Norfolk Fishing Network 2004 - 2024

When it comes to landing pike, a large, knotless landing net with arms of at least 36 inches should be used. Ensure that the mesh of the net is well sunk before drawing the pike over it and lifting the net sufficiently to retain the pike.

Holding the net as shown in the photograph will take the strain from the frame of the net, and allow you to carry net, rod and fish safely together to the prearranged unhooking area. If neccessary, gather up the mesh to raise the pike further from the ground.

If fishing with a friend you can keep the pike in the water in the landing net while they ready the unhooking equipment.

Never lay pike down on hard or rough surfaces, always use an area of soft grass or better still a well padded unhooking mat.

When lure fishing many experienced pike anglers prefer to land their pike by hand. This is a method best used on small fish, and only when hooks are clearly visible and avoided. At all other times a net is to be prefered.

It is one thing handling pike when you are on solid ground, but when in a boat it requires a degree more confidence.

If netting a fish from a drifting boat it is a good idea to manoeuvre the boat upwind of the pike. Better still drop the anchor to make boating the pike easier and reduce the length of time it will be played for. Always keep pike away from anchor ropes, strong sound tackle and a firm hand is essential for this.

Some experienced boat-pikers prefer a round framed net, but as these are best used with a scooping motion they are not that easy to use when fishing alone. A triangular framed net is perfectly satisfactory.

Once a pike is netted the net can be held against the side of the boat and the pike unhooked in its meshes. With the hooks removed the pike may as well remain in the net over the side of the boat while the scales and camera are made ready.

Either lift the fish out of the net and directly into the weigh sling, or lift the net aboard and lay it on an unhooking mat or some other padded material prior to transfering the pike to the sling. Take special care when lifting fish aboard in rough weather.

Anglers with a lot of boat fishing experience often prefer to keep their fish held off the deck at all times as pike often start flapping about when laid on a mat. On the bank you have more freedom to kneel astride pike to calm them down, in a cramped boat this course of action is not always practical.

One advantage of photographing pike in a boat is that should the fish start to thrash while being held - and run the risk of falling on the deck - it can be safely dropped into the water. In all other cases pike should be nursed as carefully when being released from a boat as they would be from the bank. Kneel down and lean over the side of the boat, keeping a hold of the fish by the wrist of its tail until it can maintain its balance and is strong enough to swim off steadily.

With your pike safely in the net and carried ashore, place it on a large, padded unhooking mat. Look to see where your hooks are before proceeding to handle the fish. Insert one or two fingers under a gill plate, keeping them well away from any hooks. You might like to wear a gardening glove on the hand you do this with. Lift the pike's head carefully and its mouth will usually open. Maintain this hold while you use a pair of 10-12 inch artery forceps to grip and remove the hooks - top hook first, then the lower. It is now that you will appreciate the use of semi-barbed hooks. If the hooks are in deeper near the throat, insert the forceps through the gaps in the gills below your 'holding-hand'. Please do this with great care and preferably under instruction if for the first time.

When fishing with lures, which tend to have bigger and thicker-wired hooks fitted, you will benefit from the use of pliers as opposed to forceps. Always carry a strong pair of side-cutters in case you need to cut through the hooks to aid unhooking.

When you are a lot more experienced you may want to unhook pike in the water, thus minimising contact. Despite the awesome look of all those sharp teeth, the pike will not purposely bite you. Don't be frightened, treat the pike with respect and confidence. If the fish is small, you may find it easier to lift the pike to unhook it. If the fish is bigger, then it is easier to unhook the fish by kneeling astride it, as on the right.

If the hooks are difficult to get out, do not cut the trace, unclip it. Put the pike in the landing net and into the water. Then seek help from another pike angler, do not feel embarrased, we have all been there. More information for dealing with this situation can also be found on this page.

Despite your best efforts you might still occasionally hook a pike further back than you would like, you might find yourself fishing near someone who has deep hooked a pike and needs assistance, or you might land a pike which has someone else's lost trace down its throat. Even when hooks are out of sight the pike can generally be unhooked safely provided you take care and follow the guidelines outlined here.

On some occasions the act of pulling on the trace will result in the bait (which is almost always still attached to the hooks when a pike has swallowed it) simply popping out of the pike's throat - hooks and all. This is not always the case, but in any event if you can see the bait it is always a good idea to grip it with a pair of strong forceps and try to pull it out before starting to remove the hooks. Getting the bait out of the way makes it much easier to see what you are doing when operating on the hooks.

When there are two of you one opens the pike's mouth as described on the previous page while the other pulls the trace using any line attached, or if necessary gripping the swivel with another pair of forceps. The pull should be firm and sustained until the pike's stomach starts to emerge into the throat. Once the first hook on the trace becomes visible - working with the forceps either down the throat, or very carefully through the gills - it can be inverted and un-hooked. If necessary, bits can be cut off the hook in order to remove it with minimum damage to the fish. Carry on using exactly the same approach with the second hook - assuming that it is a standard snap tackle. Once the hooks are removed the stomach will normally retract itself.

