Too many, pike fishing is all about
arriving at a venue, casting two deadbaits out then sitting behind
motionless rods in the hope that one will spring into life. Sometimes
it does, however long periods of time are spent waiting, yet having
fished for most other species over the years I have learnt that by
putting in some groundwork I can stack the odds in my favour of
getting constant action to my rods.
How do I do this, well let’s look at
it like this. If I were going bream, carp or tench fishing then I
would rarely, if ever, cast a single hookbait out then sit and await
events to unfold. Why because it probably wouldn’t happen for many
an hour, but this is in theory what I use to do, and many others
still do when casting a deadbait out. Why did I ever treat pike,
zander and eels so different to species such as bream? Maybe its
because we take it for granted that other species are shoal fish and
a shoal of fish need to be attracted and once feeding kept for as
long as possible within the swim, yet zander, eels and pike also hunt
in groups, so pre-baiting or introducing some attractants around the
hookbait has to work in an anglers favour, albeit on a scale that
wont do the opposite and overfeed your intended target or leave bits
of fish decaying on the bottom.
Fishing for other species has always
meant baiting up, whether prior to getting my rods out or over a
period of days, sometimes weeks and now I treat predators, especially
pike with exactly the same mental attitude. The easiest way of
understanding how certain species can be educated into feeding on
certain baits, at certain times, can be seen with catfish as if the
water is heavily carp fished and has lots of pellets going in, then
catfish will take the easy option, stop exerting loads of energy
chasing live fish and simply gorge themselves on this protein rich
diet.
Pike can be educated, just like catfish
into feeding on certain food items simply by introducing a food
source on a little and often basis and ensuring that the bait is
deposited in the same spot at roughly the same time on every visit,
however this doesn’t mean cutting ten mackerel in half and throwing
them into a lake, a much more subtle approach needs to be introduced.
Obviously an angler needs a starting
point when pre-baiting for pike and this baiting approach seems to
work better on venues with a good head of pike, rather than one that
might just contain a couple of very large fish. The chosen swim maybe
one that they have caught from before, seen another angler catch from
or witnessed pike chasing fry, however if you have no clues then try
and pick an area where pike can be drawn from lots of different
directions.
Before discussing what I introduce into
the venue its worth mentioning that myself and plenty of other well
respected pike anglers, as well as some predator venues are changing
over from snap-tackle (two-treble traces) to smaller safer barbless
single hook rigs with small baits hair-rigged. Wires available for
pike fishing have moved on tremendously over the past decade and some
are so good that they act more like braid and allow for numerous
captures to be taken before they need to be change. These wires, like
the titanium versions don’t come cheaply but the initial outlay
will repay you over and over again as they last forever. Obviously
the size of hook needs to be matched with the size of bait but its
amazing how big pike will pick up relatively small objects once they
have been educated to feeding on them and I have never had the need
to use a hook bigger than a size two with size six and eights more
commonplace. The fantastic advantage of using these small baits is
that whilst educating pike into the swim and feed on them, other
species will also switch on to them. I remember one session when I
landed eighteen fish including pike, zander, carp and bream and have
caught barbel of sardine sections in the depth of winter. Obviously
the other great advantage of single hooks is fish welfare and rarely
is a run missed, even when striking immediately. On most occasions
the hook lodges within the scissors of the fishes mouth and can be
removed without forceps, however if a fish is deep hooked, removing a
single barbless hook will be far easier than a set of trebles. Don’t
ever delay the strike as if a pike picks up your bait whether it be a
section of sardine or kebab style set up then the odds of this and
the hook being in its mouth are extremely high.
To get the best from a swim then you
need to be disciplined in how much, when, and how often you introduce
bait. It doesn’t matter what you introduce, however if I were to
fish a venue where the pike had a preference for naturals then this
is what I would introduce, the same goes for if the venue’s pike
preferred sardine, mackerel or something else, however cost needs to
be thought of as well as availability of bait. I have always loved
sardines and have struggled to find a venue that doesn’t respond to
them, they are also relatively cheap from a supermarket. My pre-bait
would consist of around half a dozen sardines, four of which are cut
into fine sections around the size of your fingernail then the
remainder cut into sections which will mimic my hookbait. I also add
some dead maggots to attract fry, a teaspoon of salt (beats any
expensive manufactured product) and a good helping of salmon oil.
This may not seem a lot but introduce accurately into a swim will
introduce loads of attractants and draw fish in from great distances.
I use a Spomb to introduce this mix but if you don’t own one of
these then the fish mix can be added to some groundbait, mixed into
balls and catapulted into the swim. The few larger items of fish will
eventually get the fish competing, looking for more, and after this
concoction has been introduced over a period of time you can expect
the action to be instant. The longer that you can bait up for then
the better the results will be when you come to fish the swim,
however once I have fished the swim and caught then I wouldn’t keep
hammering it, preferring to start baiting again and leave for a week
or so. If you are doing this on a couple of venues or in different
swims on the same venue then you can skip between the two. How often
and when will I bait up?
If I could bait up every other day and
at the same time I would but sometimes this isn’t possible however
I would never let the swim go more than three days without being
topped up. Something that I have had happen is other anglers dropping
in on my hard work, so all my pre-baiting is done at dusk, or just
into darkness as this will go unnoticed by other anglers as well as
the wildfowl that have a tendency of picking the baits up if done in
daylight. On some waters the pike will become nocturnal due to these
introductions, on others thou they will feed at dawn, so you will
need to fish both to find their preference and on the day of fishing
I wont introduce any free offerings as I’m expecting the pike to be
waiting for food and grab my hookbait straight away.
Well there you have it, we fish for
carp, bream, tench, almost every species in a similar way so theirs
absolutely no reason why pike should be looked at differently. Give
it a go you will be pleasantly surprised.
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