Good man jeff, nice one, lol

You're getting too predictable mate!

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I like to fish with lures but will do a bit of everything over the year... a change is always nice

In the past i did some Pike fishing mainly on Loch Lomond in the Winter months but have not for a few years now. Dead baits fished on the bottom Mackerel, Lamprey, Herring, Sprat, Smelt frozen solid then defrosted and froze again they seem to crumble in the water and stink more that way and release more oils in the water almost like a chum. I never caught any monsters by Loch Lomond standards but it was fun. I also used an 8ft Ugly Stick a very light spinning rod with big spoons, plugs, rapalas etc. The best fish i got on that was about 12lbs from Loch Venachar but they feel much bigger on that sort of tackle and they fight like hell. I always found a Gordon Griffiths 20g bright orange spoon to be very effective and the plus being they are not expensive. Spinning with a small dead bait is also a very good method.

Used to turn to pike on the Wye about this time of year and used either dace/chub livebaits or jointed plugs fished with my salmon spinning gear. It was often great sport with plenty of pike (and a few out of season salmon) showing up.

I was fishing for chub one late October day and hooked a fish that started to take line off me and no chub ever did that before. I slowly played it up towards me and was just thinking about how to contact Angling Times when the line went light and a 4lb chub was quickly landed.

It had a bite across it about 6" wide and had obviously been picked up by a big pike after I hooked it. The next morning I went and got a dozen livebaits and was soon back at the same spot. I cast into a back eddy at my feet to check the weight and depth of the float and it went straight under. I thought I'd over weighted it but there was a pike on the end. This process was repeated on the next four casts to the same spot with further pike taking the bait!

I got another two by casting to the point in mid stream where the chub had been nobbled the day before but the largest fish was about 17lb and did not come close to the size of jaw that had been responsible. A 28lb fish was found dead in a poacher's net in the same pool the following season which was nearer the mark.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

It's usually sit and wait tactics for me with deadbaits november to march and then lures and fly the rest of the year, works for me, just make sure you have a good book while waiting for a run in the winter

Chucker (of flies for pike)...

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Hi, i am new on here also, pike all the way for me 95% artificials, a little barbel and chub fishing too.

i hope the little barbel and chub are not for bait ...... i love to catch pike on the fly.
wind up about bait mate welcome to forum mate
wilkie

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" TRUE CHAMPION'S DO NOT GET JUDGED ON HOW THEY FALL......... BUT HOW THEY RISE".