Pike Waters

The most popular part of Pike Angler are the Pike Waters pages.

This shows to me that you folks are interested in looking at alternative places to get your pike fix. I suspect that in reality most pikers will only try one or two new venues per season, if any at all. I have my favourites and even preferred swims on each one. I am keen to add to the waters on the website although I am running low on local waters that I have fished with any regularity. This means I will be relying on the info I can find in books, mag's and on the internet or asking people on the bank.

You can help by suggesting places and giving me a bit of info, I don't want you to spoil your own fishing by sending everyone to the swim that you caught a twenty last weekend but we all know places that have pike potential but we rarely fish them. My belief is that there are plenty places to go round and the more waters everyone has to choose from the greater the chance that you will have the place to yourself. Sort of diluting the anglers.

You can email or PM me if preferred.

The information posted about each water will change and it is difficult to keep on top of it all. Let me know if I have got something wrong so I can change it.

Thanks

Andy Webster

I don't think a list of venues is helpful at all Andy. Several waters have been decimated as a direct result of information posted online and I think a complete 'no mention' rule on waters is far more useful to everyone in the long run. You only have to go to 'that bay' on Loch Awe to see how many bivvies are racked up on it week in, week out and the place is now a complete tip. If people get to know each other via a forum and they come to meet or trust each other, then they can discuss waters using the PM function. Nobody went around showing me where to fish. I had to do it the hard way and now I've caught plenty of good pike. I'll even go as far as to say, you get a far greater sense of achievement catching a 10lber from an unknown water than you will catching a good double from a spot someone pointed you to.
Here's what I do.

Find some water.

http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

Find out how to get there.

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/

Work out where to put your rods...IE: 10 metres or less, possible bays, spawning grounds, shelves, drop-offs, river outlets, likely prey-holding spots. This applies to Scotland but it's still useful. I imagine there's an English version somewhere. Download the plug-in. It makes life a lot easier.

http://www.nls.uk/maps/bathymetric/index.html

Once you have an idea, look for info. that's already on the net. Does it have pike? What are they living with prey-wise? Where do you get permits?
You just never know what you'll come up with.

Andy and Andy:

I have to say that I agree with you both on this one.

It would be nice to know where to go and catch some nice fish, but agree that if too many people get to know, it takes away your sense of pride that you know where there is great stretch of water.

As Andy says, turning up to find rows of bivvies sitting in a rubbish tip that used to be a beautiful and quiet piece of countryside is so disheartening. And if you can't get in your favourites pegs time and time again then that just doesn't bear thinking about.

I have a mate that works with somebody who claims to own a couple of ponds that have been neglected for years and have gone to the biggest one and it looks very 'pikey'. However, I am in the process of trying to find out if he does actually own it.

If it is true, and I can fish it free for life by helping get it back up to scratch as he says, then I wouldn't want all and sundry to turn up and fish it to death.
I went down for a nosey a couple of weeks ago and saw plenty of silver fish, carp and pike cruising around in the top layers of water. Nothing massive mind you.

It looks like nobody has fished it on a regular basis and is well overgrown with weed, but has some serious potential.

Getting back to the main subject, it would give me a great deal of pride to have anglers turning up to fish it and go away at the end of the day with a massive smile on their faces, knowing they will be back. But, if it is a good piece of water and everybody starts to turn up and fish it, it could be ruined by the idiots who think they can use it as a rubbish tip. And as for too many people fishing an excellent stretch of water to death, now that would REALLY P*SS ME OFF

There are many avenues for anglers to find new places to fish. The angling press, internet, discussion groups and word of mouth, maps and charts will all contribute. Posting specific information such as recent catches of large fish will interest anglers prepared to travel and I am often disgusted at the litter left behind by many of our kind not to mention the treatment of pike and I don't mean by pike anglers. We know that pike are succeptible to pressure too and these are all good reasons to keep schtum about hot venues and recent extraordinary captures. The information on the pike waters pages is helpful to the pike angler in suggesting venues to investigate but these venues are not top secret in the slightest. Some are better than others today and the opposite was true a few years ago so the quality of fishing seems to me to be cyclical. I can fully understand that the individual who is experiencing good pike fishing will not want to be swamped by other pikers who read about their captures. I also believe that providing the kind of information that pike waters does helps to widen the horizons of some anglers looking to experience something new and maybe improve their PB whilst the majority of anglers will either look out of curiosity but not switch, or have already decided to try the new venue and are looking for specific info such as the sort you mention in the latter part of your post.

At last we have a debate on the forum. What do others think?

Andy Webster

What size of perch is that you're holding Andy?.....it's a cracker.

(sorry to deteract from the debate...I'm just being nosey...lol)

It is 3lb 6oz caught on a lure last October from...

Lefty wrote:I have a mate that works with somebody who claims to own a couple of ponds that have been neglected for years and have gone to the biggest one and it looks very 'pikey'. However, I am in the process of trying to find out if he does actually own it.

If it is true, and I can fish it free for life by helping get it back up to scratch as he says, then I wouldn't want all and sundry to turn up and fish it to death.
I went down for a nosey a couple of weeks ago and saw plenty of silver fish, carp and pike cruising around in the top layers of water. Nothing massive mind you.

It looks like nobody has fished it on a regular basis and is well overgrown with weed, but has some serious potential.

Sounds very interesting Lefty...want some help?

Andy Webster wrote:It is 3lb 6oz caught on a lure last October from...

Smashing fish Andy. I'm nearly as mad for perch as I am for pike. In fact, I have an article on perch for you all to read.

Andy Macfarlane wrote:I don't think a list of venues is helpful at all Andy. Several waters have been decimated as a direct result of information posted online and I think a complete 'no mention' rule on waters is far more useful to everyone in the long run. You only have to go to 'that bay' on Loch Awe to see how many bivvies are racked up on it week in, week out and the place is now a complete tip. If people get to know each other via a forum and they come to meet or trust each other, then they can discuss waters using the PM function. Nobody went around showing me where to fish. I had to do it the hard way and now I've caught plenty of good pike. I'll even go as far as to say, you get a far greater sense of achievement catching a 10lber from an unknown water than you will catching a good double from a spot someone pointed you to.
Here's what I do.

Find some water.

http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

Find out how to get there.

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/

Work out where to put your rods...IE: 10 metres or less, possible bays, spawning grounds, shelves, drop-offs, river outlets, likely prey-holding spots. This applies to Scotland but it's still useful. I imagine there's an English version somewhere. Download the plug-in. It makes life a lot easier.

http://www.nls.uk/maps/bathymetric/index.html

Once you have an idea, look for info. that's already on the net. Does it have pike? What are they living with prey-wise? Where do you get permits?
You just never know what you'll come up with.

i agree.maybe a thread to post interesting research links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Reservoirs_in_England

Sounds very interesting Lefty...want some help? [/quote]

If you can Andy. I keep trying at the land registry website but it keeps fobbing me off saying there is an unexpected problem.

As I don't know the address, I'm trying to use the interactive map method. I assume it to be similar to Google Earth where you zoom into the area you want and then get the info posted to you. It only costs £3.00 but I can't get the darned thing to do it and have been trying for 3 weeks now

Here's the website:
http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/lro/servlet/TitleSearchServlet?searchType=map

It is a local water so maybe you may be able to help a bit. Why not email me for some more info and perhaps I can get to the bottom of this.