Northern Pike

The freshwater shark or croc as a lot of people like to call the pike, is one of my favorite fish to catch, its a streamlined stealthy predator with a big appetite, the British record currently stands at 46lb 13oz which was caught by R Lewis in Llandegfedd, Wales, in 1992. there has been some close calls with this record the most recent was on the 29th of March 2012 by Andy O'Connor at exactly 46lb caught at a fishery near Scarborough

This pike has been the largest one caught in a long while and hopefully there are bigger ones out there maybe the one in the picture above may end up being the record in a few years.


Pike can be landed either using plugs spinners and shads or dead/live baiting. most pike prefer weedbeds or sunken snags to lie in wait for their next meal, but do occasionally move to bask near the surface, i love stalking the reeds and weed beds looking for pike lying in wait, i could spend hours hunting for pike as they are a beautiful sleek predator and give a good fight,
this is one of my catches 

yes its not huge but at 6lb its a decent fish for a canal, my local canal has plenty of jack pike and a few decent sized pike but i've yet to find a decent double figured pike in that canal
Thanks for reading

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal

I've decided to post about my local water which has not really been publicized much in the angling media, I find that the Leeds and Liverpool canal has not been given the credit it deserves, it is a brilliant canal to fish, especially for pike, perch, roach, rudd and bream, in fairness some sections of the canal is strewn with rubbish and not really been cared for by British Waterways but there are miles and miles of beauty and wonder which have literally been untouched by human hands and it is an awesome sight to see.


One of these little gems is the section at Hapton Lancashire, its a beautiful spot which runs alongside the M65, don't let the thought of the motorway put you off fishing there though, once you've been fishing there for a while, you start to switch off from the noise this is one section of Hapton that i love to fish in the image below

this next photo is the canal between Hapton and Altham

This is only a portion of the beauty of these sections if you walk further you may find even more secret spots as i like to find.

There is a brilliant selection of decent fish in the canal which is another thing which has not been noted by the angling media
I've done research and found out  recorded weights of fish caught from this canal from fellow anglers on the canal

Fish and Angler and Location

Darren Hopkins - Perch 3lb 8oz      Barrowford Locks

Rob Clarke     -     Bream 12lb 3oz  Carr Road Bridge Nelson

Michael Clarke -  Pike 8lb 7oz   Barnoldswick Marina

Mark Andrews -   Pike 16lb 2oz      Greenberfield Locks

Robert Larkin  -   Chub 4lb 12oz     Reedyford Road Section Nelson ( across from Fleet St Depot)

Mick Dawson -     Roach 2lb 6oz     Foulridge Wharf

Mick Dawson -     Crucian Carp 2lb 1oz Foulridge Wharf

Mick Dawson -     Eel 4lb 8oz    Foulridge Mile Tunnel (wharf side)

Mick Dawson -     Eel 6lb 1oz    Foulridge Mile Tunnel (wharf side)

There are plenty more and will add to this list as more anglers send me their weights and photos if you want i will add them accordingly email them to me at afishermansdream@live.co.uk

As you can see this canal is producing some really good fish, and will probably carry on doing so, there could even be a british record in that water and i'm 100% sure that will happen sometime in the next year or so.

My Favorite Shad

I know a lot of people have reverted to using Jelly or Rubber lures to catch their chosen predator, due to their lifelike looks and swimming action, I've tried tonnes of different ones from large lifelike roach, perch and trout to the jelly worms which wiggle and jiggle through the water, i have many personal faves but the ones which do stand out for me and work a treat are the Shakespeare Shad Selection

These colorful single hooked shads are absolutley brilliant me and my brother swear by these and catch plenty of pike, the single hook makes for more sport as you have to be that slight more careful in landing the fish as they can slip the hook easier than using treble hooks but are a damn sight easier to unhook than a treble hook, i have lost a few decent pike using these but the thrill of having to alter your play style is a lot more fun in my opinion


A Selection of pike caught using these lures

In all fairness these pictures are all small jacks all below 3lb but my brother has caught an 8lb pike from our local canal with these shad so they are worth a go and a pack of 5 for under £4 is worth the money, again you can find these lures in most tackle shops or go straight to the manufacturer here shakespeare tackle shop

Thankyou for reading and if you try these and catch a decent predator let me know in the comments 
Cheers Rob

My Favorite Plug

At the moment my favorite lure has to be the Tormentor from the Abu Garcia range, I've not had any brilliantly huge pike from it yet but i have had quite a number of small jacks with good success

This is the lure in question in the above picture,
These lures can be found in most tackle shops or online my personal favorite place to get them online is here http://www.fishingmegastore.com/abu-garcia-jointed-tormentor-floating--26g~1263.html#gentable

Proof of the lures potential, this pike was caught at Hapton Lancashire on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal

Kids and Angling

I love to take my kids fishing with me when i head out on the bank my 10 year old daughter and 7 year old son love fishing, so whenever they are off school i try to get them out with me as much as possible unfortunatly that cannot be all the time due to school etc, so i have to head out on my own, i love the peace and quiet but its nice to share that feeling with the kids.

