A bit of advice from the pike-masters amongst you if you will! I'm hoping to catch my first pike on the fly this year but I'm simply not sure on the basics (in respect of the best way to approach them on a river). Are the flies best fished upstream to come down past a lie, or downstream and retrieved against the flow....or across and down? Daft question I know, but when you stand on the bank for the first time and think 'where the heck do I start...?' it helps to know the basics! Much is written about fishing for them in lakes and reservoirs, but less so in rivers. Some pointers regarding technique would be gratefully received!

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Fish are like sex; tons around but I never seem to get any.

Hi, hope this doesn't sound flippant, but you've kind of answered your own question. Use all the methods you stated above.

For me, I find fly fishing for pike. No different to lure fishing for them.

I just start from the left & carry out fishing in a fan shape to cover all the water. Obviously looking for likely lies for pike, reed beds, boats, bridges. Never be afraid to fish a river after a match has taken place, you'll find that the matchmen have kind of baited up for you, also worth chatting to the matchmen. To find out if the pike have been playing with their catch.

No doubt others will be along with other good advice, just get out there & have a go.

Good luck

Sean

Hi Joe,
Ive been taught to walk lightly,tread carefully,and cast upstream close to the riverbank.As close as you can.
Look for deep holes.Light silty patches that are shallow near some weed.
Dont forget the other side of the bank and the good old fan casts.
The fish can be anywhere.I have cast upstream and stripped the fly back with no result but walking along the same stretch you see a big puff of silt where you have just disturbed a Pike.
Hope this has confused you as it does me.
Looks like im going to have to get you down to my precious spot if i can.
Happy hunting.
Cheers
Simon

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I'd rather have the bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Thanks for the pointers chaps. Simon - Steve and I weren't really sure how best to approach it, and when the conditions were less than ideal too, it doesn't do much for the ol' confidence! As it happens we were probably doing more or less the right thing....just need to find the fish! Down again this weekend, so we'll have to have another crack somewhere else.

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Fish are like sex; tons around but I never seem to get any.

look for underwater obstructions and fish right into them without worrying about the odd lost fly, one benefit of flies over lures. don't neglect right under your feet close to the bank. If I'm starting on a new river, I would always look at the pool below a weir/lock first as they seem to produce well

I've found across and down (same as salmon fishing) works well. Concentrate on features, undercuts, bays and creases. Try feeding out line in the current and then retrieving, a nice jerky 'injured' fish retrieve works well. Basically as others have said, fish very similar to how you would spin, however with a fly is you can fish much slower than a spoon or plug. The advantage of feeding out line in the current is that you can cover a lot of water without having to cast very far. Swimming the fly past a likely spot and letting it run back in the current a few times can trigger a strike. Try adding some large-ish split shot about 6" from the fly. This will give it a nice rising and falling action when retrieved and stopped.
Work likely spots hard, the fish in my avatar came from a very small pool on a tiny river. I knew the fish was in there 'cause I'd seen her but it took 2 fairly long days of running a fly through before she took.
Good luck!

Andy

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GAIC Single Handed Casting Instructor

http://www.andygreyfishing.com/

SURFACE LURES/FLIES

I personally love fishing surface lures-my favourite the 'The Mouse' and 'Rat' series of surface lures are in opinion second to none..winter or summer.
Dressed with buoyant deer hair the lure sits proud of the water.is easy to control and very easy to manipulate.
Tip-fish with an intermediate or sink tip line over shallow water..allow the line to drag the mouse/rat under the surface as you begin to pull on the line the floating lure will duck under the surface and pop back up to the surface on the retrieve.
This is a fantastic action that most predatory fish species just cannot resist !
Takes are usually hard and sudden !

More info at A GHILLIE'S TALE

Kindest regards
John

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Sorry to hi-jack the thread but I've been interested in fly fishing for pike and have been into a few fishing shops recently to get tackle and they all said it's the wrong time of year to be fishing for them as they won't recover well and probably won't be feeding as much. Judging by some of the responses above I take it that's nonsense?

you need to be more careful if you are fishing stillwaters because the oxygen levels drop in the hot weather especially if they have algal blooms, and this has a negative impact on Pike recovery. Rivers, especially if the stretch is well-oxygenated e.g. below a weir, shouldn't be such a problem.

I've had less success this summer than I expected but I'm not sure I would say it's always the case - interested what others think on this.

I stop fishing for pike in the summer, out of respect for the fish. They wil suffer greater stress when fighting from now on - come end September I will start again.

Bass and other salt fish are my focus now! Further north, the season can be extended a bit, but the same kind of pattern follows.