Lure Fishing For Pike

The beauty of lure fishing, when it comes to location is that you can easily cover a lot of water in a day, whether you are fishing from a boat or when fishing from the bank. The most important thing is to keep on the move until you find some fish and not to stay too long in one area if you’re not getting bites. If there is a pike in your swim, due to their aggressive nature you tend to catch it within a couple of casts.

Another great tip is to keep an eye on the surface of the water, because if there are small fish like roach and rudd topping, there is likely to be a pike hanging around the shoal of bait fish. If there are no signs above the water, try to look for cover which offer great ambush points for predators such as deeper water, boats, reeds and tree cover.

Lure choice can be confusing as there are so many different styles and colours and I think as a result of this we're all guilty of way more lures in our lure box then we need!

A great way to avoid this, is to pick a particular style of lure that you are confident in and have this same style of lure in a number of different colours, as you will find a particular colour of lure will be best on any given day. A great lure as a starting point for pike is a shad style lure with a big paddle tail. This Lure kicks out loads of vibration into the water and will roll from side to side flanking and flashing which draws the attention of any pike in the area.

Rod choice might seem a bit of a Minefield out there's so many different rods to choose from on the market as there are several different actions and casting weights available. The best piece of advice is to match the rod to the size of lure you are using, so if you are using a heavy lure you will need a heavy lure rod, whereas if you are using a small lure, a lighter rod will be needed. All spinning rods feature a casting weight range, so use this as your guide.

Reel wise, you will want a small reel similar to the size chosen by match anglers, as these will match up perfectly with any spinning rod, and have a shallow enough spool that you will not need any backing with your braid, but still deep enough to prevent your braid from spinning around your spool. Line wise, a braided fishing line is a must, as this has no stretch, which maximises bite indication, so you can feel every movement of the lure, and also the exact moment when a pike smashes into it!

When lure fishing for pike, you aren’t necessarily catching hungry pike, like when dead bait fishing and the beauty of this method is you can almost agitate a pike into striking at your lure when casting on top of them. Therefore, when working your lure through the swim, it can be best to vary your lure action, such as speed of retrieval from slow to quick. Also don’t be afraid to invoke some movement in the lure using the tip of the rod, with small jerks and lifts of the rod great for allowing your lure to mimic the action of a wounded fish.