Pike fishing in the Fens QR code

My QR code splodge thing is now bringing as many people who access the internet via Android or iPhones to this blog as those using Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Mobile phones which can access the internet can be taken fishing, meaning you can access blogs like this from the bank, along with all kinds of other useful information ranging from weather forecasts and tide times, to e-mail, Twitter and Facebook.

Yet fishing websites, blogs and forums are still fairly static things. People post their writings. People mull over them in forums.

No-one's really grasped the potential for live blogging and interaction yet, but I've no doubt it will come as fishing embraces the technology.

Hi Guys, this is Simon from Southampton. Fishing this swim on the Avon for chub. Wondered where you guys would bait up - under the trees or down the deeper water on the near bank. What rig and how long would you give it before you move..?

Hi Simon, this is Nigel. Had a five-six under the second tree on meat last night. Long tail off a feeder.

Hi Nigel, just missed a bite on a 12" tail - Tweeted a pic of rig, reckon that's too short..?

Yeah Simon, your hair needs to be shorter if that makes sense.

Um, I'm bald Nige.

Yeah I know bonehead - I mean the one off the hook LOL.

LOL.

LOL.

It'll come. Just wait and see.

To use a QR code, go to the App Store and download a free QR code reader. To generate a QR code, try here.

Scan mine and save the link on your Android or iPhone. And stay tune this season....

Autumn might come early if that rain keeps on

I had a strange feeling, looking at the land drain flowing off as the gates in the tidal opened a mile or two away.

What if it rains right through the rest of August, bringing an early autumn instead of the prolonged mild spell which seemed to drag last summer out into October.

Somewhere - I can't for the life of me remember whether it was on here or in one of the papers - I wrote that we were in uncharted territory at the time as far as the weather was concerned.

This was my stock excuse when we weren't catching much, until a couple of bankside debates later in the season, when we agreed that there were a lot less smaller pike around than any of us remembered.

Some people have built up quite complex theories on how things like changes in pressure, weather fronts and even moon phases affect the pike. Many of them seem to contradict one another, while few include the direction of the wind, which can often drive the weather in the Fens, or the condition of the water.

The Ouse and some of the main drains have some flow at the moment. Two weeks ago, hardly anyone was catching. Now they're fishing well for bream and roach, which seem to be shoaled up in one or two areas.

I wonder if this will have the knock-on effect of making the pike fishing easier in terms of predicting where the pike are going to be. I can't pass a river or drain without stopping for a look at the moment.

Getting set to start pike fishing in the Fens again

I'm going to start pike fishing again in another month or so's time, provided the summer doesn't end with a spell of hot, dry weather.

This is the kind of scene I hope to see - water being pumped off and the rivers and drains brim-full, because I seem to do better when it's like this in the autumn, rather than drought conditions and sluggish flows.

I usually have a few trips in mid-September, looking at waters I plan to target over the autumn months.

While I'm planning to give a couple of new areas a go this season, I know a few of us will also be targeting a water which threw up the odd big fish after we stumbled across the right stretch and learned a little about it.

I guess this is how a lot of pike anglers operate, pooling the odd snippet of info with their mates. But while you can adopt a loose lips sink ships policy among the crowd you knock about with, you can't legislate for leaks from the non-fishing public.

When a mate had a big fish from a swim where I'd had one last winter, I was thrilled he'd caught a fish over 25lbs from somewhere I'd put him onto. But the plot thickened when I compared the pictures and my mate's twenty-five turned out to be a different one to mine.

I wondered what the odds of that happening are. My fish looked big, even though the pictures were done in a rush on a mobile phone. My mate's fish looked a real belter, absolutely mint. Apart from the green-tinged wish I'd caught it moment, I wished I had a picture that good of my fish.

My mate said a dog walker photographed it for him. Next time I fished there, a man came along the bank with a dog and we got talking. You after pike then, the man said - saw someone catch a lovely one here the other day.

I said what, last Tuesday..? That was my mate, describing mate's obvious distinguishing feature, his usual attire and his vehicle. No, he said. I think that was Wednesday. Twenty eight pounds it was. Bloke with different distinguishing features/attire/vehicle. Never knew there was anything that big in here.

When I got home, I rang my mate. Nah, definitely not 28lbs, my mate said. Anyway, it was a woman walking her dogs who photographed it. Not a bloke.

Pike fishing rigs and tackle for the Fens

Rather than having an array of rigs up my sleeve, I tend to use just two for most of my bank fishing which I can tweak according to how far out I'm fishing and whether I have any wind or flow to contend with.

The mainstay of this is the float-legered dead bait, which ticks most of the boxes when it comes to a simple, reliable set-up you can use just about anywhere.
 
At the start of the season, when the rivers and drains aren't pulling off much and there's still some weed about, I fish fairly light with just a couple of small bullets above the trace swivel to give me something to tighten up to. The bait provides enough weight to cast 20 or 30 yards.

