an American, pike fishing in england.... Near staines perhaps?

Hi everyone , my name is jay and i will be traveling to England with my girlfriend in February for a few weeks.She is from the staines area so we will be staying around there for a while and then traveling around, perhaps making it to Scotland also.
I have 2 travel rods I bring with me whenever I travel.One is a baitcaster (level line) and one spinning setup. I do alot of Bass fishing here in the States and a lot of my tackle works for pike too.
Just wondering if anyone has any advice and or fishing spots they would be willing to share. Maybe someplace I can rent a small boat ?

your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Jay

hey jay,
welcome to the pike forum........
hope you enjoy your stay in england

i dont know any good place as i'm in nottingham

in feb you may struggle depends on the weather we have at teh time

rivers may offer a better prospect plenty of day ticket and free stretches all over the country

dont know staines (southern types you see just drink wine and shandy )

scotland some nice little lakes up there

your bass gear should be ok not ideal but for years we used bass lures for pike over here

make some money bring lures reels over etc and flog em just check out the uk prices on stf compared to what you can buy in walmart in your country

Hi there Jay, my cousin lives around that area and there are many great places you could fish, there is the queen mary reservoir, the staines reservoir, wraysbury reerivoir, the queen mother reservoir plus many others and the river themes runs right by staines it's self.
look on google maps and you'll be amazed

hope this has been some help
regards
Dave

Excuse my ignorance but do Bass have lots of teeth.

Only asking as it may not be as simple as turning up with Bass gear. Do you use wire traces, foreceps, unhooking mats, landing nets etc etc.

Perhaps you could teach us about Bass

Andy

Bass don't have teeth in the sense you are thinking of Andy................more like sandpaper lined jaws really.
I used to do alot of spinning for both large and small mouth bass in SA as there was a nice lake about 2 miles from my house and even used to use my fly gear with a 1 Lb leader when I wanted to have some fun. Granted, the bass weren't anything in size compared to the ones caught in our American friends waters mind, but were good fun none the less.
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Duane is right bass have no teeth, just sandpaper bits where the teeth should be. they are great fun to fish for.I usually trailer my boat down to Florida to fish the everglades this time of year,a 24 hr drive! But not this year.Last year i traveled Thailand and Laos and did some fishing for giant snakeheads. This year England!!
I do catch pike and pickerel (looks like a mini pike) while fishing for bass,i even caught a tiger muskie once. I believe the state record for a pike here in Rhode island is 30lb.
A far as having the right equipment , wire or fluorocarbon leader material is something i use for saltwater fishing already, pliers and forceps i already have. i will have to improvise a landing net and mat when i get there. I also need to get a pair of jaw spreaders (i learned this the hard way the other day while trying to unhook a 5 lb pickerel)
I am not coming to England to fish exclusively,but still i would like to fish more than a few times. I just love to fish and just always travel with a 2 rods and a small assortment of tackle.
if anyone needs a fishing partner on a cold english feb. day that would be great.
Andy, i am no extreme expert on bass but if you have any questions i would be more than willing to answer them.


Duane have a few friends for SA and they love bass fishing. i took a SA friends of mine fishing for bass about a few months ago, he caught his first smallmouth bass, they are few and far between tin my parts.

thanks for all the feedback guys

jay

Yeah Jay, I left SA about a year and a half ago and have now made England my home..........just couldn't deal with the crime and political bulls*#t anymore. Loving it here though, and am trying to transfer my fishing experience gained in SA over to pike fishing here.
Also only starting to get into the local fishing scene so can't really be of major assistance at this stage.
Stay in touch and hopefully I will be in a position to be of more assistance by the time you come over in Feb.....

Hi Jay

I am glad to hear that you are tooled up, so to speak. It is possible to hand land pike but I wouldn't recomend it to anyone who is inexperienced at handling pike. Which brings me to the jaw spreaders that you speak of. 99.9% of pike anglers would melt them down into bullets and shoot anyone seen with them in their tackle box, let alone using them. I understand why you would think that you need them. But there are more humane ways of unhooking pike.

