WELCOME TO this week’s Big Fish Blog, coming to you here every Thursday. This time it’s by Dave Mutton of the Pike Anglers Club. We hope you enjoy the blog, and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icons above!
The Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain are part of the Big Fish Blog team for www.anglersmail.co.uk
AS I write this I am trying to work out where to go piking this weekend.
I am desperately missing the Warwickshire Avon as I love wandering along its banks with a float ledger setup on a deadbait rod casting into likely looking holes. Unfortunately, for the last couple of weeks the river has been racing through and is the colour of chocolate.
Pike can still be caught when it is like this but it is far easier with a little less flow and colour. However, as the colour drops out and the flow subsides a bit the pike can often come back on the feed with a vengeance. So even though it is still high, it is now starting to drop so I may well chance my arm.
If your local river is in the same condition as the Avon, why not give it a go, a big girl may well be hungry.
On a cautionary note, if you are out on the river banks over the next couple of weeks, be careful as they will be very slippery. I would advise wearing a life jacket even when fishing from the bank in these kinds of conditions.
PAC blog writer Dave Mutton
On the subject of location, the submission below by Matthew Perring, a PAC member from Banbury, Oxfordshire and a new contributor to our Big Fish Blog for Angler’s Mail, gives some food for thought with his tactic for finding where the pike may be….
Location, location, location, I kept reading those immortal words but they never hit home until one day when I was aimlessly chucking lures on my local river Cherwell and blanking, may I add.
I must’ve walked 8 miles that day in search of an elusive predator, when I finally got fed up and started the long walk to my car.
Now on the way back my route took me along the oxford canal, where I saw about 20 matchmen all in a neat little line. Now me being quite sociable decided to stop for a chat and find out if they were having any luck. When he replied “Yes I was until the pike started to turn up, I think they’ve spooked the roach.”
Now this got me thinking. Firstly whether or not to feed a swim attracting the baitfish, which is not an unusual thing to do as I also usually target perch and this tactic can be deadly.
The second thing I thought about is perhaps if I was to read up on my local match fishing reports to see which lakes and hopefully pegs were producing plenty of silver fish, thus putting me in the perfect position to ambush the pike and usually with brilliant accuracy.
Matt Perring with proof his predator hunting via matches is working!
I even went up to one of my local lakes and fished the winning peg directly after the match which proved to be a superb and very productive session.
In fact since I started to look at the match results my results have improved so much that I haven’t fished a venue for months unless I’ve checked on the potential first.
I’m not saying it’s to everyone’s liking as I used to turn up to venues and fish blind and immediately deal with the situation that I found myself faced with, but if your pushed for time or are just fed up with struggling then have a go for yourself and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised .
PAC coaching for youngsters
The PAC, in conjunction with the Angling Trust will be running a series of pike fishing tutorials on the Coventry Canal at the Coventry Canal Basin every Saturday from 9am to 12pm from mid-February to the end of March.
This course is open to anyone between the ages of 11-24. It is free to participate for under 18’s and for 18 to 24 year olds it is only £2 a session.
Places are strictly limited to 10 people so, if you are interested in you, or your son or daughter attending the course, please email [email protected] for more details.
Please note, as parental permission will be needed to attend the course can the parent or guardian please email to register interest.
That’s all we have room for this time round, so hopefully we will be back next month to show you some pics of some nice pike caught off the rivers. I hope you all get a few too.
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