I realise that much has been wrote about this method before (but what method hasn’t?). I thought it may be of interest to go through some of the details from my own experience that have helped me to put a few extra fish in the boat for those who fancy giving this, what can be a productive method, a go. I will re-count some memorable captures of trolled lure caught pike along the way…………….
Why?
Simple! As I have already said, I have enjoyed many good days fishing trolling lures, including venue personal bests on two waters. This I have been able to pas-on to other pikers like newcomer to piking my mate Andy Cooke who took his current p.b. on a trolled lure whilst we were fishing together! I will often troll lures in several circumstances. Firstly it’s a good method to cover a lot of water, also trolling a new venue can help top locate underwater features & prey fish shoals etc. quickly, when you locate the fish trolling you can anchor up & bait or lure (casting) fish that area if you choose to do so or you can continue to troll over the same area again, a ploy that can work. Secondly I use trolling lures as an alternative to live baiting where live baits are not permitted. Thirdly I use trolling as a change of method when tactics such as static bait-fishing fail to produce. Do not think that trolling lures is just a ‘back up method’ only to be tried when all else fails, or so to speak, as it is most certainly worthy of more merit than that. On some venues that I have fished trolling lures is very effective. On one reservoir that I fish I will often leave the bait fishing gear at home & just take the trolling gear & a modest selection of lures, on this venue when its not freezing cold trolling lures has consistently out-fished bait fishing for me. I have taken fish upto 23.7 trolling on the large glacial lakes.
Method/s
The main method that I will cover here is the use of deep driving vane’ lures fished at various depths trolled behind the boat. I will also touch on the use of lead heads such as bull-dawgs & replicants as these require different a slightly different approach. As for choice of power for the boat whilst trolling, I personally generally troll with the petrol outboard (where permitted) when using vaned lures & with lead heads I will often use the electric engine. I seldom troll under my own steam by rowing anymore, I use an outboard engine, I guess that’s just laziness on my part & for convenience. I rarely troll any faster than a reasonable walking pace with vaned lures (3-4mph), often slower, it depends on the trolling depth & the lure/s used, for lead heads you need to go slower (more details later). The basics of the method for me is to propel the boat forward whilst letting the lure out of the back of the boat, to the side, once the desired amount of line is out to fish the lure at the required depth then I adjust the bait run & put the rod in the rest. I don’t ‘cast’ the lures out anymore when trolling I merely flick them out of the side of the boat & then use the bait run on ‘free spin’ (lowest setting) to allow the lure to dive, if necessary with my thumb on the spool, as the lure drives, I can see & feel the lure start to dive right away, this saves the odd ‘rouge’ cast where the lure for what ever reason e.g. hooks tangled, fails to dive. The amount of line put out to get the lure to the required trolling depth depends on several factors including - the lure itself, the diameter of braid used & the trolling speed. I never use mono for trolling due to its stretch properties & its thicker diameter. Some lures that are suitable for trolling have information supplied with them on the approximate depths they will dive with various diameters of line at various trolling speeds which is good as a general guide when selecting lures. It’s basically a matter of trail & error until you get to know the performance of your set up, more about the lures themselves later.
Tackle?
This is very much a personal choice thing & many different set-ups are available from many retailers. Unlike many other pikers I do not use multipliers for my lure fishing, I realise these are good tools & my mate John Sands puts them to good use on his lure rods, however they are just not for me. I have used several different set ups & my advice is simple - choose a robust set up to cope with the stick the gear can get, a set up that you yourself are happy with. After trial & error I have settled for 6.6ft heavy jerk bait rods matched with a smallish Shimano bait runner reel (3500 original or 5000 aero) & at least 50lb braid & I personally use the solid jerk bait traces for trolling. A reasonable selection of lures is required to cover various depth ranges (I will cover some of the lures that I use later). I use the danica/fladen/Berkley style rod holders to hold the rods in place whilst trolling, doing this one angler can troll two rods, when two of us are in the boat then we only use one trolling rod each. I sometimes hold the rod whilst on the troll. What ever suits you ensure that you are vigilant & keep a watchful eye on the rod/s. I have a large boat landing net with lure-proof mesh, this is always kept readily available, close at hand. I find that needle nosed pliers or the fox/ET style long nose pliers are better for removing lures than forceps. The boat floor is lined with carpet & a large unhooking mat for pike welfare. A set of wire cutters is carried just in-case I ever need to cut the hooks or in case of accident etc. A fish-finder is invaluable for trolling & I use a hand held GPS (I’m just upgrading to a combined GPS/Fish finder). Early experiments for me with the GPS have been more to establish the trolling speeds at which takes occur more than for chart plotting etc., however I will be using more of the many features on the new model I’ve purchased. Another handy item of tackle is the line counter, this simply fastens to the rod & the line flows through it giving a reasonably accurate reading of the amount of line out, useful in conjunction with the fish-finder/GPS for judging lure diving/line out/Speed ratios, I only use the line counter whilst the lure is diving releasing the line from the line counter this whilst fishing.


