small river piking

tonyb · #1 (**permalink**) 29-10-2009, 14:46

Im going to have a go for Pike on my local River. Its a shallow, small river, with the occasional deeper pool and wide weir pools. Ive never fished for River pike before, especially small rivers like this one. My question is, would it be better to trot a deadbait down through the swim, or to fish static? Any tips would be welcome.

Paul H · #2 (**permalink**) 29-10-2009, 14:58

Trot a float around the weir pools and around the deeper areas with a smallish deadbait. It's the best way to cover a lot of river, if you find an area that seems to produce fish then you can alter your tactics target bigger specimens.

Rickrod · #3 (**permalink**) 29-10-2009, 15:10

It might be worth while running a lead around the weirs has there is usually some snags about in them it will save you some tackle why not wobble a deadbait about to find the pike

slime monster · #4 (**permalink**) 29-10-2009, 16:43

The old sink and draw with deadbait worked on my limited small river pike Trips

r1paul · #5 (**permalink**) 29-10-2009, 17:05

Tony , don`t know how wide your river is , but I fish the Kentish Stour which is only about 35 ft across at most on average , I normally fish both rods paternoster style , no more than ten feet out , a lot of the time a lot less , what you must remember is that the bank on most rivers are undercut with the wash , the pike lay up there a lot of the time and take the passing free dinner .
You could try one rod on paternoster and one on the float to see which is the going method , but in truth they both will work , I also like to use lives on the river if possible but that is just me .

tonyb · #6 (**permalink**) 30-10-2009, 07:55

cheers guys for the help, im new to piking so its all good info.

Les: the weirs are around 100ft across, maybe more, then the river shallows up really quickly to no more than 20ft across and a couple of feet deep. The near bank is shallow for most of its length with the deeper pools to the far bank. My plan was to trot through the deep pools, giving each one around 10 trots before moving on to the next pool.

klik2change · #7 (**permalink**) 30-10-2009, 10:31

When fishing the River Hull I used to leapfrog deadbaits. the current was allowed to carry the bait under the bank, weighted down with a smallish lead [a bit like stret pegging]. Half an hour and I moved the downstream rod to about 10 yards above the other one, and drop it in downstream again. I rarely blanked, and had one 23, though I never did manage to catch one of the 30lb fish in there.

Tony B, you say you are new to piking. Please be careful! Read up about unhooking and caring for pike before you go fishing for them. They may look fierce but they are delicate creatures, believe me!

Paul H · #8 (**permalink**) 30-10-2009, 11:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by klik2change

Read up about unhooking and caring for pike before you go fishing for them. They may look fierce but they are delicate creatures, believe me!

So true.

There are several articles and threads on here about this with loads of great information & advice - use the search function and you'll find them.

tonyb · #9 (**permalink**) 30-10-2009, 17:27

cheers guys, i have done plenty of research. I have caught a couple of pike before, many many years ago when i was a kid. Ive also watched a fair few dvds about piking by Mick Brown, I know how delicate they can be.

Paul H · #10 (**permalink**) 30-10-2009, 21:04

Fair enough. Being prepared is the main thing - with long handled forceps and a pair of long handled snips just in case.

Another good idea is an antiseptic hand gel - just in case you get a treble in you hand or scratched by the pike itself: weils disease isn't nice I'm led to believe.

Good luck.