One for the Pikers ?

[phill_itofish]

Alright lads, I'm working away next week and I'm going to do a spot of pike fishing. After my recent success with a little perch my confidence is high. Ive seen Small Jack pike in the water im going to fish the past few times ive been there, the river seems to be full of small perch and roach. So I'm after a bit of advice, the water is quite shallow and dirty and quite weedy and from what ive seen the pike tend to tide around the edge of the weed i assume waiting on ambush. I wast thinking about setting up a soft plastic on a weedless setup and trying or am i best of sticking to surface lure.

[markaky]

I'd go weedless phil. Used to catch a few pike when fishing the match scene on lobworms twitched about. One lad had one about 20lb, won the match as i remember. Good luck!

[Jimk2]

This time of year I like to fish quite shallow something that will run maybe 1 metre under the surface. Lures of choice for your situation would be salmo slider floating and rapala f9.
I haven't had much success with surface poppers.
Another option on lures i suggested would be to visit pikers (Mark Houghtons) website and check out his lures, quality and very affordable. If its jacks and perch I'd go small maybe 5-10cm lures.

[Jimk2]

Pike like erratic movements of lures too which instigate the take. Stops, starts pauses and jerks all attract pike to attack.

[phill_itofish]

Cheers Jim, i might chuck a few isomes around while I'm down there, dont see why a roach wouldn't have a go.

[Jimk2]

Cheers Jim, i might chuck a few isomes around while I'm down there, dont see why a roach wouldn't have a go.

That's something I've never used Phil, these isomes. I mostly freshwater fish with crank baits, jerk baits and the odd rubber shad etc.

[phill_itofish]

What other fresh water species do you lure for?

[Jimk2]

What other fresh water species do you lure for?

Phil, I'm a piker at heart (around 4-5 years). I fished casually as a boy spinning for trout with a bit of sea fishing and opportunist fishing thrown in.
I did a lot of big game fishing 10 years ago working in Nigeria, catching tuna, barracuda and dorado to around 20lb. I used to make my own lures from chrome chair legs filling them with lead and using steel traces with treble hooks. Barracuda is very similar to pike, a predator scavenger etc. and I think this started the pike trend when I took up coarse fishing seriously in 2008.

My favourite fishing is obviously pike secondly perch. Living in the north East makes catching these species very difficult unless you travel. I only target these fish when lure fishing and its funny as I've caught perch fishing for pike and trout fishing for perch. I don't think there is a nicer specimen than a perch, except pike of course.
I did dabble with other course fish like carp, but it bores me as you enter the commercial scene. Give me a wild loch or river any day.

[phill_itofish]

Well hopefully I'll land my first pike next week, watch this space. Oh one more question what's the best time to fish for them, Dawn?

[Jimk2]

Well hopefully I'll land my first pike next week, watch this space. Oh one more question what's the best time to fish for them, Dawn?

Where there is plenty lol,

Pike break the rules when it comes to catching them as there is no pattern. Some follow moon phases air pressure etc.
For me I like an overcast day with a ripple on the water when lure fishing. If it has been hot like this time of year I think late on is good.
But I've caught pike on lures every month of the year down to -6'c and in high air temperatures. I was in Scotland last Sunday and they were wild when caught. It was good conditions although a bit windy, but it was cloudy and cool and they were having it. A friend of mine who is an occasional piker had a PB perch of 1.15 which was nice.
Effort normally pays off too, if your fishing the same canal, work it hard and cover lots of ground and cover same areas. Look for ambush points like features and overhangs where pike would hang out. Also be prepared, look after them and you never know you might hook a monster.
If there is anything you are unsure about I wrote a little helpful guide in this section a while back covering basics.

[phill_itofish]

Cheers mate, do they tend to be territorial? Ive seen about half a dozen over the short stretch I'm going to fish, unfortunately i can fish from where i have been watching them but i can from the opposite bank is it likely they will stay in the same area ?

[Jimk2]

Cheers mate, do they tend to be territorial? Ive seen about half a dozen over the short stretch I'm going to fish, unfortunately i can fish from where i have been watching them but i can from the opposite bank is it likely they will stay in the same area ?

Personally I think pike are territorial, I've proved that dead baiting in Scotland on large waters. They normally get to the bait.
Smaller pike (jacks) tend to group up together so it isn't unusual for them to be together. A bit unusual to see them easily from the bank though. Good sign.

I tend to see them showing interest in the lure or following it when on the boat. When they hit the lure at the boat or at your feet it can sometimes be difficult to keep them on.

[phill_itofish]

Personally I think pike are territorial, I've proved that dead baiting in Scotland on large waters. They normally get to the bait.
Smaller pike (jacks) tend to group up together so it isn't unusual for them to be together. A bit unusual to see them easily from the bank though. Good sign.

I tend to see them showing interest in the lure or following it when on the boat. When they hit the lure at the boat or at your feet it can sometimes be difficult to keep them on.

I could be wrong but I think there sun bathing.... bare with me here lol I working on a site and the water is at the bottom of it, obviously as a angler I can help spending my lunch time looking in the water, on the sunny days the Jacks seem to be basking in the sun between the Lily Pads, they don't seem to pay any interest to the bait fish while there doing it and there was a few Jacks in the same 1m area. Looked a lot like they were sun bathing to me lol

[Jimk2]

I could be wrong but I think there sun bathing.... bare with me here lol I working on a site and the water is at the bottom of it, obviously as a angler I can help spending my lunch time looking in the water, on the sunny days the Jacks seem to be basking in the sun between the Lily Pads, they don't seem to pay any interest to the bait fish while there doing it and there was a few Jacks in the same 1m area. Looked a lot like they were sun bathing to me lol

I won't disagree buddy,

[Piker]

If the fish are sat shallow enough that you can easily see them basking, I`d tend to go for topwaters first, just for the pure enjoyment of seeing takes on them. Fish them fairly slow, with long pauses, speeding up a little if slow doesn`t get strikes (still adding pauses though). If they didn`t attract strikes, then I`d go subsurface with a smallish spinnerbait, even fishing it right into the pads if need be (spinnerbaits are pretty much weedless/snag-free). I would only tend to resort to SP`s if the fish wanted an ultra-slow presentation at this time of year.
Don`t fish too light if you`re fishing among pads etc...even small Pike can go well at this time of the year. Dawn/dusk are usually the best times, but you should be able to draw strikes at most times of the day with the right presentation.

Best of luck Phil, hope you get your first