Know how
I find that it’s generally a good idea to try to find features to troll, often on large glacial lakes & reservoirs I have trolled the drop offs to good effect, I have also trolled near to other features such as boat moorings, inlets & other areas of interest. However I have also caught fish in flat featureless areas, covering a low of water enabling you to pick up the odd fish or two. It is not uncommon in my experience to find areas where takes will often occur time after time & other areas that will be barren of pike activity. Often I will set lures to trip the bottom, this has induced many a take for me, when tripping the bottom you can get snagged, however in the boat you can usually manage to free them. Takes have also occurred trolling lures sub-surface at various depths over water much deeper than the lures diving depth, however in my experience these are generally from the smaller pike. You can use other factors such as weather conditions, water temperature, wind direction & speed, location & depth of prey fish to assist you in selection of lure, likely areas & trolling depth. Generally the faster you troll & the more braid you have out with a diving lure the deeper it will go upto its maximum, if you go too fast some lures spin & come to the surface. It’s best not to have excessive line out & personally 30-40yrds is my maximum limit. When turning the boat around until you become experienced reel the lures in to avoid tangles or fouling the prop. It’s usually easy to differentiate a take from the lure getting snagged with the action of the rod tip & most experienced anglers will have no trouble differentiating the erratic pull of a fish (like the bit when quivertiping) to the straight wrap round of a snag, otherwise again its trial & error. When you do get a take you don’t need to strike as such, disengage the bait run, lift the rod & wind down. I suspect that the majority of fish hook themselves on this method. If the boat is drifting too near too danger when playing a fish then I drop the back anchor.
‘Lead heads’
I once heard the bull-dawg style lures referred to as snag finders (I’ll let you make your own mind up on that one) through they can undoubtedly be good fish catchers & have taken many, many big pike they are not one of my personal favourite lures of choice, although I do own & have used a few. I prefer the replicant type lures, amongst others, but maybe that’s just me. To troll with these type of lures, lead heads, as I call them (& I use the same methods to troll spoons) bear in mind that as they do not have a diving vane that if you go too fast they will come up towards the surface due to the pull on the line from the boat, so troll these lures at a slower speed than those with a diving vane. With these lead head type of lures (& spoons) I generally make a note of at what speed they are work/are active from & then troll at that minimum speed to keep them deep down in the water, by doing this you can fish them deep, deep, down. So again it’s a fine balance between not going so slow that the lure is in-active & not working, or too fast that it rises too high in the water.
Memorable Captures
Some memorable captures of good pike caught on trolled lures. The first was on a large reservoir. I got the tackle ready the day before as usual, which was a mild day. On waking up the next morning it started off as a cold day. The chosen venue usually produces the goods on lures, both cast & trolled, particularly trolled, on this occasion, I had also taken the bait fishing gear as a back up. Cold weather & cold water temperature with no takes on the lures saw me bait fishing, without a run. I have used again as a guide the surface water temperature to judge the minimum trigger temperature for takes, on this particular venue I have not had a take on a lure at a surface temp of below 40f. The temperature warmed up as the day went on, warming upto to just below 40, I reeled the bait rods in & started to troll, initially no takes were forthcoming. As the surface water temperature rose to just above 40 I got a take on one of my favourite lures the Rapala Rap-Shad. This resulted in a venue best pike for me of 17.10, I was made up. Fishing alone the camera & tri-pod were set up, a couple of quick photos & she was slipped back. Had I stuck it out bait fishing would I have caught? I only had the one take that day, but in the end that was all the opportunity that I needed to boat a decent pike.
The second capture was whilst boat fishing a large glacial lake, we had taken a few fish that trip on baits to double figures but it had gone quite. So we decided to troll along an area that can produce the goods. The first troll along the shelf at about the low 20ft mark failed to produce so we turned round & went over the area again, slightly further out, & slightly faster in about 25ft, a ploy that has worked before. As we reached the midway point around a good underwater feature, my rod went. Initially when I picked up the rod there was no movement, was I snagged?! No it started to move, it was a good fish, when it reached the surface my boat fishing partner that day Fire fighter Matt Keoh said ‘its defo a 20+’, I agreed, although I usually net my own fish Matt offered to do the honours (he is no slouch with the net), so I let him do the honours & he netted her expertly. She was quickly unhooked & Matt confirmed her weight to be 23.7, my P.B. for a lure caught pike. A few quick photos & she was returned flicking me with water with her tail as she went. Had we ‘stuck it out’ on the baits would we have caught this fish?
