I called in to Gailey this afternoon, talking to one of the baliffs, he told he had found a huge Pike dead washed up on the A5 bank. It topped the scales just over 26 Lbs. The fish looked in good condition, but the only conclusion for it's demise was old age or spawning.
Any one have any other ideas, because we don't find many dead fish of any species? Interesting the best Pike to come out this winter was 16Lbs ....

Cheers Gaileytrout.

PS .... Gailey offers pike with the FLY all year. Visit www.gaileytrout.co.uk

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www.gaileytrout.co.uk

Hiya mate, that looks like a nice place to fish you have there. I fish for pike on the fly in a chain of reservoirs near where I live and it is not uncommon to find dead pike up to double figures in weight after spawning has taken place. You do not generally see dead fish washed up but for a couple of weeks a year you may find them. Perhaps your fish was just an old hen at the end of her life. Another theory is that trout water pike can grow very fast due to the high protein diet available to them in the shape of rainbow trout. A trout water pike with a small head and a large (fat) body may be a young, fat fish that will not stand up well to being stressed and can die as a result.

The reservoirs I mentioned used to be subject to a close season rule between March and June. The pike fishing was excellent. Then they were opened up to all year fishing and the pike were not left alone. An interesting trend developed. When the close season ruling was in place, after the season started you would catch loads of pike on lures, both surface and subsurface. Some of the lures used were huge jerkbaits but it did not matter to the pike, they hammered them. Then more and more people started to fish for them and the close season was abolished so the pike were subjected to year round pressure and results started to tail away. Follows instead of takes became common. We had to start using smaller, more subtle lures like jigs to get results and even they became ineffective after a while so we turned to flies. The point of all this is that the pike do not respond well to year round fishing pressure and it is the opinion of some anglers that the quickest way to kill a pike water is to allow year round fishing for them. After all, pike thrive on neglect.

I would be very interested to know how the pike in Gailey are responding to year round fishing and if it corresponds with the fishing in my local waters.

Also, what type of trace material is recommended for the pike fly fishing there as there is nothing on the fishery rules part of the website about it. It looks like a really nice water to fish and I will definetly have a cast there this season.
All the best and good fishing,
Andy.

I fish Gailey for pike - I wonder if this fish was one of the stressed ones from being played to lightly?

The Pike Fly Fishing Association has a meet or two at Gailey - did quite well last year. If you like fishing pike on the fly this is a good Asociation to join - £10 a year.

I was there today (they had an open day) and fished a short session. Trout were playing a bit hard to get (just had a couple on buzzer) but I saw a decent pike about 10lb lurking near the landing stage I was on (A5 bank). Didn't have my pike FF gear with me though so I left it alone.

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Check this out:-

http://www.blenheimpalace.com/fishing/fishing.htm

Excellent pike venue which is getting better and better...

Cheers

Andy

I would say that the "problems" you encountered were due to increased fishing pressure. We do have close season for pike which starts on Feb. 1st and last till 1st of May, normaly spawning takes place some time in March. Despite that, on heavily fished waters, pikes are extremely carefull, so we are constantly looking for something new. When some 25 years or more first soft plastic baits were available (twisters), pikes went crazy. Now it is just a lure like any other. Same happened some 15+ years ago when big soft plastic shads were introduced. Etc.

On the other hand once a guy i know came back from Canada and showed me photos of big pikes cought. Then he showed me on what they were cought. I looked at him not really buying it. Well in the end it was logical. He flew out to some lake where pikes have literary never seen a fisherman before, or just a few. In other words, fishing pressure was almost nonexisting. According to his words, it was ridicolous. Anything you would throw in, would produce a pike. But the vast majority of those pikes or perheaps all of them have never seen artificial bait before, so they were more than happy to cooperate as long as the thing in the water looked at least a bit eatable.

BlueOne