Phil Heaton
Well-known member
I'm the Regional Officer for the PAC in Rotherham and Sheffield and in my personal experience other species are just as vulnerable to going belly up in water with low oxygen levels.
I fish the Trent quite often during the summer off my boat and its amazing how many barbel come floating past either dead or dying not too far below anglers who thought their catch had gone back well. I believe similarly that some pike go back fine but suffer later while many others are totally unaffected.
I also believe that pike should be fished for in the summer with tackle that is capable of bringing them to the bank fast to minimise their exertion and related build up of lactic acid which seems to be linked to some deaths. This is because they do fight much harder as they are at their peak of fitness and you can struggle with light tackle.
One thing I have noticed though is that generally the size of pike during the warmer weather is smaller than the winter, which is probably a good thing as a fighting fit 20 will test even heavy tackle.
Finally I'm a big believer not bait fishing outside what was the traditional pike season as due to the warmer water the pikes metabolism makes them susceptible to gorging a bait much faster than in cold water. At times they do simply flare their gills vacuum a bait in and swallow in one action and no matter how good your bite indication is you have a deep hooked pike to contend with.
I have had one known fatality during my summer fishing and that was on a small bait intended for zander, the pike was only 5lb or so and lightly hooked, it was brought in reasonably fast but even while being unhooked I could tell all was not well. I nursed it in the margin for around 20 minutes before it finally died, I did feel bad about it for a long time afterwards but feel I didn't do anything wrong.
Lets be fair if we wanted to be totally risk free we wouldn't fish at all and common sense must prevail.
I fish the Trent quite often during the summer off my boat and its amazing how many barbel come floating past either dead or dying not too far below anglers who thought their catch had gone back well. I believe similarly that some pike go back fine but suffer later while many others are totally unaffected.
I also believe that pike should be fished for in the summer with tackle that is capable of bringing them to the bank fast to minimise their exertion and related build up of lactic acid which seems to be linked to some deaths. This is because they do fight much harder as they are at their peak of fitness and you can struggle with light tackle.
One thing I have noticed though is that generally the size of pike during the warmer weather is smaller than the winter, which is probably a good thing as a fighting fit 20 will test even heavy tackle.
Finally I'm a big believer not bait fishing outside what was the traditional pike season as due to the warmer water the pikes metabolism makes them susceptible to gorging a bait much faster than in cold water. At times they do simply flare their gills vacuum a bait in and swallow in one action and no matter how good your bite indication is you have a deep hooked pike to contend with.
I have had one known fatality during my summer fishing and that was on a small bait intended for zander, the pike was only 5lb or so and lightly hooked, it was brought in reasonably fast but even while being unhooked I could tell all was not well. I nursed it in the margin for around 20 minutes before it finally died, I did feel bad about it for a long time afterwards but feel I didn't do anything wrong.
Lets be fair if we wanted to be totally risk free we wouldn't fish at all and common sense must prevail.
