| Why do we go fishing for pike? Deep down, are we scared of them, those huge brutes with mouthfuls of snaggly teeth (the pike, not the anglers!) They are the very stuff of myth and legend, when duck, vole, horse and even man is not safe near the water’s edge when they are on the rampage. Are we indeed responding to some primeval hunting response, man against fish, where the fearsome dappled predator stalks unseen below the watery plain? Are we not to be respected because we set forth in the depths of winter, where rain, sleet, snow and biting cold deters us not one jot?
Out of the woodwork on 1st October Whereas a carp angler is apparently a carp angler full stop, some pike boys only seem to come out of the woodwork come October 1st. No need to buy anything too special, we can flick out a sprat or sardine or even a spinner (no trace required) with the float tackle. A mackerel tail? The leger rod will do the job nicely, thank you. You would think that in these enlightened days, that is no longer the case? Read the following tale: My brother in law Bob and I were pike fishing at Tring and we spent an hour one morning talking to a young lad fishing some forty yards from us on Startops. The long casting and masses of very technical looking kit that we haul about everywhere astounded him. He then told us of an idea he had of wanting to be able to mount a herring deadbait so that it hung horizontally at mid water, but at a distance of perhaps fifty to sixty yards from the bank. His reasoning was that this would be totally different to anything the Startops pike had seen for a long time and therefore may just be attractive to them. His problem was not being able to cast the bait due to mounting it sideways on, and also his deadbait floats were not man enough to suspend a whole herring. Bob and I both thought that he may be onto something with this idea so in no time we had made a ‘hook-up’ rig that allowed the bait to hang vertically during the cast, and we attached an additional float to his to give the required buoyancy. Blind Alleys Delighted, the youngster rushed off to put the grand plan into action. Bob and I sat back smugly thinking that if it did work we had supplied the hardware and know-how, if it didn’t work then that was one less avenue for us to have to explore. I should perhaps point out that at this point we have been up so many blind alleys that we do sometimes get ever so slightly cynical. These alleys have included dyed baits, the entire range of sea fish stocked by local and not so local fishmongers, scents, oils, attaching huge plastic ‘eyes’ to simulate fry, groups of sprats fished together, trout, salmon tails (worth further investigation!) squid, popped up baits, surface fished baits, drifted baits, etc, etc, etc ….. Back to the plot The lad ran off with his new tackle and we waited. On this particular bank at Startops, each swim is edged with bushes so that you are not able to see your fishing neighbours, but you can see where their tackle lands on the water. However, the double float rig did not appear in view, despite the obvious splash we heard of the whole herring hitting the water. After a while, curiosity got the better of Bob, and he wandered off to investigate. He came back five minutes later chuckling away, but would only tell me to go and see why for myself. Off I went and when I reached the young lad the reason was obvious. The tackle we had supplied was working perfectly, double float holding up the herring which was hanging horizontally as planned. The only slight flaw was that this rig was sitting some ten yards from the bank, not the sixty plus yards as expected. The answer lay on his rod rest in the shape of a one piece 5′ spinning rod, casting weight – about  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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