Have a look HERE>>>

Some pike anglers use a glove too.

Tight Lines

Andy

Jay, the main rule is the same as for Bluefish (Shad in SA) which I am sure you are familiar with.........
- KEEP YOUR HANDS THE HELL OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS AND YOU WILL BE ALRIGHT!!!

yeah i can see why people don't like jaw spreaders (and pike too).And being an American i can understand the bullets landing those toothy critters can be quite an experience! like i stated in a previous post i do catch pike and pickerel while bass fishing ,i am forced to hand land them because bass fishermen don't use nets . (In fact alot of bass fishing tournaments don't even allow the use of nets) but occasionally the fish will clench down on the lure making it quite interesting to get the bait out of its mouth,and the last thing i want to due is injure the fish.
the link you sent is not working but i will try to track it down on this website.

this is why im glad i posted on this site, i am always interested in learning new techniques and i want to make my trip as easy as possible on me and the fish.

andy thanks for the tip if there is anything else please let me know..

I am just amazed that we can even be chatting like this, as we are thousands of miles apart. The wonder of the web eh?

I think the link is fixed btw.

Andy

Yep, Gaggs, Priests and Gaffs are frowned upon here these days, Pike welfare is everything..

o yeah Duane,bluefish......they are so much fun to catch,nothing fights like a bluefish on light tackle! I always bring a freshwater bass rod with me saltwater fishing ,if the blues are busting bait on the surface i always try to get one on the bass rod, so much fun! most of the time i don't even lay my hands on them.,i just grab the treble with pliers on flip'em right off..but blues mouths are so tough i really worry about hurting them ,im more worried about myself.but pike have such soft mouths,that get damaged so easily!

Yeah, I have a couple of horendeous scars left on my hands from getting caught up in the hype of a Bluefish run...

Andy, thanks for fixing the link. that's pretty much the way i go about unhooking toothy fish,but sometimes they just seem to want to bite down on the bait.

yeah the internet is pretty great,being able to chat like this is great. i am really looking foward to my trip. by the time February rolls around here the ponds are frozen,and maybe the harbor too. its well below freezing almost everyday wind , snow ,rain....ect..
i live on an island off of Rhode island called aquidneck island in a town called Newport...being on the island makes its so much more raw!

This the place where you live jpq1010

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=41.491196&lon=-71.31227&z=15.9&r=0&src=msl
Looks a nice place to live


Adie

indeed it is sir....it is a very nice place to live, no complaints apart from the cold long winters! New England is a beautiful place.

Our winters don't seem to be half as bad as they used to be as little as 30 years back

Our lakes used to be iced up for weeks at a time when i first stated fishing back when Adam was a lad

weeks of ice would be a nice change over here! and ice fishing just isn't my thing ,although some of the biggest pike of the year are pulled through the ice. might actually go bass fishing tomorrow,although the water temp is really starting to drop ,about 45 degrees Fahrenheit,and in an aluminum boat it gets pretty cold! the fishing really slows down you just have to downsize your lures and really slow down your presentation. But its better than workin...

I long for a return to the winters we used to have

My favourite time of the year. I love nothing better than getting wrapped up well and going outdoors to fish, walk the dog or just play in the snow with the kids.

Alas, it's getting a bit rare now to get enough snow to be able to really enjoy it.

I'd love to experience the Arctic. A lottery win and that's me off

that's crazy talk! you avatar explains in all!!!

jpq1010 wrote:that's crazy talk! you avatar explains in all!!!

You're not the only one who thinks I'm crazy.

Whenever I mention it to our lass she says "Well bugger off there then"

noodle.

in regards to your previous post about southerners drinking shandy...my girlfriend says that the girls up there in the grim north don't wear coats!

jpq1010 wrote:noodle.

in regards to your previous post about southerners drinking shandy...my girlfriend says that the girls up there in the grim north don't wear coats!

lol thats because they've got us big northern lads to keep them warm