Been fly fishing for pike now for 5 years ,fished for them on and off all my life . Caught lots of 20lbs over the years ,never had a 30. Im totally hooked on catching them on a fly ,to me its a fantastic way of fishing . the follows do my head in ,so exciting to see a double follow the fly to the bank and just turn round and swim off at the last moment. But i have noticed over the last few years the places i have fished all my life since a boy are now very hard to catch any descent size pike . 5 years ago when i 1st started fly fishing for pike a local lake in milton keynes , i could go and catch 5 ,6 7, good doubles and had 1 19/10 . now im lucky to get a couple of jacks . Ihave found pike heads on the bank and in the margins when i have been wadding . Have spoken to eastern European fisherman who have been fishing in ,,no fishing areas ,, and been told to ,,uck off . i rang the environment agency ,the local club, no one seems to want to know or do anything about it. now i tend to travel out to hard to get to places fish trout res. and think the way pike fishing is going the only good fishing left will be trout res. . Its such a shame that these people do not respect our country and OUR WAY OF FISHING ,i do hope something is done a change in the law and more policing on river banks and lakes . Untill then it looks like loads of jacks ,and lots of driving . tight lines

At least you are getting jacks, these have disappeared where I fish. Unless its salmon, no one is interested and that includes poaching the trout.

I was talking to an Italian customer last week and he said that they are having the same problem in Italy.
The problem being that th Polish anglers for example have been raised on fresh water fish due to the country being mostly land locked.
The Poles dont think they are doing anything wrong.

__________________
www.tintotroutfishery.co.uk
www.anglersholidaycottages.co.uk

I caught a couple of 18lb ones on the wharfe last week on a spin rod. Would love to try it on a fly.

yes you should try it, its great , you feel so much more as your hand is in contact with line, even jacks are good fun on a fly rod . two 18 lbers !! nice fish , well done. .

Are the No Fishing zones not enforceable by law? Surely a call to the Police should see something done in those situations?

Looking at it from their point of view, the Polish lads might think anglers are the selfish ones. We want all fish returned alive so we can continually play sport with hooks in their mouths. They just want to eat on a budget.

What's the police going to do? There is drug dealers and all sorts of scumbags running about the place, the police are no intrested in polls killing pike.

they might come the first few times but they will soon get sick of you phoning up wasting there time and even if they do catch them what kind of deterrent are the courts going to give them, when you see some of the sentince people are getting for murrder these days it's a farce.

These people have nothing to loss they will just rape our country and move on till the next.


Wilkie

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

I have noticed the same decline in my local waters. Once found a set line on the canal, 20 hooks bated with sardines. I think the decline in numbers is wide spread. I do not see that there is much we can do about it.

Novice

It is now illegal to kill and take course fish other than a few small ones for bait.
Enforcment is the problem and to be honest I doubt that many of these guys even know its illegal going by the amount of english anglers that dont know.
The change in the law was not well advertised other than in the course fishing press.
I find it a bit of a bummer as I like to smoke and eat the odd perch but with the amount of fish being taken I accept something had to be done.

On the other hand at least the plumbing now works properly ...