Pike action during the Spring can be fast and furious if, and it is a very big if, you get your location right.

Most pike waters have only limited spawning habitat for the pike and if you are not in one of these places your chances of catching are severely reduced. So my aim is to try and point you in the right direction. With a little bit of effort the Spring haunt of the pike can be quite easy to find and can bring superb results.

Pike will begin to think about spawning several weeks before actually
committing themselves. The eggs take quite a while to develop, and as the
hormones begin to kick in the fish will start to move. Pike need shallow
weedy areas in which to spawn. Depths of less than three metres tend to be
favoured, and if present, dense beds of soft weeds, such as Canadian pond
weed are favoured. If this type of weed isn't present, then they will use
just about any plant material. Look out for exposed tree roots, reed beds
and sunken trees. All may be used if there is nothing else available. Pike
are generally quite difficult to spot while actually spawning. Try looking
for gentle swirls in the margins first thing in the morning, or last thing
at night through the month of March. This will give you some idea of where
to fish the following year.

While actually spawning pike tend not to feed. What you are actually looking
for are the areas that the fish will hold up in while they wait for
conditions to become just right. Once again, the areas we are looking for
are normally the same on a wide variety of waters. Pike will seek out deeper water where they will feel safer, and which will also give them a point to ambush passing prey. These drop-offs can be found with a plummet on smaller waters, but on some of the big lakes in Scotland and the Lake District I prefer to get afloat with an echo sounder to accurately pinpoint their location.

Anchoring up in the shallows will allow baits to be fished at
varying distances over the drop-off. When fishing drop-offs at any time of
year my favourite spot of all is where there is a depression in the drop-off giving slightly deeper water. These channels are often cut where a stream runs into the lake and the action of the water causes erosion of the bank. If you imagine how this would look underwater it is not too difficult to imagine the pike moving up and down these channels, safe in the knowledge that they cannot be attacked from the sides. Certainly, a bait fished in the channel will produce the bulk of the runs.

Fishing in the shallows can pick you up the odd bonus fish, but these tend
to be the smaller males, who spend much longer on the spawning grounds than
the females. For the biggest fish stick to the deeper water and you will not go far wrong. As in all things, timing is everything. Fishing the drop-off channels will mean you intercept more fish as they wait to spawn, but the fish will still only be present for a few short weeks. Make sure you fish these areas regularly and don't be put off by a few blanks or small fish. If you wait the big girls will eventually come.


Paul Garner

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