The float's set just over-depth by a foot or two, so it lays flat when the rig settles and cocks when I put the rod in the rest and tighten up. A slight breeze or a little flow helps by dragging the floating braid I use on the reel into a slight bow.

If I need to cast further or the wind or flow are enough to drag the bullets along, I'll swop them for a run ring and an ounce flat lead, or larger bomb.

There's a stop a couple of feet above this, which the float attached waggler-style via link swivel sits on when casting, to help avoid tangles. I use and swear by the various sizes of ET Bob Floats for this, as they allow you to change to a larger float if needed to prevent it being dragged under by the wind or flow.

That's pretty well it, except when fishing off a boat or when fishing flowing rivers, I tend to use a through-the-middle slider and fish with the rod tops angled upwards to keep some of the line off the river - especially when there's floating weed to contend with, as there often is in the autumn months.

For gravel pits or smaller drains, I might change the rig to a home-made balsa pencil float, with three or four swan shots on the trace to tighten up to. I say might, because more often or not I leave the rods tackled up and just use my river/drain rig if I switch to a stillwater or decide to have a day on a pit.

The other rig is the legered dead, usually with a heavy lead fished on a nylon link a few inches shorter than the trace, attached via a run ring. I can cast his further than the float rig and fish with the rod tips sunk if it's blowing a gale or floating weed makes float fishing impossible.

I can pop baits up safely using this rig. I don't like popping baits up under a float because of the risk of tangles. Bite indication is provided by a bite alarm and home-made drop-off with the leger rig. This pretty well it, as far as how I fish is concerned.

I make my own traces, usually using Owner ST36, Drennan Extra-Strong or VMC trebles, usually in sizes four or two depending on bait size. Wire-wise, I use Mason's Multistrand, which at the time of writing costs around £25 for 200yds in the 30lbs strain, for my home-made traces twisted up in my study.

These are stored on a home-made rig bin made from a section of pipe insulating foam and a plastic tub. I'll also have some ET Mr Softee wire with me on the bank, along with a few spare hooks and swivels, as it's easy to twist up traces using this wire if I run out of traces made from Mason's.

I've found other wires to be a mixed bag when it comes to their resistance to kinking. I've tried various 49-stranded wires, which I now rarely use because they need to be crimped. Crimping's as sound as twisting when it comes to reliability, as long as you use the lark's head hitch on the bottom hook and swivel, so the crimp is just keeping the loose end tidy rather than taking all the pressure of a hooked fish.

Once you learn to twist properly - again use the half hitch, then heat the tag end of the wire to anneal it before you make neat, tight twists with a twiddling stick - you'll probably never use crimps again.
I carry a sharpening stone to ensure the hooks are sharp. On gravel pits, I inspect them carefully every cast, as it's surprising how often you can blunt them without noticing until you bump a fish off because they fail to go in on the strike.

Strike's a bit of an out-dated term that harks back to the Mr Crabtree days - as in strike Jim, strike - as with modern-day braids you just wind down until you feel the fish and bend into it.

If you don't use braid, you should. As well as it's lack of stretch, it has a breaking strain four or five times that of mono of the same diameter and lasts for season after season if you choose a brand like Powerpro.

You need to use slightly different knots, like the uni or grinner knot, passing the tag twice through the clip before you form the loop and carefully tighten it. Other than that it's far more reliable thanks to the extra safety margin of 50 or 65lbs breaking strain.

It also floats, which is an obvious advantage for float fishing. When legering, it also sits up off the bottom and drifts upwards when a fish unclips you, meaning less change of snagging up.

For most float fishing, I use either Fox Predator Elite rods in the 2.75lbs test curve, or the now long-defunct Marvic Pike rods, which are delight to play fish on but a nightmare to cast with because of their small rings.

Both are married up with Shimano Baitrunners or various vintages in the 10,000 or 8,000 sizes. Some of these reels are 10 years old and still going strong, apart from the annoying spool wobble they seem to develop after a few seasons.

For legering, I use Fox Predator Elites in the 3.25lbs test curve, fitted with the old metal Daiwa Emblems, which just seem to go on forever without going wrong.

I carry the rods tackled up, with the sections held together with rod bands and those elasticated hair bands you can get from pound shops. If I'm fishing near the car, I just sling the rods in the back. If I've got a walk,

I'll stick three or four in a quiver depending how far I have to tramp to where I'm fishing.

All my gear goes in one of the smaller Korum rucksacks. A mate got me into these and they're superb for pike fishing. I have scales, weigh sling and camera in a couple of the pockets, unhooking tools in another and carry spare floats, leads and trace-making materials in a couple of small plastic lunchboxes.

