Winter Pike Fishing.

After what feels like ages since both Steve and I fished a session together we finally got round to arranging a day in the pursuit of a freshwater predator. It has been a long time since I dusked off the Pike tackle and I was eager to get out and hit the spots that I've left alone for a long time.

Since my last journey's for Pike a lot of the landscapes and areas had changed drastically with swim either now being unfishable or totally unrecognisable but on the other hand there were a few spots that were now looking rather pikey where as before I'd have just walked past them.  

We started the day off with lures walking and driving miles, we tried several different locations and although we had spotted a few small jacks the only bit of action was a tiny one launching Steve's lure out of the water before disappearing into the murky depths. The Pike was not much bigger than the lure so it wasn't any great loss when the hooks failed to connect.

The cold and the wind finally took its toll and we decided to wrap up the lure fishing. We had walked the banks for several hours with nothing to show for it and I made to choice to settle in a more comfortable location and set up for a bit of dead bait fishing.

We had only had the dead baits out for a matter of minutes before I got my first sign of interest. My float started knocking back and forth, I held back just incase it was the wind moving the float but after it pulled under I knew I had my first real chance to connect with a Pike. As the float began to move off I hit in to it and began battling my first Pike in well over a year.

As soon as it knew it was hooked it tore off powering away but it was short lived with only a few lunges before it was subdued by the net.

A nice winter Jack on the mat.

It was only small Pike weighing it at 7lb 1oz but the size didn't matter. For me it was more than enough of a reward for our efforts.

Face on, monster teeth on display.

And a side on shot, looks a lot bigger now.

A quick reminder that every tooth is sharp.

Once it had gone back Steve was a bit annoyed that he hadn't connected with the tiny Pike earlier as irrelevant of size it would have made the session our first ever where we'd both had a successful Pike take.


The regrets were quickly pushed aside after a bait dropped inches from the far bank started to pull into the overhanging undergrowth. Steve didn't waste any time and struck. His rod bent over as another jack pounded away on the end of the line. It was only a small Pike but it gave a good account of itself battling away and even tail walking before I netted our second Pike of the session. 

Not the biggest but worth the wait.

Old smiley, now a happy boy.

Even though Steve had hit it pretty early it was hooked right at the back of the throat, fortunately the rigs we were using had barbless treble hooks so with a bit of patience the hooks were out with the minimal harm.

It weighed in at 3lb 10oz but again the size was irrelevant. The conditions were borderline freezing with the odd spot of snow and to have land a Pike each was a proper result for us.

We fished on until the light faded and went home feeling like we had achieved our goal for the day. Its been a long time since we focused our attentions on Pike and good to get some action without putting in the initial groundwork.

Check out the videos blog of the session.