hi

was wondering how many people fly fish for pike and also spin/lure fish for pike. Also what your thoughts are on the more succesful method.

I personally fly fish for pike and have never done any lure fishing for pike however there is a local water to me which has some spots that are possible for fly fishing but a lot more water becomes avalible to me if i go for a spining outfit.

Any thought or advice would be very much appriciated.

Hi Tony,

What can be fun is on scouting missions to use a spinning rod with a popper lure with no hooks. You can cover allot of territory with the spinning setup and discover where pike are located as they come up to attack the popper.

As soon as the pike is located and has tried to devour the hookless popper, swap over to the fly rod and cover the targeted fish. This approach also works well with two anglers working as a team. Good strategy for waters you are not familiar with.

As for best technique - each has it's day - the fly more when water visibility is average to clear.

My own system, used especially on relatively large stillwaters, is to fish first with the fly, and then switch to lures in order to cover distances which are not possible with the fly. In areas where I am especially optimistic, I will run a devon or a mepps through first, and then beat hell out of the water with a popper. My success with the popper is not great, but takes can be spectacular!
Sometimes the fly has it, sometimes the lures, but I think you are limiting your potential if you don't have both options availably. The same may be less true on smaller waters, but personally, I'd use both.

by saying it may be less true on small waters is this due to the fly being able to cover all angles and more appealing to the pike?

I totally agree with you on the bigger waters not being able to cover distances and you are limiting yourself this is what has made me think about buying a spinning setup. Think i will take the same approach regarding the biggers waters were boats aint avalible.

Joey

Thanks for the advice mate and i think thats very noble of you not to use hooks on your poppers and then fool them with the fly some oringal thinking there i think.

Thanks again for the advice

I do both and i firmly belive that correctly presented fly and correct fly for that matter is the most effective artificial lure for pike. However, getting it to pike can be another problem and that`s where spin fishing has an advantage.

And not every pike fly is a good pike fly. And there is not a good pike that would be good all the time. For example, some super flashy thing shall do great in stained water, but shall be a disaster in clear. I think this was also covered by someone else in some other pike thread. Etc.

BlueOne

Three guys fishing an on-line lake just before seasons end, 2 are polish with Mepps spinners and me with a flyrod and various pike flies. 1st Polish guy, who has never fished before is just along for the experience catches 4 pike, 2nd polish guy, very experienced catches 2 and me 0.

Work it out for yourself.

Sounds like you feel the lures are more effective ?

i have now got a spinningoutfit and had a short session and must admit i really enjoyed it three jacks caught and three missed however i still enjoy the fly think i will mix it up a little this season and see what i think then.

Cheers
Tony

Tony,
it depends on the water......pike do get eductaed and on waters that are well covered by lures the fly will outfish them, provided the person can wield a fly rod effectively.

The difference is any foll can pick a spinning rod up and cast a lump of metal out and wind it back, even give a few rod tip twitches.....give that same person the fly rod and they might not be able to get a line out two rod lengths.....doesn't mean the spinner is better than the fly.

You are at NO disadvantage using a fly, in fact you have a very large advantage, and that is the movement within the materials in addition to the movement of the whole through the water.

You want to combine the two? How about a spinning rod with either a controller float, bubble float or Bomber float (seatrout in Denmark) and put a fly behind it....just don't call it fly fishing, because it isn't, it is fishing with a fly. An entirely different thing altogether, but it allows you to place a fly in those places a spinning rod is more convenient and without resorting to agricultural ironmongery. Don't get me on to rubber lures.

Oh dear - I've just recently tried those soft rubber lures on my spinning outfit, and after initial scepticism am now a convert. I've only caught one jack pike and some chub on them so far (to 4lb8oz) but they've outfished plugs and spoons on the day.

I must admit that for efficiently fishing anything but the dry fly I would always bet against fly tackle - but then if it was all about efficiency, we'd use dynamite

I've had some nice pike on fly, but nothing really big.
This sorta size fella to a foam popper:

You get the picture - fish from 3lb to 5lb usually.

On sinking plugs (and the rubber fish) I've had pike 15-20lb. If I had some specialist fly gear that would allow me to fish a big fly at depth - I think I could get those big fish on fly. My biggest fish have all been from an open canoe - trolling in essence - paddling quietly along margins of underwater weed usually. I prefer poppers though - popping plugs or popping flies - either way that has to be the most exciting way to fish for pike.