Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

27 February 2003

Pike fishing.

The weather improved a lot in the past couple of weeks. At last the rain, more or less, stopped the Rivers went back between their banks and the temperatures rose above freezing point. For some reason (unknown to me) as time went on the coarse fish became more and more reluctant to bite, so obtaining pike baits became quite difficult.

The bait problem, at first, made me resort to spinning with a big spoon. In my book this is very much a 'third best' method from the point of view of attracting pike but at least it is very mobile and allows you to cover lots of water that would, otherwise, never be fished.

Just like the bait fishing I struggled to get a bite but eventually persistence paid off and a nice fish took the spoon almost under my feet (as a matter of interest I regard 'struggling' as an hour or more with no sign of a fish). In fact the fish missed at its first attempt and I saw it lunge past the lure in only about two feet of water. Experience has shown that, in these circumstances (if you have no bait) the best thing to do is (1) wait a minute (2) cast well away from the fish (3) spin the lure back towards the pike's lie. Sure enough the strategy worked so as the spoon reached the critical point I saw a green flash and felt a heavy, dragging weight on the line. The fish, about ten pounds, did not put up much of a struggle and was soon landed.

Encouraged by my catch, I decided to have ago at the following weekend. Nigel and his son Joe came with me and after (with some difficulty) obtaining a few baits, we tried the stretch that I had fished with my spoon. Joe was the first in action and, before Nigel or myself had our tackle in the water he called out that he had a pike on. The fish proved to be a good one (?pushing twenty pounds) but after half-a-minute of give and take the hook came free. Despite Joe's best efforts two more takes from the same fish proved abortive so we moved on.

To cut a long story short Joe had two more fish, including a nice, double figure one, and Nigel also had a couple - I had nothing on the spoon. Not bad for a couple of hour's fishing, but the big one's still there - waiting to be caught!

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

INFORMATION SPOT

COARSE FISHING

February 27th 2003

My fish on the spoon.

Joe catching bait.

Joe piking.

Returning a pike.

Into a bigger one!

Well pleased.