Line bites when float fishing for pike

[Keith Orange]

Do any anglers here get fast "bites" when fishing with deadbait for pike ? - the float will dip a couple of times, and then nothing further happens, and on retrieving the bait is unmarked.

I get them occasionally, and I'm sure they are line bites rather than dropped takes. An alternative explanation is that they are chub, which are common in most of the pike rivers I fish.

 

[Richard Harben]

Keith
I had this last Sunday on the Old West - Float Dipped a couple of times - I struck missed - complete repeat performance 2 minutes later - let it dip a bit longer third time - struck and caught - bit too deep for comfort but happily returned quickly and safely. I assumed this is more of the Pike mouthing the bait prior to munching it that we had the long discussion about earlier in the year. There are plenty of Zeds where I am - so sometimes I guess they are feeling too much resistence and doing the off!

 

[madpiker]

it may be carp picking up the bait and dropping it.
i caught a near 20lb mirror carp one mid january morning whilst piking at the local canal,it picked up a small joey mackerel minus the head.the float bobbed a couple of times and went off like a typical pike run.i struck and thought that i`d hooked the grannie of all pike,until it surfaced and gave up the fight!
ps,it was fairly hooked in the mouth.

 

[Chris Bishop]

Old West..? Sure it weren't a mitten crab....

 

[gilesy]

keith this happened to me on the river ure a couple of years ago,i was legering with lamprey and every so often my drop off arm would bounce and rise to the point where it should have pinged out of the clip the stop or it would drop down a few inches,there was definiatly something there but no teeth marks,i just put it down to chub

 

[Keith Orange]

Gilesy, yes it coud be chub, most of my big chub have been taken while deadbaiting for pike.

 

[Julian Parkin 2]

Keith

Have you considered eels as the culprits? Had similar things happening in Ireland. Indicators bouncing around but no runs developing. Dead baits came back with their stomachs chewed. No chub or carp in this Irish lake so I blamed eels.

 

[Les Clark]

Have had a lot of trouble with this problem this year while fishing lakes and I also have put it down to eels .

 

[sash]

What part of the country are you in Keith? I've had eels, zander, chub and perch give me 'hassle' when piking. You can often feel eels spinning lumps off deadbaits.

 

[Keith Orange]

Julian, I fish rivers in the Yorkshire, and eels are rare in the swims I fish.

 

[jon helyer]

Try using eel as bait, may keep em off.....

 

[Paul H]

Eels will eat almost anything won't they?

I'm sure an eel would scavenge another dead eel.

I caught an eel on a 21mm halibut pellet at the summer fish in, it hit the bait so hard that it impaled its skull on the hook, suffice to say I failed to return it alive. Slimed my rig good and proper first though and tied three knots in it.

 

[jon helyer]

Generally they tend to leave their own species alone, believe it or not......or that is what a lot of books say.....!

 

[Chris Bishop]

I used to get this fishing just over the drop-off into a deep gravel pit where it just fell away into 18 or 20 feet of water.

Missed a couple of takes like this, so next time I got the one bob bit, I picked the rod up, waited, then smacked it one when it bobbed again.

Near-double figure bream, with the bottom hook in its chin.

Reckon they were having a poke at my lamprey, then deciding it wasn't quite their thing when they felt the ironmongery or something.

Eels were also a nightmare on this place on mild days. Similar sort of take, leave it long enough and you'd reel in not much more than the skeleton with a few bits of flesh attached.

Remember trotting a river a couple of years back, seeing what looked like a big pike swirling after fry.

Shallowed the livie right up, ran it through again and hooking a big eel I lost on the way in.

Put a little skimmer on, let it go through again, missed a wrenching take and it came back without a head on.

Decided eels weren't for me after that. I mean, gross or what..?

 

[Lee Bowen]

I had it happen to me on christmas eve on a locval pit to me, my float/drop off/alarms kept going off whilst i was dead baiting, got talking to a couiple of the old boys and they said it was eels, so i went back and fished popped up baby trout and managed 2 eels to 4lb and 1 to a shade under 5lb.

 

[levelspiker]

nice catch lee,well done.

 

[sash]

I've never had an eel take another eel actually, plenty on lamprey though. In fact I've probably had more 'nuisance' eels and chub (and 1 barbel I'd forgotten about) on lamprey than any other pike bait.