Should we / Shouldnt we

Hi chaps.
Just thought id make my contribution to the forum by starting a topic
And i would out of interest like to hear about you thoughts on hanging your rods up through the spawning and warmer months regarding are pike.
I for one in my early (first two) years of pikeing would go out any given chance to fish for my target fish (pike) spending meany a hot day on the bank with the dead bait rods, and on short sessions doing a lap or two with the lure rod. But as time went on without doubt you learn a thing or two (or see a thing or two) and when i so the fish i was catching struggling to go back after a hard fight in warm water, algae blooms depleting oxygen levels making it harder for them, and the words of Eddy Turner ringing in my ears 'To catch BIG pike in warm conditions be prepared to loose them' i took it on myself to give the pike fishing a closed season for there sake.

Now thats just me. I'm by no means preaching or telling any body what to do. just thought it would be interesting to see other peoples thoughts on this subject..

'Discus'

hey dazzer how you doin bud? good article in p+p mate- you're on a roll!!!

best

SD

Hi Darryl, this one is a bit of a hot potatoe, I personally only fish for Pike, (boring I know) nothing else seems to interest me. I have a self imposed season from the end of September to the end of March, for two reasons, the first is because I am busy in the summer months, and the second is because where I fish the waters are fairly shallow and the oxygen levels are low, there is a greater risk of losing a fish in the Summer months without a doubt, but I guess if you get them in in double quick time and you are very carefull to make sure they are fully recoverd before they swim off, then you are decreasing the risk of them gassing up. The deep cold water lochs of Scotland are a different story of course, I would have no problems fishing them in the summer months, so for me personally I stear clear of Piking in the Summer months, personal choice, not right or wrong

Scott Davidson wrote:hey dazzer how you doin bud? good article in p+p mate- you're on a roll!!!

best

SD

Hi Scotty,
Hows you n yours mate ? ''Hope alls well'
Thanks for the comment about the article, i rely enjoyed doing it.
Not done a lot this season mate, been flat out with work. But i'm going Spain to fish the Ebro again next week.
Then i've got a trip to France at the begining of October befor the season starts.

Hows the boys ' Hendo etc ' ? Tell them i was asking about them and maybe see them around soon.
Tc mate and speak again soon

Hi Paddy.
I think reading your post that theres more to it than being gassed up. I for one have seen BIG fish roll over and take forever to go back only to see them the following day on the bottom after swimming away with hopes she would be fine.
One in particular was caught in around 15ft of water and she fought her battle on the serfis, through algee and the warmer lairs she was then put into colder water to recover while getting ready to photo, 'colder water being a small Bern that run into the loch' I myself thought and still do think this put the fish into shock, the combination of the fight/warm weather/algee/and the cold water was to much for her..
I don't just think that being a 'confident angler' cuts it towards saving a pike. Maybe on the deep hooking side to this but that was not the subject..
The list goes on and on towards why i myself disagree with Summer pikeing, and this is why i thought it a good idea to bring it up. ie, LURES was going to be the next one. But I'll leave that for now in hopes this topic gets going

All the best Paddy
Darryl.

Yes Paddy your right some places can differ alot, the waters i find the most delicate are (trout waters) Not that i fish them much now. The river is where i would like a BIG lump from next. (true fighting machines) that want to pull your arm out the socket and beat you up on the bank.

Steve French wrote:Hi Darryl, this one is a bit of a hot potatoe, I personally only fish for Pike, (boring I know) nothing else seems to interest me. I have a self imposed season from the end of September to the end of March, for two reasons, the first is because I am busy in the summer months, and the second is because where I fish the waters are fairly shallow and the oxygen levels are low, there is a greater risk of losing a fish in the Summer months without a doubt, but I guess if you get them in in double quick time and you are very carefull to make sure they are fully recoverd before they swim off, then you are decreasing the risk of them gassing up. The deep cold water lochs of Scotland are a different story of course, I would have no problems fishing them in the summer months, so for me personally I stear clear of Piking in the Summer months, personal choice, not right or wrong

Hi Steve. Sorry i over looked this post.

