Pike Fishing for Beginners: A Straightforward Start

Pike have a reputation for being difficult and dangerous. They are neither, really. They are one of the easier large fish to catch deliberately, and the danger is almost entirely to the pike rather than to you — provided you turn up with the right kit.

When to go

The traditional pike season runs from October through to March, and there are good reasons for it beyond tradition. Cold water holds more oxygen, so a pike recovers from being caught far more quickly. Weed has died back, which makes fish easier to find and landing safer. And pike feed hard before and after spawning.

Summer pike fishing is possible but it is harder on the fish. In warm, low-oxygen water a pike that fights for several minutes may not recover. Most experienced pike anglers simply do not bother in high summer.

Where they sit

Pike are ambush predators, so they sit where ambush is easy and food passes close.

• Reed beds and lily margins — cover to sit in, prey moving past.
• Drop-offs and shelves — where shallow water falls away, often along an old riverbed.
• Bridges, boat moorings and overhanging trees — structure and shade.
• Near shoals of prey fish — if you can see roach or bream topping, pike are rarely far off.
• On rivers, slacks and eddies out of the main flow, especially after rain.

Our guide to reading a river covers finding features on flowing water, and most of it applies directly.

The tackle you actually need

• Rod — a 2.5 to 3lb test curve pike or carp rod, around 12ft. A light carp rod will do to start.
• Reel and line — a 4000–6000 size reel with 30lb braid, or 15lb mono if you prefer.
• Wire trace — non-negotiable. A pike's teeth will cut straight through mono or braid, and a fish that swims off trailing a hook and line is a fish that dies slowly.
• Hooks — two semi-barbed or barbless size 6 to 8 trebles on the trace.
• Floats — a simple pike float if you want to suspend a bait, though a bottom-fished deadbait catches plenty.
• Bait — frozen smelt, sardine, mackerel or lamprey. Sea baits are oily and work well.

The unhooking kit, before you cast

This is the part beginners skip and should not. Do not make your first cast until you have all of this with you.

1. Long forceps, 10 to 12 inches, for reaching past the teeth.
2. Strong side cutters, able to cut a treble hook. If a hook is badly placed, you cut it rather than tear it out.
3. A large unhooking mat, wetted before the fish comes onto it.
4. A big landing net — pike are long, and a small net damages them.
5. A knotless, rubberised mesh if you can, which is kinder to fins and skin.

How to unhook a pike

Calmly and quickly. Lay the fish on its back on the wet mat. Slide your fingers under the gill plate from the outside — not into the red gill rakers themselves — and lift gently; the mouth opens. Reach in with the forceps and turn the hooks out. Keep your fingers away from the teeth, which point backwards and are genuinely sharp.

If a hook is deep or awkward, cut it and remove the pieces rather than pulling. A cut hook costs pence. A torn gill kills the fish.

Then hold the fish upright in the water, facing any flow, until it swims off under its own power. Do not simply drop it in.

Realistic expectations for a first session

Pike fishing is often slow and then sudden. You can sit for three hours with nothing and then have two runs in ten minutes. Two rods out, one float-fished and one on the bottom, covers more water while you wait.

A first pike of 3 to 6lb is a good fish and a perfectly normal start. Doubles come with time and water knowledge rather than better tackle.

Log what you catch and the conditions you caught it in — wind direction, pressure, water colour, bait, depth. Pike are creatures of pattern, and the pattern on your water will not be the one in a magazine. If you are fishing through the cold months, winter pike fishing in the UK goes further on conditions.