The third capture did not come to my rods but to newcomer to piking my mate Andy Cooke. Andy often has itchy feet & is always keen to try other areas of the larger lakes at random, however on this occasion we were trolling one of my favourite hotspots on a glacial lake, an area that often produces the goods to trolled lures, when other areas fail to produce. We were trolling in the 20ft+ depth band with the lures set to just trip the bottom a fair bit of the time & we got snagged up several times, then Andy’s rod started to bounce & he took his first lure caught pike on a trolled lure going 15.3. Half an hour later Andy set himself a new p.b. with a magnificent 19lb trolled lure fish setting himself an admirable target to beat in the future.

The Lures
Most of my trolling with lures is done in approximately the 10-30 ft range. I have in the past experimented with but no longer find it necessary for my fishing to use down riggers, preferring the use of self diving lures. I have experimented with assister vanes to get the lures to dive more deeply & although I have caught fish using these I don’t generally need to use them. I have used several of the well known lure suppliers including the Lure shack, Sovereign Super baits, Harris Angling & Neville Fickling’s Tackle-shop as well as the local tackle shops etc. Many companies such as Rapala, Musky Mania, Joe-Bucher, Mann’s, Storm & many others make some decent deep diving lures in various shapes, sizes, colours & patterns that are suitable for trolling. You can often get information from the supplier on how deep they will dive whilst trolling to use as a general guide for your own fishing. I will list a few of my own favourites that are well worth a try. Lures can be expensive, what I did whilst building my lure collection was to buy one lure a week to spread the cost, you don’t need a huge range of lures to catch fish, although it’s nice to have a decent selection available to use, some times I stick to the old favourites that have caught me many fish, other times I try something new, there are lures in my boxes that have not been used yet (come on Pikers I bet I’m not the only one) & I think that there is a fine line between being a lure angler & ending up a being a lure collector. Once again it’s a personal choice of how much expendable cash you have & how much you fish. Due to available space here I have limited the range of lures that I have listed here to two or three of each depth band as a starting point or to give you a change of lure if you need one. The info below is approximate only by depth band range as an indication ONLY & it’s best to experiment with the lures yourself (remember diving depth varies with line diameter/amount of line/trolling speed):
Shallow Range (may go 10-15ft)
Rapala ‘Super Shad Rap’’, infamous hard bodied lure, many good patterns
Musky Innovations ‘Shallow Invader’, rubber tail, black & silver or perch work for me.
Joe Bucher ‘Shallow Tail’, these lures are the second generation from the great shallow raider series, these lures are basically a cut down version of the old raiders with a grub type rubber tail
Deep Range (15-20+)
Musky Innovations ‘Deep Invader’, This lure has a solid main body & a rubber tail, it will dive to over 20ft, the silver & black pattern has worked well for me particularly on waters containing a lot of roach, the perch pattern has also been a good produces for me.
Joe Bucher Depth Tail, , these lures are the second generation from the great depth raider series, these lures are basically a cut down version of the old raiders with a grub type rubber tail these will dive to 20+
Very Deep Range (25+)
Mann’s ‘Magnum Stretch (30+)’, A large solid bodied lure that is available in various models to suit different diving depths, my favourite is the 30+, a real big boy of a lure that dives unassisted as the name says to over 30+! It’s worth saying that its smaller brothers that don’t dive as deep are also well worth a go. Holographic/prism style & red head have worked well for me.
‘Megabait’ (30+)! Very similar characteristics to the above lure. The large 30+ diver has caught me a good few fish. The colours/finish are a little different from the above but again the prism/holographic work well for me.
Storm ‘Deep Thunder’, Again a solid bodied lure, this lure is modestly priced & has put a few decent fish in the boat, it will in my experience dive upto about 25ft+ (rated to 30ft), the metallic finish ones have worked best for me.
So there we have a reasonable selection of lures that will get us trolling at depths from 10-30ft+
We all have our own little tricks to improve methods & there are more than there is room to list here, some of you may do things a little differently, each to their own. I hope that this has given you an interesting & thought provoking in-sight into trolling with lures.
Tight Lines
Jon Neafcy
(Wigan Piker)