Pike on a Fly

I used to fish for pike when I first joined the Club, but the rule of killing all pike didn’t work for me so I stopped. I’m not sure why I haven’t fished for these toothy critters since, because we can now return them!! After a failed attempt with John Aplin to catch a River Stour pike on the fly, I thought I would have a go on the Club’s water.

I cast the fly into a pool where John had recently seen a pike and it wasn’t long before there was a reaction – dam missed it. No worries, they say that pike will come again and it sure did. This jack pike gave a great fight and I was really pleased to catch my first pike on a fly. This wasn’t the first pike I saw because it was a lot smaller, so after 10 minutes I refished the pool and again he came for the fly. I was attached to this bigger pike for a second or two, enough to realise these are seriously ferocious fish and I would need to buy a bigger landing net!!!

I fished a few other likely looking spots but I failed to find another pike, which I guess is good news for all the trout & grayling!!

Why not give this a try, you will need a 8# or 9# rod because the flies are huge and so can the fish! Flies are easy enough to tie and I just used a 5/0 sea hook, plenty of glitter (raid your Christmas decorations!!) and a lead dumbbell weight – these are 20cm long!! If you don’t tie flies, you can purchase them at Sportarm, Dorchester along with wire traces etc.