There's no better feeling in the world than seeing your kids catch a fish own their own, even though sometimes they will not hold it as in the above pic my daughter landed it but would not hold it lol its the same with my son he loves catching the fish but again its up to dad to hold the fish 

Now today both my eldest kids were at school and my youngest 2 were at home, i decided to head out and take my 2 year old son out in the pram onto the canal bank, i made sure he had a sun hat on, had plenty of juice and sweets and a couple of toy cars with him, but unfortunatly i was subjected to abuse by a chap walking his dog, calling me irresponsible for bringing a young child out fishing that the lad looked bored (even though he was not) and should be inside playing not out in the sun, it makes me laugh that someone who does not know me or seen me before can start giving a parent grief for taking a child out for a walk along the canal, again it seems its down to narrowminded idiots who just cannot keep out of other peoples business. 


Needless to say, i gave him a good mouthful about keeping his nose out of other peoples lives and just carry on walking and i went and carried on fishing, listening to my 2 year old telling me about duckies and birdies swimming on the water, and the big boats passing frequently, it made me smile to hear him so happy, how can a lad be bored when he is talking constantly about those things.

I'm proud to say that my kids have an interest in fishing, they are the future generation of anglers who hopefully one day will be taking their children down to the canal and teaching them how to fish just like i'm doing with them, its such a good feeling to show your kids how to catch a fish, how to unhook safely, and releasing the fish with less stress as possible it makes you feel really good knowing that they are willing to learn from their elders and put it to practice.

Eastern European Anglers

I know over recent times, there has been the big debate over our lovely european cousins coming over here and poaching our lakes, rivers and canals.  I don't mind so much they want to fish on our waters but to take fish to eat instead of heading to morrisons, asda etc to buy it fills me with anger, our fish stocks are quite low to begin with.

Due to this poaching there has been a change in the way these people fish, I've found bait traps setup on the far bank with sea line and a massive sea hook stuck in a old fish head, with no means of escape for the poor pike who thought it an easy meal, I worked with an Enviroment Agency baliff to stomp out these bait traps whereever they were found and luckily now the traps are now few and far between.

Now I'm not saying that all Eastern Europeans are bad for poaching, it seems that it is only a minority of them who want to poach our waters, i was out on the bank last week and spoke to an polish chap who hated eating fish and would rather put the fish back and leave them for other anglers to enjoy catching. That gent was a real decent person and i would be happy to fish with him again,

Not all foriegners are poachers as they have been labeled by a lot of british anglers, the only fault i can give to a lot of foriegners is the litter they leave behind, theres trash cans all over the place use them please, there's nothing more annoying than empty lure packets left strewn all over the bank, empty cans of lager just tossed into the river/canal/lakes, show a bit of respect for the enviroment you fish in and it will reward you,

Thankyou for reading :)

Big Pike Small Pike

There's been many a time where theres been the friendly argument between fishing friends, family etc, the question in general for me at least is what would you prefer to get a big pike or quite a number of small jack pike in a fishing session.


Currently myself and my brother are on a friendly competition whereas see who can catch the most pike during the space of a year we are both on 9 pike each, but are still looking for the big one to win the most heaviest pike caught trophy, now i was talking to a good friend of mine about predator fishing and he asked me a question which to be honest did stump me which is the question above what would i prefer to catch? 


Since Darren asked me that question, i've been pondering over it and I've come to an answer which did surprise me when i decided, the answer would be a good number of small jacks would be better in a session rather than just catching 1 big pike, I know catching a big pike would smash a personal best but i think a lot of anglers out there would actually want the one big one rather than a good number of small fish.

So I ask my followers this question what would you prefer to catch 1 big fish or a good number of small fish in a session? Comment below and let me know your answers, i want to find out how many anglers there are on both sides of this debate.
Thankyou for reading

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, I'm going to try and update this blog as much as possible over the fishing season.


Sitting on the side of the bank is not as easy as what the non-angling community think, I believe that if they did what we did they would soon change their minds, I am starting to get a bit fed up with the narrowminded approach we receive from people who just dont seem to get why we go out fishing for hours. 
My personal hate is the ones who look down their noses and come out with silly comments aka "get a job, my taxes pay for you to fish"


What people don't realise is that 9 out of 10 anglers work for a living and come out on the bank to get away from the 9 to 5 daily rush.

I personally get out of the house and go down the bank for the peace and calm you can only get when out fishing followed by the adrenaline rush of the line screaming away from your reel with a big fish on the other end.