Replot fishing report

For the last 3 years I’ve kept a little black book with me whenever I’ve gone fishing to record the days events in short. Here a couple of interesting statistics from just this year.

1. Since the 8th April I’ve dedicated 175 days fly-fishing for pike, and had I not torn my

hamstring I could have added another 14 days to that tally.

2. In those 175 days I’ve caught 752 pike which averages out to 4.06 snotrockets per day. I don’t

count fish lost during a fight but it was over a hundred.

3. I’ve alternated between 2 rods, one with a 60 lb mono leader & the other with a wire trace. I

caught 356 with the 60 lb mono leader & 394 with wire trace. I’ve changed the Mono leader 12

times yet replaced 57 wire traces,& I haven’t lost a single fly using either method.

4. Each day I’ve also alternated between either barbed hooks or barbless for my flies, and found

no difference in the hook up ratio. What was alarming to see though that I can honestly say

without a doubt, that barbed hooks did more damage than barbless.

5. 4 % of the pike were hooked in the scissors while 83% were hooked inside the mouth

somewhere, And 13% were hooked in the far back of the mouth either through the gill rakers

or through its tongue.

6. I took a total of 17 pike home for the table all were bleeding heavily from the gills.

7. Red/white has again been the killer colour combo that has caught me 174 fish .

Black/white second with 122

Orange or predominantly orange combos 96

Pink/white 81

Blue/white/purple combos 79

Chartreuse or fluorescent colour combos 76

Purple/Black 42

Yellow/white 16

Brown/white 19,

Green/yellow; Green/white combos 14

Grey/black 17

Black/Red 16

8. I used circle hooks as frequently as I possibly could, and only 4 pike out of 82 were
hooked in the scissors which begs me to think, whoever says circle hooks improve your

chances of hooking the pike in its scissors really is talking a loada bollocks.

9. The average weight 4,35 kg’s……..Average length (75-85cm)

10. I caught 5 pike with my 1^st cast of the day

11. I’ve also caught the same pike on 3 separate occasions in 3 separate areas. Purely

because of the distinctive markings found on them.

12. I’ve caught 493 pike on sunny days & 257 on overcast/rainy days

13. I caught 11 pike over 8 kg, 36 over 6 kg, 59 over 5 kg the rest were jacks of 2,3 & 4 kg’s

14. I only fished from a boat 47 days out of the 175, the rest were all spent wading.

15. I had 4 blank days out of 175

16. I caught 24 pike that had visible signs they had been attacked by a larger pike

There are several subjects which caught my eye this year which I'm going to delve into in more detail in the coming weeks