I can't catch pike!!!

Today I was sitting all day on the Thames in Reading, I did not catch a thing.
The method I was fishing was lures both floating and sinking.

What was I doing wrong?

Regards

Tom.

[geejayy]

hi, re -sitting,
were you fishing the same swim over and over again?.
did you try a selection of lures?

when i used to lure fish 4 pike i'd have 2 or 3 different types of lure in my pocket and work my way along the river makeing just 3-4 casts into each likely spot before moving on to the next , then maybe return after giving that swim a rest and trying a different lure.

Yep I was moving down the river spending about 5-10 mins in each swim I used about 5 different lures.

at this time of year i have sinking lures to be the most productive. cast a sinking lure out, allow it to sit on the bottom before making a slow retreive. when the water is colder the pike are more prone to sitting on the bottom waiting for an easy oppurtunity.

did the water have any colour to it as i have found deadbaits better in this situation as pike are sight feeders and wiht deadbaits can use their anititive and smell out the bait whereas with lures sight is the only option.

lastly did you cast to likely looking spots such as by moored boats, under bridges, by reeds or plantation or to over hanging trees?

if you did all of the above then firstly are their many pike in the water?, and secondly it could have just been an unlucky day.

George

Thankyou,

Well I did not let my lure sink to far down due to the thames being filled with bicycles, shopping trolleys etc etc But now thinking about it I should have been casting uner boats and other obstacles. It could have been that the pike have already eaten. Owell I am going to go dead bating on a lake soon which I no have pike in it after a very hairy fight which ended up with the pike winning and my trace being bitten in two.

Any tips for dead baiting?


regards

Tom.

if using deadbait treces ( to trebles ) then never put a hook more than halfway down the biat more chance of fooul hooking are u ledgering or float fishing the deadbait ???

Ok, I am wanting to float fish a dead bait. Which fish do you think will work best?

If you want to float fish it then i would put two rods out.

One about half/three quaters the depth of the thames and one on the bottom. If the river is deep then plum the depth first then use a snopknot to allow an easy cast but still be on the bottom.

If you do not know how to tie a stop knot then i cannot explain it unless face to face so go on google and type the knot in and there will be pages telling you step by step how tot ie it. It's relatively simple tho

Can you and would you use live baits there?

If no a sprat hooked through the back on the mid water rod will go well. Check in the margins first to see if the fish hangs well in the water like a normal fish and not head or tail first. For the bottom rod use two trebles and any deadbait but try to keep it the size of a 'normal' roach

Hope this helped mate and good luck next time