So why pike on the fly….Well I’ve tried all manner of fishing over the years from catching Rudd, Tench and Barbel with my grandad, to surf fishing with kites of the coast of South Africa for Salmon, Elf, Garrick and Shark and have even dead baited for pike in Ireland and Scotland but nearly all these species have meant prolonged periods of just sitting around on my arse doing bugger all waiting for something to happen. Now I am not somebody who easily gets bored and I certainly have the patients for these methods…Its just that like to be more active when I fish.
When I moved back to the UK in 95 I didn’t have the means to travel the distances necessary to go fly fishing for likes of Salmon, Trout & Grayling….and as I didn’t have a river on my doorstep whereby I could fish for them regularly, targeting these species would have cost me a considerable amount of money to do so……But with Pike I was able to go down to my local canal and spend the day walking along its banks, all for the cost of a bus fair.
Those that only target Salmon, Trout and Grayling purely because they feel they are the only fish that should be caught with a fly are not only ignorant but have no place in today’s fly-fishing fraternity (Well that's my opinion) - especially when ridiculing the likes of people who want to fly-fish for Pike, Carp, Perch or even Ide. We either fly-fish for them because we know we can or because we choose to or just because they are the only species available to us at anyone given time or place.
Fly-fishing for Pike is as exhilarating as any other form of fly-fishing and for anyone that hasn’t done it then you are missing out on something quite special…..More on this later!
Well said buddy!
ReplyDeleteFransoir Botes
I have a pal who has just moved to England - he is shocked by the lack of affordable wild trout fishing - I have been trying to push him towards pike for a while but he is just not having it.
ReplyDeleteI reckon another year and he will be converted :-)
I tell you what Alister, if you ever manage to get him out and he hooks into a nice 10 or 12 lb'r his perception will change rather quickly towards them.
ReplyDeleteI could probably write pages and pages about the virtues of chasing pike with a fly rod but i'll save you all reading what you already know.
ReplyDeleteWhilst i love fishing for a whole host of species on a wide range of waters and with several different tactics, I think that nothing else can compare to the buzz of watching a large prehistoric predator chase a home tied fishy creation with murderous intent!
Pike fly fishing is as close to an extreme sport as angling is ever going to get, and there are no other instances in our sport that i can think of where a fish can actually give
you a fright!
I am with you on Pike being a good quarry. I have a cabin on a fly in lake with great pike fishing, and I do it a lot. Always on the fly of course. I posted on my blog about a great night last summer when I took a trout-bum friend of mine out for a little pike fest:
ReplyDeletehttp://flyboy2.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/summer-pike-fest/