If the problem trace is not yours it is unlikely you'll have a clue where the hooks are if none are visible but you should still try the above procedure. If the trace has already been cut pull the cut end with forceps. If this is not possible, cut and remove as much of the hooks/trace as you can and release the fish. It is reasonable to conclude that hooks left in a pike will eventually disintegrate by a combination of digestion and rusting (assuming that stainless steel hooks have not been used and for this reason they should not be). Whenever possible attempts should be made to remove any and all hooks.

Should you be fishing alone, pull the line or braid with your teeth to raise the hooks up. If there is no line attached to the trace then a piece of leather, or a pad of other material, can be attached to the swivel by means of something resembling a paper clip and this again pulled using your teeth. Be ready for any sudden movement of the fish though!

Do not forget that you are dealing with a living creature and time is of the essence. It may even pay to interrupt proceedings by putting the pike in the margins to re-charge it's batteries before continuing. The fish should not be out of the water for longer than two or three minutes at a stretch.

To summarise, the best way to avoid deephooking pike is to use good bite detection, to pay attention to it and to strike as soon as you can. Placing the hooks towards the rear of the bait will further reduce the chances of a pike swallowing them. The use of barbless or semi-barbless hooks will make unhooking much easier should this happen. However, barbless hooks should not be used as an excuse for leaving pike to swallow baits. You might also like to consider using double hooks rather than trebles, especially when fishing with deadbaits. Always carry adequate unhooking gear - two pairs of forceps and a pair of wire cutters. Try wherever possible to remove all hooks - but don't over stress the fish in the process.

It is important to ensure that pike are always returned to the water with the minimum amount of fuss and they should not be retained for any longer than necessary. For this reason it pays to be well organised by having unhooking and weighing equipment prepared in advance. Once a pike has been weighed it can usually be released immediately. Of course, if it is a big one you might want to photograph it and your photographic equipment should also be organised before you take the pike from the water.

If you are fishing with a companion this is not a problem as they can take the photographs for you. However, if you are fishing alone you might need a few minutes to set up your camera and the pike should not be kept out of the water while you do so.

Obviously the pike will need to be retained in the water, and 'pike tubes' are recommended in preference to 'carp sacks'. Sacks can cling to the gills of a pike, and get entangled in their teeth which will affect the fish's breathing. Pike tubes keep the soft material away from the pike and the fish seem much happier in them than they do in sacks.

Wet the tube before sliding the pike into it, stake the tube out horizontally in as deep water as you can. Make sure that the head of the pike faces into any flow or wave action as this will improve the flow of oxygen through the fish's gills and speed its recovery. Once a pike rolls on its back and is left unattended it will die, so check that the pike is the right way up at regular intervals if it is kept in the tube for more than just a few minutes.

Never retain pike for prolonged periods - overnight retention is strongly discouraged. Pike should never be retained in order to take 'bag shots' of multiple captures. A tube should never hold more than one pike at a time - this is an EA byelaw in England and Wales.

If boat fishing the tube can be secured to the gunwales, but if you have to move the boat with the tube over the side, you should do this as slowly as possible, and certainly not under motor power. Don't move a pike any distance out of the water, either when boat or bank fishing.

When removing a pike from a tube always hold both ends of the tube while you allow the water to drain away, lie it on a soft surface and slide the pike out head first.

A pike that has recovered its strength while in a tube will be more lively than when you first landed it! Take care not to lose control of it at this stage. Be firm with it until it quietens down sufficiently to be handled easily.

By general consensus, a gassed-up pike is one that, instead of swimming off underwater when returned after capture, swims just under the surface and attempts to dive. Sometimes it fails to dive and then starts to wallow on the surface. This may be so bad that the pike rolls over onto its back. At this stage it is clear that the pike is in trouble. There appear to be two types of 'gassing-up'; one in which the pike appears very obviously inflated, and a second where the pike is simply unable to maintain its equilibrium and remain upright.

'Gassed-up' pike are often associated with deep water venues, where pike are caught close to the bottom and raised quite quickly to the surface. Anglers have reported seeing pike coming up from deep water emitting bubbles from their mouths, which suggests that pike can release excess gas from their swim bladders if they need to, but perhaps under some circumstances they are unable to do this and become 'gassed-up'.

