Glad to be back

Not been on here for a while so thought i would say hi to all old and new pikers for the upcoming season. Hows your season up to nwo and do you have any special quests this season or targets to beat? I on the other hand are still after that elusive 30. Piketastic you on for another £1.00 bet this year matey?

Hi Chris , yes pal , double or nothing - I owe you from last year still😀 It wouldn't surprise me if you had already had a 20 out this season though !

welcome back bud

im back on it this weekend and very much looking forward to it. Despite the warm weather is supposed to be here until Nov time...

Welcome back Chris
my quest this season is just to get out when I can and catch whatever takes my bait
20 or a 30 would be good but I'm happy just catching pike

adie1200 wrote:Welcome back Chris
my quest this season is just to get out when I can and catch whatever takes my bait
20 or a 30 would be good but I'm happy just catching pike

my target this year is to get at least 1 x 20 from this old trout lake im on. Im very lucky to have it as a private piking syndicate with my fishing partner...

im confident there are more than one over 20, but at the moment its finding them. Most catches are averaging mid doubles, my biggest is 19.4

The Otter wrote:Not been on here for a while so thought i would say hi to all old and new pikers for the upcoming season. Hows your season up to nwo and do you have any special quests this season or targets to beat? I on the other hand are still after that elusive 30. Piketastic you on for another £1.00 bet this year matey?

Hi pal, good to see you back on here,
Not been out piking yet, that starts next Friday, all being well,
I had two Quests from June,
1. My first Zander, which I achieved
2. A double figure Barbel, also achieved

So My pike quest this time is for a 30, but I'm dreaming    
Another couple of 20s would be nice though

I'll be out again tomorrow for another go, hopefully get started with the catching, I've heard of a stretch of river where someone was pleasure fishing for bits last weekend and was getting hammered by pike with nearly every fish he brought in, sounds like a decent place to try. My target for this season is to try and catch more than the 3 or 4 fish I managed last season, and a 14lber would be nice😊

Well a long session today and still not had so much as a run, 2 sessions in and it doesn't look like I'm going to fare much better than last year. It's early days though, next time, there's always next time!!! Law of averages says eventually I will drop on them and have a red letter day, maybe even get my 14lber, heres hoping! Tight lines to all, hope you do better than me!

Well it's my first time back on for a long while,not had a bad season on other fish,a few pb,s.won't be piking for a couple of month as got a 180 acres of water to aim at for carp in mid November in gran cancarnia.

good luck with that pal. nice to see you again

Good luck Nick hope you beat your PB from over there pal

There not like the size I was getting in Spain adie but they are stunners.

I must be a glutton for punishment, off out now for my third session, hoping to open my account for this season. I have a good feeling today, ever the optimist! Good luck to all!

Managed one run today, don't think it had taken the bait properly, when I struck she just came up to the top, opened her mouth and let go of the bait. Only a small one about 8lb, this sometimes happens with the small fish and striking early, but it's a small price to pay for not deep hooking a twenty!!! (Yeah, dream on Leon), I got to say though even though it wasn't a big one, I really really wanted to land that pike😭. So three sessions for one run, at least it's progress, small steps Leon.
Cheers all, May all your lines be tight!

Keep at it bud you will get there

Technique we use here is we pull an elastic band thru our bait fish and put each end over one of the 3 hooks of the treble. this allows us to strike sooner and more effectively because you don't have to jerk the hook out of the bait fish, and believe or not but red elastic even helps to triger a strike in my experience!
This technique results in less fish that come of. I'm not saying it's fool proof because nothing is but every little bit helps . I hope this will help you land more fish

dave van dessel wrote:Technique we use here is we pull an elastic band thru our bait fish and put each end over one of the 3 hooks of the treble. this allows us to strike sooner and more effectively because you don't have to jerk the hook out of the bait fish, and believe or not but red elastic even helps to triger a strike in my experience!
This technique results in less fish that come of. I'm not saying it's fool proof because nothing is but every little  bit helps . I hope this will help you land more fish

a bit like hair rigging in a way send us a photo of the set up pal when you get a minute

http://www.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fishing4fun.nl/wpimages/wp75200204_05.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fishing4fun.nl/techniek/dood%2520aas.html&h=191&w=300&tbnid=saYdY23KQH-AcM:&q=elastik+dood+aas+montage&docid=i655kYiQLuhVRM&hl=en&ei=KfAbVojoH6bvywP02aXYBA&tbm=isch&ved=0CBwQMygAMABqFQoTCMig1uq8vcgCFab3cgod9GwJSw

But I only use 1 treble and I use a carp bait needle to pull the elastic thru the fishes back
The Dutch text pretty much says what I explained in previous post

dave van dessel wrote:http://www.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fishing4fun.nl/wpimages/wp75200204_05.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fishing4fun.nl/techniek/dood%2520aas.html&h=191&w=300&tbnid=saYdY23KQH-AcM:&q=elastik+dood+aas+montage&docid=i655kYiQLuhVRM&hl=en&ei=KfAbVojoH6bvywP02aXYBA&tbm=isch&ved=0CBwQMygAMABqFQoTCMig1uq8vcgCFab3cgod9GwJSw

But I only use 1 treble and I use a carp bait needle to pull the elastic thru the fishes back
The Dutch text pretty much says what I explained in previous post

like the look of that will give it a go ...not a lover of burying the hooks into the bait nice one pal

Like I said in my introduction
Glad to be of help different country different techniques
if you like to strike early to prevent hooking to deep, as we Al should
It will land and hook a higher percentage because your not having to jerk the hooks free
Or trying to pull the fish out of hundreds of teeth that have a sturdy hold on it
If u have a take just just tighten til you feel the fish and lean in to the rod firmly it's usually hooked neatly in the corner

Will be out in the morning hoping it will be 3rd time lucky for me, not landed a pike in my first two sessions so hoping I'll get one this time, wish me luck! Tight lines to all, Leon

Not a sniff today, again! I just can't get to grips with this piking lark, it's driving me mad! Determined to sort it out though. 3 blanks in a row, law of averages says that I must be close to my first one this season! I hope so cos I'm also close to tears 😭

What setup are you using ? take a photo of your setup i.e float or ledger setup and how its rigged and maybe we can have a look at it and see if you are doing anything wrong

Here's a simple but very effective float setup that I use


you can replace the lead with a drilled lead ( I do myself this is a old pic )
Ledger setup is much the same just take the float and float stop off so the lead is completely free running
These are just a example others may have different set ups

adie1200 wrote:What setup are you using ? take a photo of your setup i.e float or ledger setup and how its rigged and maybe we can have a look at it and see if you are doing anything wrong

Here's a simple but very effective float setup that I use


you can replace the lead with a drilled lead ( I do myself this is a old pic )
Ledger setup is much the same just take the float and float stop off so the lead is completely free running
These are just a example others may have different set ups

you cant fail with that rig ....close to medium range
I like to fish half herring on that set up size 4 hooks to 40lb trace ..... for the big girls