View Full Version : Pike, when to strike
Folks, after a little advice,
Did a 4 hour session yesterday and the fishing went absolutely mental. Fishing with a 2 rod set up on legered deadbaits. One using a deadbait pencil with indicator and back up alarm the other straight on indicator and alarm. I had 1 run with the float set up and caught a jack around 6-7lb. This was the only bite I had on this rod.
However the other rod went mental, I must have had at least 10 runs! But I did not connect with a single fish:confused: I am relatively new to pike fishing (been out with a member from PAC and a few times by a someone who has been been piking for years back up north). Not wanting to cause deep hooking I struck as soon as I could after this initial take. Now I know that this is the fish picking up the bait.
My question is; Is this the right time or should I wait until the fish makes a run and turns the bait round to swallow head first as it is going for cover?
On one of the takes I waited for 10seconds after the take with the same result, but did not want to chance it any longer. I know that different fish react differently on different lakes. Prior to this I have caught a few fish from the same lake that picked up the bait and ran continuously from the initial take. I checked the end of the bait and it had teeth marks. I was wondering should I wait or is it that the pike were small jacks and I missed them because of the distance of my last treble from the end of the bait?
Any thoughts appreciated.
What distance are your trebles apart?
I use about 3 inch gap,i strike straight away and any missed runs i put down to small jacks.
rhornegold
19-11-2009, 14:22
Tristan,
How long is a peice of String ?
I still miss plenty of runs and I've been Pike fishing for 55 years.
I never leave the runs too long and hook about 80% off the takes.
If I'm not using a float, I wait a few moments until I can feel the movement on the end of the line, wind down and strike.
Float fishing, I wind down to the float, feel the line moving away and strike.
I can't remember the last time I had a deep hooked Pike, because I strike early.
If I miss a few, I really don't mind, as long as I don't deep hook any.
Bob
Try using a smaller bait. I've had the same problem this year and still am currently missing more then I am connecting with. Using the same set up I have been using for donkeys years. Its quite unusual the amount I am missing this season. However using smaller baits seems to have helped quite a bit. I had seven takes a few weeks ago and everyone dropped off until I saw the fifth fish hooked just in the front of the snout. I put on a small roach and had two doubles hooked right inside the mouth after that. Give it a try.
Could have been eels! A nightmare trying to hook them on pike tackle!
Striking - not required!
When you have the 'run' - wind slowly down until you can feel the fish pulling - put your rod at right angles to line - wind down and keep winding! The tip of the rod will bend towards the fish - you are then attached to the fish.
You pull the hooks into the fish rather than trying to sink them into a bony jaw! Trebles (semi barbless) will always find a hold!
Lyndon the thing that scares me with smaller baits is the larger pike can get them down there neck a lot quicker than a bigger bait,but small jack cant do the same with a bigger bait.
The trebles I use are size 6 or 8 dependant on the size of the bait about 2.5-3" apart with the last treble no more than half way down the bait. As for striking, I do wind down and try to 'feel' if any line movement then pull into the fish. If I miss 20 runs so be it as mentioned as I would also prefer to miss the fish rather than deep hook, that is why I err on striking straight away. Eels? not sure was fishing Wraysbury 2 so there is a lot in there apparently but this is the only lake I have fished containing them not sure, however the end of the bait had bite marks so think they are likely to be jacks. Just wondered if many other people had so many runs they did not connect with. I used different baits and sizes with the same outcome, maybe scale down to a small roach with a single hook could be worth a try.
Thanks
If the bait looked sucked rather than with teeth marks - eels! Esp on mackerel tails - lumps of sucked/stretched skin and bits of flesh missing.
Strike as soon as possible-if they are worth hooking you will. Olly 1s advice re striking is spot on.
Lyndon the thing that scares me with smaller baits is the larger pike can get them down there neck a lot quicker than a bigger bait,but small jack cant do the same with a bigger bait.
I always strike immediatley with all baits and have never had a problem with big fish taking a small bait down any further than a large bait. I have probably deep hooked no more than 3 fish in 20+ years.
MikeLyddon053698
19-11-2009, 19:34
Were there any marks on the baits on the runs you missed??
By the sound of it, I dont think they were pike at all. If there were that many pike feeding, you would have had more takes on the float rod as well. To me it sounds as if there was possibly a shoal of bream or something mooching around giving you loads of line bites, but the rod on the float, having its line vertical in the water, didnt get any?
It sounds a bit odd to me too.
Saying that, I went out today for a couple of hours. Had 2 takes and pulled out of both. And one dropped run. They were not very agressive on the feed.
MikeLyddon053698
19-11-2009, 20:53
Also, are there any crays in the water??
