Winter Piking Challenge.

 Over the past month or so since the official Pike season started my ambition was to come into contact with a new personal best Pike, Perch and Zander, so far this season I have been lucky enough to have already caught a large Pike, or by my standards as Pike go, a mammoth one. The Hampshire Avon at Christchurch has been nothing short of magnificent, a truly magical venue for me, I will be returning back there at some point this winter to give it another go for maybe something of monstrous proportions, by god it is capable of it.

 I have tried 5 rivers over the last two months and have been successful on all but one of them, 2 lakes have both been successfully targeted as well, although the Esox Lucius have not been large I have gained much satisfaction from catching off the lakes due to the small head of Pike that exist in both, the rivers however possess some enormous Pike and Perch which I may some day catch. Zander on the other hand may prove to be a tougher challenge, selecting venues to find them may take a lot more work than Pike or Perch, so the Zander may be the hardest of my winter targets.

 Tactics for the Pike that I have caught have been a mixture of dead baiting under float and the use of a plethora of lures and spinners, the 2 doubles that I have caught have both been caught on dead baits, but I will hopefully soon be able to apply my newly learned trade on a couple of reservoirs and I may one day manage to get a trip booked to visit the mecca of big Pike, the one and only Chew Valley, but before I do try my hand at such a large expanse of water I will try on some smaller ones closer to home, Walthamstow being one of them.

 I have done a fair amount of research on Pike and Perch over the last few months , trying to put my self in a better position to achieve my challenge, knowing your quarry will in theory help me greatly, as the winter deepens I will be increasing my time on the bank for the predators, whether it be lakes, rivers or canals.

My Avon monster at 19.5 my current PB.

Lake caught 6lber

My largest lake Pike at 8.13

 

My first double of the season, 11lb 3oz

My first ever lake Pike. 5.2

Another River Mole 5.

A miniature Avon Esox.

A Mole 5lber

 This winter I have decided to create myself a challenge, that challenge is a combined weight of 200lbs of Pike, 5 doubles or over, these fish can be caught off of any water, within England only and using only dead baits and lures, spinners or jigs, the total weight of the Pike will be recorded on a table on my pages list on my homepage.