mikench
Well-known member
I know about the close season on rivers but is there an unofficial close season for pike on still waters or is it merely a personal matter?
I couldn't agree more.Only if the club or water owners are backwards in their thinking. OK to fish for them in their spawning season January, February, March but not when they are at their fittest the summer.
I couldn't agree more.
I thought of adding this to my latest article on tackling up for pike, but it is such a sensitive subject amongst some pike anglers. As you say, they fish for them especially in February and certainly early March when they are either spawning or prepping up for it. It might have something to do with the fish being heavier then and so upping their PBs, I don't know.
In May and June they eat around 70% of their annual diet, or so I read once and I am thinking that might have come from Barrie Rickards, famous pike angler. They are then at their fittest having got over their spawning and replenishing themselves so why not fish for them. I wouldn't fish deadbaits in summer, but that's just out of preference for lure fishing when surface fishing proves so successful and exciting.
The only time I wouldn't fish them in summer is when water temperatures get well up in the teens, ie: 17-18º C and above. Most other fishing should also stop when water temps go above 20º as that then becomes tropical, as aquarists would say. Last year Farmoor reservoir suffered a loss of hundreds of fish and that was largely due to temperatures as much as oxygen deprivation. All of our freshwater fish are cold water fish and pike are less tolerant of warm water than most, so don't fish for pike when it's very hot like last year.
EDIT BIT: I should also add that it's usually later in summer, late July and August, when water temperatures get much higher, not may and June and early July.