Yes you have put it in a nut shell there mate, regarding work and things, guessing you work for yourself and outside ?
I'm in the same position, but i could not do more than 2 weeks without wetting a line thats why i had to start with fishing for other species. I was intending to fish for Barbel but with the state of are rivers around me i had to change to Carp/cats.. I think for me its just being there that inspiers me

Excuse the spelling, could'nt be botherd spell checking.

All the best
Darryl

Living on the Isle of Skye and having to undertake a minimum 110 mile round trip for my nearest pike fishing, I was keen to join one of the many forums available and, reading through a few of the topics, this one does seem to be a bit of a hot one with many mixed views.
I've been up here for 6 years or so and used to live in the Midlands where it was never an issue - there was always another species to target and as such, my piking always took place in the winter months. Now though, it's a bit different, I can fish for the salmon and sea trout if the river's up or for the pollack off my little boat if it isn't.
Personally, I see no issues with my fishing for pike in the summer. The lochs I fish rarely warm up enough to create problems with fish due to low oxygen levels, being huge, deep and frankly quite daunting places where I tend to get more blanks than successful sessions.
The other reason that I see no real issue with fishing year round is that, quite often, I'm forced into a close season during the mid winter months ayway due to frozen venues or, if not frozen, venues that are blasted by 60mph north winds full of rain, sleet and snow - not nice to be out in.
That's my 'view from the north' anyway.
All the best.

Roll on September when i can get back to pike fishing... its been a long time since March.

Always taught from starting fishing with the PAC.... no deadbaiting in summer....

Re this whole 'should we shouldn't we' issue, I mentioned in a recent post that I was due to fish a new venue and I though my results may be of interest.
My understanding about the issue is 1) Pike have a tendancy to wolf their food down in the summer so deep hooking can be an problem and 2) Due to the way they fight in summer, the build up of lactic acid and general fatigue can cause them not to recover.
My last session (21st to the 23rd July) went like this:
8 fish landed, biggest 10lb 10oz and 12lb 5oz. Of those landed only one had both the hooks in the mouth (the 10 10) and I had to go in through the gills to remove the bottom barbless treble. All of the others were either hooked right in the lips (if pike actually have lips but you know what I mean) or were hanging on one or 2 points of a treble. One came unhooked in the water at my feet as I was reaching for the chin and another (the 12 5) came unhooked in the net. I missed another 5 runs completely and either bumped off or pulled out of another half dozen fish.
All the fish went away very well, the 2 doubles after a short while in the sack to make sure they were well recovered and most gave me a soaking as they powered away.
Now I don't mind missing the odd take and would rather pull out of a fish than have a deep hooked one but I think my results show maybe an overly cautious approach to the hitting of runs. I always strike quickly but, the comments on this forum made me even more cautious in dealing with the runs I had.
Bearing in mind the low water temperature and air temperature of 4 degrees in the early hours of the morning and the depth and vastness of the loch (in fact most of the lochs up here), I don't think a 'one size fits all' approach to this issue really fits.
Any other anglers up here in Scotland got any other comments?

Yes, it's Scotland, not Siberia. It's not all Highland glacials either...

I'd still fish for pike in Summer. I fail to differentiate between lure fishing and deadbaiting from an exhaustion point of view and I've seen very little evidence that pike wolf down baits any quicker.

All that aside, a good unhooking station and a competant piker should have everything sorted pretty quickly.

Bit of a non-subject in my mind. If the piker is a novice, he/she shouldn't be fishing alone anyway.

Ok, fair enough Andy, I should have said 'any anglers up here in the Highlands got any comments?' The places I fish are pretty much all glacial monsters and the temperature has been pretty extreme for a Summer.

Nice to hear from someone who sees it as a non-subject too though - it was news to me until I joined this forum to be honest and my recent experiences would seem to back up our views also.

No need to be arsey about it though...

