pike and perch.co.uk

Well what an evening, i have just returned from the big lake having caught my biggest from there so far.  On arrival i walked to my favourite swim to find a guy already fishing there - totally gutted.  I set up one down behind some trees and thought i’d go have a chat with him before i start.

He said he was after alsorts and had got fed up with small perch nicking his maggots so went over to sweetcorn to go for the roach, with some success taking them to the 2lb mark.  I mentioned would he be there long and he said he was nearly out of bait so would give me a whistle when he’s done.  Low and behold i was in the spot i wanted at a little after 8pm, which isn’t bad going as that meant i’d only been there 20 minutes.  And being as i’d gone straight from work all i had to catch some livies was bread, thankfully he gave me a handful of maggots and i was away/  Third cast i caught a perfect sized bleak.

Thankfully i’d prepared and had the rod setup so on went the bait and i cast out to the edge of the trees whilst the guy was packing away.  I didn’t have to wait long as the bait was taken in under a minute by a pristine perch of 1lb 10oz.  Second biggest i’d had so far so i was well chuffed.  Out went the float for another bait…  2 minutes later a nice 4″ roach decided it fancied the maggot!  Perfect…!

This was cast a little deeper and the bait presented about a foot from the bottom.   15 minutes later another take, unfortunately this one spat it out before i managed to get him.  The bait still being ok, so it went back out to the hotspot.  Then about 10 minutes after casting it in bang bang bang on the float and then he was off…  i struck into it i and knew i was on to a good un and boy did he put up a great scrap.   Out went the net and he was mine!  Ok not massive but being the biggest by nearly half a pound i was well made up!  He went 2lb 7oz on the scales and i was overjoyed!!!

After this all went a little quiet until bang on the float again and i thought surely not!  I hit into and it felt damn good, unfortunately it was not seen nor heard but it felt bloody good and it felt perchy!  And stronger than the two previous fish……  nothing else happened after this so i packed up and headed home as it well pretty dark by now and i was struggling to see the float.  But you’d better be sure i’ll be back down there soon after nearly getting my hands on a real good one!

Watch this space…!

Pike Floats working out expensive for you too….? Well a few months ago i thought to myself about following others and making my own pike floats for deadbait fishing and also for bob floats for when livebaiting.

First up were deadbait floats, and i even impressed myself!  I purchased a few strips of balsa doweling 3/4″ from the local art and craft shop.  I think 3 strips were £1.80.  Enough to make six floats as each was 12″ long.   I cut them all in half and with some fine sandpaper began to round off the ends.  This took little more than 5 minutes per float.  After half an hour they were all ready for painting.   I drilled a tiny hole in each and inserted a size 8 swivel ( next time i will try 10’s ) Then after supergluing them tight I painted the entire float with white exterior glass that we had lying about in the garage and left them to dry for the night.  The next morning i masking taped them at the approxiamate half way point of the float, and proceeded to painted orange tops to them with some day-glo acrylic paint i found for £1.50 for a tube.  I barely used any in painting them all.   Another day went by to let them set and i coated them from head to toe in exterior gloss varnish £4.99 a pot ( plenty to easily do atleast a 100 floats ). 

I was astonished at just how easy the whole process was.  And cost savings that are unbelievable!  A normal pike deadbait float retails at around £2. 

My costs were :
- Piece of balsa required for float 30p
- Swivel 10p
- Paint   5p worth of dayglo orange (estimated - probably even less)
- Exterior Vanish 5p (estimated on amount used)

Total cost - 50p  

I think you will agree that it is more than worthwhile to try it yourself!  Let me know how you get on and i will try to post pictures soon! 

Next week i’m going to try making my own pike bob float, for paternoster and roving livebait rigs!!!