'Gassed-up' pike caught from shallow waters are more likely to be the result of exhaustion and the build-up of lactic acid as a consequence of the energetic and/or prolonged fight. The problem with lactic acid is that lots of it can in fact be dangerous, affecting the chemical balance of the exercised fish. Some anglers have released pike only to see them swim out a few yards and roll on their side on the bottom. Clearly these pike have not been 'gassed-up', but over tired. For a pike which has been over-exercised by someone trying to land it using light gear, a period of recovery is required. A period when plenty of oxygen is essential.

Keeping the pike out of the water too long, and high marginal water temperatures with low oxygen levels can increase the problem. It seems likely that the two phenomena of lactic acid build up and excess gas could be connected. Dr Bruno Broughton suspects that the act of playing a pike, especially if the fight is hard, can cause a malfunction of the duct between the swim bladder and the foregut, although quite how this occurs is open to conjecture.

The key to avoid pike 'gassing up' in the first place seems to be to use tackle which will land pike quickly. A mimimum15lb line and rods with test curves between 2.5lb and 3.5lb will ensure that no pike should take longer than ten minutes to land. Don't play your fish for longer than necessary. Don't keep the fish out of the water for more than a couple of minutes otherwise you may have a fatality on your hands. Rest it in the landing net in-between unhooking and photography. Then get it back quickly. Six photos is more than enough for anyone!

If you should be so unlucky to have a pike in difficulty you need to find shallow, sheltered piece of water and stake the fish out using all your rod rests, or anything you can beg or borrow to form a 'cradle' to keep the pike upright, then simply leave it alone for as long as it takes the fish to recover. This might be minutes or hours, but the more you mess the pike about the worse things will get. If you can find an area of oxygenated current, such as an incoming stream, place the pike in this area facing into the flow.

Various ideas have been suggested regarding releasing excess gas from the swim bladder. Indeed the Americans have had some success using a syringe to remove gas from the swim bladders of walleye. Unfortunately, this is a skilled technique which we don't recommend untrained anglers to attempt. Some anglers have reported some success in releasing gas by holding back the gullet wall with a landing net handle. Others recommend bending the fish to force gas out. However, all these techniques seem risky and uncertain - but in extreme cases they might be worth trying. A staked out fish, once it has metabolised its excess lactic acid should be able to rectify the balance of gas in its swim bladder, keep itself upright and swim strongly away.

The PAC, being a club that has members throughout Great Britain, realises that pike waters vary widely in their condition and the amount and type of angling pressure they receive during the summer months. A remote Scottish loch, deep, cold and fished by a few experienced pike anglers will present a completely different scenario to the busy environs of a shallow, weedy, water in the south of England being fished by numerous of 'casual' pike anglers. To be fair to all pike anglers in Great Britain PAC does not seek to recommend a national summer pike fishing close season. Each water should be looked at as a special case and a decision regarding closed times made according to the specific situation.

The fishing and handling guidelines which are outlined in the PAC Recommended Code of Conduct and in these pages should always be followed when pike fishing, but in the warmest months it is acknowledged that extra care needs to be taken. We suggest the following guidelines to anyone thinking of pike fishing in the summer:

Use strong tackle - a minimum of 15lb mono is recommended matched with 2.5-3.5lb test curve rods for bait fishing. Do not worry about going even heavier. Many experienced summer pikers use 20 or 25lb mono when fishing rocky or weedy venues. When bait fishing strike very quickly when a run develops. Pike swallow baits faster in summer than they do in winter, and the time taken removing hooks which are deep will increase the time the pike is out of the water.

Do not play pike for any longer than is necessary. Using strong tackle helps in this.

Take pike from the water for the absolute minimum period. Unhook them in the water if you can, and retain them in the landing net in the water before weighing and photographing them. TIme out of the water is the real killer of pike in summer time. Take as few photographs as possible and return them straight away.

When lure fishing always be ready to cut hooks in order to speed the return of the pike to the water. Do not retain pike in tubes or sacks in shallow water, nor in direct sunlight. It is preferable not to retain pike at all during the summer.

When releasing pike in the summer, always ensure they are fully recovered before allowing them to swim off.

Today's 'idiot proof' cameras, film and digital, that do everything for you make it really easy for anglers to take good quality pictures of their prize captures. Using an auto-focus, auto exposure camera with a built in flash (even a relatively inexpensive one) there are no excuses for out of focus or poorly exposed pictures anymore - so long as you follow a few simple rules.

First of all, set the camera to auto or program mode, so the exposure is taken care of, and make sure it is in auto-focus mode (if there is an option). Also check that any close-up or macro facility is switched off! If it is a dull day, or it is near dusk or dawn, then switch the flash on if it doesn't come on automatically. Switch the flash on on bright days too if you are unable to get the sun behind you as you take the picture. You will need to come out of auto mode to do this on most cameras, and entering programme mode usually works for this to provide 'fill in' flash. Consult the manual for your camera on this subject.

Norfolk Fishing Network 2004 - 2024 - Handling Pike