stevetheangler

Oh well, could be fun tomorrow – snow forecast from noon in the West Midlands although more likely it will be rain where I’ll be.

Anyway, off piking again – but with a complete change of tactics for me…

My usual (non-lure) pike fishing is with a variety of deadbaits fished in a variety of methods – floatfished at various depths, static ledgered, popped-up, large baits, small baits, single baits, multiple baits, etc – but this has not been very successful – and that is REALLY stretching the use of the word ‘success’!

It is apparent that the particular pool I fish mainly is not a ‘deadbait’ pool – most of the pike I’ve actually caught there have been on lures, very few takes and even fewer fish have come to deadbaits. Total number of fish I’ve caught are in single figures over a 3-4 year spell with around 15 trips per year (so <10 pike on 45-60 trips – with only one a double figure fish).

However, I hear tale after tale of pike attacking the silvers of other anglers when being landed and that the better pike there also are being taken on livebaits.

Thus tomorrow’s plan is ‘something completely different’….

I’m going to start silvers fishing in the usual way with floatfished maggot BUT I will also have the two floatfishing pike rods ready setup for action…. and the first few silvers (if any) landed will go into an aerated bucket for possible use as freshly killed deads or as livebaits. And I will fish that way until either (a) an active pike appears in the swim or (b) until around noon when I’ll put out the pike rods but keep up the loose-feeding of maggots into the swim to keep the attention of any silvers in the area…. and possibly at the end of the day I’ll have an hour or so with the lure rod….