Were there any marks on the baits on the runs you missed??
By the sound of it, I dont think they were pike at all. If there were that many pike feeding, you would have had more takes on the float rod as well. To me it sounds as if there was possibly a shoal of bream or something mooching around giving you loads of line bites, but the rod on the float, having its line vertical in the water, didnt get any?
Thanks for the replies.
Shoal of bream?
Thinking about it this could be a real possibility. I had 1 pike of 6-7lb on the float set up, fished the same distance close in at the bottom of a shelf about 20ft to the left of my other rod. A shoal of bait fish around 1 rod and a pike stalking the shoal 20ft off to the left which I caught.
There were marks on the end of the bait. To me they looked like bite marks, ragged end and bits of flesh missing, (but not every time). But could be eels, I have never fished a venue that has had many in. Reading on this forum it seems there are a few in Wraysbury 2 where I was fishing.
Crays I do not know if Wraysbury 2 has any as I have only started to fish it this winter.
Each explanation could be plausable. Next time I will try both set ups using a float to see if this occurs again and put it down to part of the learning process. However, no matter what caused all the 'takes' it seems that the best advice is to keep 'striking' (winding into the fish) early and if they are pike I hopefully will hook a few, if I miss them so be it.
DAFFYD THOMAS
20-11-2009, 19:22
I'd put money on it being caused by eels.If ever I go on the RM Canal I get pestered all day long in exactly the same way you described.I've caught some big snakes this way (but not what i wanted!) When Piking on my local pit I never get 'phantom' runs at all, simply as there's very very few eels in there:thumbs:
MikeLyddon053698
20-11-2009, 22:32
Aha fishing W2, all makes sense now :)
Have had similar a quite few times on there in the past when I used to bailiff it, I would almost certainly then put it down to eels if it was on there. Never known there to be any crayfish on there.
Used to get baits completely stripped on there, even fishing just feet from the bank, sardines would come back as literally just a head and skeleton, every bit of flesh had been eaten.....though I wouldn't get a single twitch or bleep, most frustrating.
I tried scaling everything down to catch the eels, but then couldnt get a bite, was most odd :(
I had the same problem missing run after run on the Pads Lake in the 70s .I was using mackerel tails and getting real screamers one after another and was getting really frustrated when there was absolutely no resistance on the strike.Some time later i was told it was probably eels,made sense then!
Was out today, 3 dropped runs on the float and 3 decent looking sail aways that i hit and lost pretty quickly, only one fish landed out of 7 takes. they just were not having it. The one landed was barely hooked with the bottom hook.
That's piking. Not really prepared to let a run develop any more than I did.
Went out again on sunday, had 3 takes and caught all 3! (unusual for me). Every time wound down straight into a fish after the first indication. The difference I put it down to was I went first light until midday. Speaking to other folks on the bank they have also been 'pestered' by false runs and it seems that it definately is eels (one caught), especially as when it happened it was dusk (up to 1/2 hour after dark, when eels would be more active).
S1 4 FFC
23-11-2009, 18:11
I had a similar situation pike fishing on the thames a few years ago with a float and live baits...
I kept missing loads of what appeared really good takes.
I scaled the bait size down and started hitting every run... pike ...nope but big big Perch.
blankagain
01-12-2009, 16:42
As pike like to turn the fish in there mouth so its head first to be eaten i leave for about 15seconds on a ledgerd dead bait on a float 5-10sec lure it the mother right away seems to work ok for me
blankmeister
02-12-2009, 11:03
QUOTE:
My question is; Is this the right time or should I wait until the fish makes a run and turns the bait round to swallow head first as it is going for cover?
On one of the takes I waited for 10seconds after the take with the same result, but did not want to chance it any longer.
*********
Hello mate, i've been piking a good few years and have had this happen to me several times. The best advice is still to strike promptly, never risk deep-hooking a pike by waiting too long.
Your small jack theory may well be along the right lines, the other possibility is eels, they often pick up deadbaits and run with them, leaving you striking into nothing every time as they don't have the trebles in their mouths. I get this on my local lake, even into the colder months eels will still take a bait intended for pike. The weather has been mild recently and i'd be willing to bet it's eels that are responsible. You can check this out by recasting to the same spot with a much smaller chunk of fish as bait mounted on a size 2 or 4 single on a longish wire trace. I've had some cracking eels to around 4lb doing this, and the pike will still pick up baits this small, especially if you are in the habit of scattering small chunks of fish around the swim to entice them in. I've had pike to upper doubles on baits as small as the end of my thumb although the hook-up rate isn't quite so good with just the one single.
cheers :thumbs:
tim
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