A one day session on my new loch resulted in one fish of 19lb 8oz, hooked well, towards the rear of the mouth. I struck early and she fought unbelievably well, on the surface for most of the time, jumping clear of the water on one occassion. I sacked her for a short while, making sure she was upright, took her photo, weighed her and returned her. She went off very powerfully.

The trip was interesting though, becuase I had 6 other runs and either missed on the strike or connected briefly before parting company. I've never experienced this before (certainly not to the same extent anyway).

The baits were very lightly marked and on many occassions, were simply recast without needing to be changed. I was using a fairly standard rig - ledgered herring tails, with a ledger stem and suspended off the bottom with a red pop-up ball. I have a feeling that on at least one occasion the ball was taken rather than the bait as it was severed and floated off across the loch after the strike.

I keep thinking maybe very small fish (or even trout???) but on my last visit managed to catch a couple of 3 pounders on exactly the same rig without any trouble. What is certain though is that the suposed problem of pike wolfing baits, getting deep hooked or then going belly up upon being released, does not apply on this water.

I'm loath to leave the strike any longer and may experiment with smaller baits next time.

One thing's for certain - a deep hooked pike is a terrible thing.

hi there richard having fished for pike for quite a long time hav come across countless pike with hooks in them some of them deep just with the swivel showing at the back and there are ones not so deep say just in the jaws but facter leading to these snap off is the line these guys are using they seem to be round the 8lb to10lb bracket just not good enough i know a novice has got to start somewhere but there is enough information out there to put them on the right track dont you think

Hi there Stubbo - I absolutely agree, there is a huge amount of ignorance and poor quality angling out there. On my first visit at the water I described, I had two fish with traces sticking out - both were too deep to extract the hooks and so I did what I think is the best option and snipped the trace as close to the stomach as possible. At least they won't have a swivel to try and digest. I fished another water - Loch Venachar in Perthshire - and left after one night following the arrival of 4 drunken idiots with a mixture of old boat rods and light spinning gear. I cringed as one of them cracked off, sending a biat and terminal tackle into the far distance before staggering away back to his car to sleep. I left shortly afterwards.
I tend to use either 18lb nylon or, more recently, 30lb braid and 30lb trace material and am confident that my rod would break before the line unless snagged or snapped on rough rocks.
There is enough info out there - blimey, theres' enough on this site alone! But I don't think the problem 'anglers' will ever read any of it.
My point was that, in the opinion of many anglers, it's absolutely wrong to fish for pike in the summer - it isn't, it just needs to be done responsibly (which is your point really).

as for myself richard i dont do any summer pike fishing buts thats my choice not saying that people should stop summer pike fishing but i have made up my own mind on the subject after a bad session on one water in wales in september afew years ago due to low oxygen levels and algie blooms but there are guys that fish this water all year round with dire results

That sort of behaviour is unforgiveable and, in the same situation I'd not fish either. Fishing in really hot weather, when the water temperature is high and filled with algae is simply irresponsible and is going to result in the deep hooking and fish deaths due to lactic acid build up that this whole topic is based around.

My argument is that, as someone else pointed out in another post recently, a 'one size fits all' view is inapropriate. The waters I fish are huge, glacial lochs where the water temperature rarely rises to anything like the levels in England and Wales. Algae blooms are therefore pretty much non-existant and pike behave, as my experiences seem to suggest, in a manner that make them a suitable quary all year. I really resent other anglers trying to impose thisr 'one size fits all' view on my fishing in fact it would seem, from some of the posts that they are trying to make me feel bad about fishing when and where I do.

You're obviously a serious, experienced angler who knows what you're on about and who's made a decision based on sound knowledge of the waters you fish; which is absolutely the correct thing to do. But, if you lived and fished up here, I'm sure you'd have a different view and would be getting amongst the pike all year round (apart from during the blizzards, 60mph winds, snow storms etc etc...)

i certainly would if i knew the fish where not suffering richard ......if no harm being done keep on piking mate