Pike Fishing Tackle Trader

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Pike Fishing Tackle stored in the garage

Posted by admin on October 23rd, 2009 Comments Off

Welcome to my first post in Angler’s Diary.  I have set up this blog site to accompany my return to the angling world after a number of years away with my pike fishing tackle gathering dust in the garage.

Why?  Well Looking back to around 1999 I remember fishing regularly for pike, usually starting early on a Sunday morning at dawn and returning for a late brunch, thus leaving the rest of the day free with my wife.  I was fishing a confluence between the River Derwent near York and the Pocklington Canal, together with stretches of both of these waters and also the River Ouse in York.  Tales of 30 pound plus pike abounded.

I would set up two rods with popped up dead-baits with bite alarms then set back to enjoy the breaking dawn.  This was the best part of the day.

I was slowly building up my gear, added unhooking mats, monster sized landing nets etc.  It was about 2001 when I returned to the sport of scuba diving.  Something I had always liked but not always had the money.  I know a lot of people who enjoy both the sports of diving and angling – they do have water in common!  The trouble was that once I had started diving again there did not seem to be time to go fishing.  Also, for some reason I did not have quite the same urge to get my pike fishing tackle out of the garage.  At the time I was also trying to start a business on the side as a fishing tackle trader over the internet – this was not working very well either.

So the upshot was that my pike fishing tackle was left in the garage until a few weeks ago when I dug it out and started to dust it down!  Its funny how my interest in diving now seems to be waning and an urge to go pike fishing is returning.  I will need to replace and update some of my pike fishing tackle and intend publishing any interesting findings concerning value and quality of the equipment I will be looking at.

My rod and reel are actually intended as carp tackle and I thought that I might try this area of the sport as well.  As a relative newcomer to carp fishing I hope to research the various aspects of all sport fishing tackle and air the results over these posts.

Posted in Angler's diary

Carp Tackle – From the UK to USA

Posted by admin on October 23rd, 2009 Comments Off

In the UK and Europe, carp fishing is a well established and expanding sport, probably even the most popular branch of freshwater fishing.  Up to the 1940’s, carp fishing was considered to be a difficult if not impossible sport!  However, after World War 2 specialists started to develop carp fishing tackle, together with improving tactics and baits. In 1952 Richard Walker caught the then world record 44lb common carp from Redmire Pool in England using a split cane built rod.  Soon after this carp fishing gained its momentum into the mainstream European sport we know today and carp tackle became more specialised.

Many bass fisherman in the US labeled carp as trash fish, though recently through publicity and education from groups like American Carp Society and CAG more and more fishermen in the US now seem to realise how challenging and exciting carp fishing really is.

The availability of carp and the water they inhabit will also help tremendously in the growth of this sport.  In the UK many ponds and lakes have been converted to carp fisheries and many new ones dug.  Many shops and online stores specialise in carp tackle.  In the USA a similar pattern is beginning to emerge.  Although the UK leads the way in developing purpose designed tackle and rigs, most USA anglers use American set-ups when they first get into carp fishing as a good selection of carp fishing equipment and bait is hard to find in stores within the United States.  Now that the Internet has taken up a supplier role this is becoming less of a problem.  Some online carp angling and general fishing tackle stores have been setup in the US and import the european carp gear to sell online, while others will ship directly from Europe. A very few companies are presently manufacturing their own gear in the US given the high quality of European gear, though this trend is likely to change with the future growth of this magnificent sport.  A lot of carp tackle sold both in the UK and USA is currently manufactured in China and other Far Eastern countries.

It is hoped that more interaction between UK/other European and USA anglers can be encouraged with possibly tournaments being set up or “World Series” leagues established.

Posted in Carp fishing tackle

Pike Fishing Tackle – strength of fishing gear examined

Posted by admin on October 23rd, 2009 Comments Off

For anybody considering pike angling then it would be useful to read this post about buying tackle specifically for hunting specimen sized predators.  The tackle generally used by many experienced anglers who seek this elusive quarry can on occasion be somewhat heavy.  By that I mean that the tackle is very strong and could safely handle large pike up to say 30 or 40 pounds in weight.

That is very well, but it can take a bit of the pleasure from your angling to sit by the river or lake with a broomstick connected to rope!

On the other hand, it would be irresponsible to go fishing knowing that there is a chance of catching say at least a 20 pound fish equipped with a sporting one pound test curve spinning rod and five pound breaking strain line!

So selection of the strength of your pike fishing tackle can add tremendously to the enjoyment of your sport.  I tend to go to my local water where I have caught pike up to 21 pounds with two rods with 1.5 pound test curves.  These are relatively light items as pike fishing tackle goes but I have found will handle the fish comfortably while feeling responsive in the hand.  These rods are ideally loaded with 12 – 15 pound breaking strain (nylon – or equivalent diameter of braid or fluorocarbon) and will feel balanced.

The fashion is for a 12 foot long rod which I actually like unless I am stalking a river bank.  Then I will use my ancient fibreglass 9 foot ABU spinning rod that can cast a few ounces of dead-bait happily.

The reel is less critical in my opinion – I use Shimano Bait Runners that will take around 200 metres of line.  This is more than enough.  A few years ago when I started specimen hunting for pike I bought one of these bait runners and paired it with an old Mitchell Match with automatic bail arm.  I used a deep spool of course – you could probably only fit 10 metres of suitably heavy line on the special match spool!  I caught many good pike, again up to 20 pound in weight, with this make shift partnership – even though it is definately not designed for the job!

The biggest factor in choosing gear – once you have read all the brochures about length, test curve, capacity of spool etc – is to simply get your preferred combination in your hand.  Do you like them?  As a committed tackle tart I must be in love with the gear.  Remember what fishing is about – as long as the pike fishing tackle is up to the job the important thing is your satisfaction.

Posted in Pike fishing tackle
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