Even with a cool bag of baits, I've got room for spare clothing, a couple of pasties and a can or two of Wh'upass or bottled water. When it's cold and I'm fishing out of or near to the car, I'll also take a stove, kettle, cooking stuff and food.

Whatever I'm doing, I carry a first aid kit in the bottom of the rucker - antiseptic wipes, wound spray, bottle of Dettol, waterproof plasters and surgical micropore tape. Sooner or later, we all get raker rash or a worse cut from unhooking a pike, get a hook in our fingers or imopale ourselves in a barbed wire fence, so it make sense to carry the basics to sort these kind of minor injuries out so you can carry on fishing.

I also have a bigger first aid kit in the car, for more serious stuff like cuts and burns. Once or twice, I've helped out other anglers who've done themselves a mischief on the bank - I'm surprised how many people I meet don't even carry plasters with them when they go out.

We book a pike fishing holiday in Norfolk

My wife and I are planning to go on holiday towards the end of this year. As I was consulted during the early stages of planning said holiday, we are going somewhere in Norfolk where I can go pike fishing every day. I see this as a resounding endorsement of a give and take relationship.

While I will spend every day of the holiday pike fishing, I do not intend to sideline the wife. I plan to spend a couple of hours with her each evening, between when I return from fishing and when I go down the pub with my mates.


If she is still awake when the pub kicks out, she will clearly have the added option of spending time with me then.

The reason I will be able to incorporate pub trips with my mates into our busy holiday schedule is that the accommodation we have booked has three bedrooms. In simple mathematic terms, this means two mates can accompany us.

Alternatively, we may adopt a more equitable gender spread and have a mate and his wife or partner accompany us.

This idea requires a mate's wife or partner my wife gets on with to really make it sing, since they will be spending a great deal of time together when my mate and I are fishing.

It will also mean the mate and his partner spend the week sleeping in separate rooms, since the two extra rooms have single beds.

Another option is that two of my wife's mates accompany us. I do not like the sound of this one.

Not so lucky monkey

We all need a lucky charm sometimes. And Lucky Monkey, who I got by saving up the tokens on the tea we drank on the bank, plus £1.99 postage and packing, was mine.

After a while, it dawned on me that Lucky Monkey was not the luckiest knitted monkey going, despite the fact he offered a range of interesting photo opportunities and bore more than a passing resemblance to someone I used to fish with.

Other pike anglers' lucky monkies may well have brought them a clutch of upper doubles and the occasional twenty after they collected the tokens and sent them off to PG Tips, along with £1.99 to cover postage and packing.

But my Lucky Monkey appeared to be jinxed. And when I stopped taking Lucky Monkey fishing, my results seemed to improve - though I appreciate that success in pike fishing is down to a complex set of variables, of which collecting tokens and sending £1.99 to PG Tips to cover postage and packing probably plays an insignificant part.

Meatballs and pasta when pike fishing

Eat your heart out Delia. There's nothing quite like pasta and meatballs on the bank when you're pike fishing, especially when you fancy pasta and meatballs on the bank.

This delightful main course takes a few minutes to get right but it's worth the wait. First, cook the pasta until it is al dente, as they say in Italy and on pike fishing blogs which describe how to cook pasta.

Next, drain the water - taking care not to pour it over your feet or on the dog if you take a dog fishing with you. Then open a can of Sainsbury's value meatballs and add them to the pasta, along with a pinch of chilli and some oregano. Give it a stir and heat through gently, before serving.

If fishing with a mate, cook up more pasta and add two tins of meatballs. For two mates, cook even more pasta and add three tins.

Storm Live Kickin' Minnow and Live Kickin' Shad

I liked these lures as soon as I saw them. I liked them even more after I went out to give them a quick dunk.

I  doubt they'll last more than a few fish, but they're incredibly life-like in the water. On a slow-ish retrieve, they swim just like a fish.

They also come armed with just a single, sensibly-sized hook. It's probably too small and in the wrong place to translate every hit into a hook-up, but when you do catch one, you're not going to do it too much damage.

This is something which put me off a lot of the lures I used to use, especially those which have a large single amidships and a treble underneath.

If I'd wanted to give them a proper work-out, with a chance of catching something, I'd probably have headed for one of the rivers or drains, but I settled for half an hour on Enigma.

I was well-impressed with the lures' action. I particularly liked the roach-patterned version, which looks extremely life-like in the water, to the point where I just know it's going to catch when I find some pike to show it to.

They sink rapidly, head-first, but rise up on the retrieve with the rod top pulsing as you bring them in. If these had been about when I was into lure fishing a few seasons back, I'd probably have caught a lot more pike doing it.

A couple of these take up next to no space, so I'll probably start taking a lure rod and one or two of them along on bait fishing trips in the winter.

They weren't expensive either, at £4 each, so it's not going to be the end of the world if they fall to bits after a few fish.