Pike and Bala

[Stu Black]

Been piking at Bala lake today-I blanked and learnt very little.

Swim I was in was recomended as a "hot spot" by the warden.

It slopes fairly evenly to about 5' about 10 metres out then drops off to 45' very quickly. I fished half mackerel on 1 rod and smelt on the other; both on a running leger.

For the first couple of hours I fished both rods just at the top of the drop, figuring that 45' would be too deep for feeding. Then I decided that as its frozen N Wales, the fish might be in very deep water so chucked 1 over the edge. Other parts of the lake go over 100' within 20m of the bank, What sort of depth would be best?

I was using carp style alarms and heavy bobbins (much heavier than I would for carp at that range). I had a few single beeps that I dont think were caused by the wind. Should I have hit those, as I dont want to deep hook any, especially as i have so little practise of normal unhooking! Do pike usually run, or eat where they find the meal? Could they have been caused by pike spooking off the resistance of such heavy bobbins?

Is it possible to float fish at such depths? Do pike take deads at mid level? What do you think I had for dinner?

Oh and any info specific to Bala would be gratefully received too!!

Cheers,

Stu

 

[Phil Hatton]

Stu,try and contact Doug Hulme of Second Chance he usually takes a couple of parties of his kids up there piking .He may be able to help you out.He's on second.chance@ukonline

 

[Stu Black]

Ta, Phil. I've emailed Doug.

Does anyone else have any answers for me?

 

[Terry Dawson]

stu ive taken pike out of 40ft of water and know people thats caught even deeper, i have said in the past fish get use to depths they live in, why some people say you will only get pike in 15ft of water beats me

 

[Matthew Collington]

Did have some success in deep reservior using large feeder stuffed with mashed frozen sprat, using popped up sardine as bait. Cast out and twiched back yard at a time. Figured must back a good long scent trail for the pike. Worth a try.

 

[Chris Bishop]

It's a hard water to start on.

 

[Paul Williams]

Stu,
Bala is an old hunting ground of mine, Chris is right it is a hard water!
Fish it for roach, get to know how to find them and then go for the pike....they are wonderful fish but a double is good and a twenty is very good.

 

[Stu Black]

Its a good job I like a challenge then! I should be there again tomorrow, hopefully learn something and come back with a few more questios i'm sure.

 

[Gerry Castles]

Stu, fish are regularly taken in UK reservoirs at 50-60ft plus, no reason why you shouldn't try it at Bala. On the other hand don't assume they'll always be on the bottom. There was an interesting article in P&P by David Overy last month (Dec I think) which somewhat blows the gaff on the usual assumptions about cold weather/fish deep, warm weather/fish shallow. The fish could be anywhere and in 40feet plus deep Irish loughs were often found at 10-12 feet. In other words if baits or lures fished deep in deep water don't work then try fishing livebaits shallow. In clear water finding thr feeding depth won't be rocket science since even if the fish are deeper than your bait or lure they'll come up for it.

 

[Paul Williams]

I think it a huge mistake to ever try to generalise to much.......different waters seem to hold fish that do different things and not always do what we would pressume, for instance one water i used to fish had a huge roach exodus into a feeder stream once a year, i was convinced the pike would follow but they didn't and remained at the other end of the lake (the bream were stil there) an open mind is whats needed when exploring new venues.

 

[Eric Edwards]

Give it a rest until the spring Stu. Bala is tough at the best of times and you'll only get dispirited if you keep at it. Bala doesn't respond well to deadbaits but fishes well in warmer weather on livebaits - and they can be caught easily in warm weather, or so barney tells me!

Eric

 

[Stu Black]

I'll leave it a few weeks then, and try bridgewater canal instead.
Cheers folks.

 

[Eric Edwards]

A thirty came out at Thelwall just recently - allegedly!

Eric

 

[Chris Bishop]

Find a couple of waters near home where you can go and catch fish, regardless of size to start with.

You'll learn a lot faster doing this than struggling on hard waters, especially big ones where you could be miles from the nearest pike.

Get the basics right and you've got something to build on and you'll probably enjoy it a lot more.