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