TTHHEE SSPPEECCIIAALLIISSTT

What has become apparent to me recently is that many answers people coming in to lure fishing

are looking for are to questions they need not ask. I t's fair enough asking how to fish lures in

various ways or what sort of tackle to use. Such technical questions are easily answered and wil l

help the angler perform the mechanical functions of lure fishing more effectively. But trying to

explain how and why pike react to various lures under various conditions on different waters is

pointless. The only information we need is that various tactics and techniques work every so

often - that some work more frequently than others, and that when those go-to tactics fai l

something else might, just might, work.

Why do pike sometimes appear to want

lures worked in a particular manner

when logic tel ls us they should real ly

prefer the opposite? Does it real ly

matter? I think not. Al l that matters is the

empirical evidence that one presentation

isn't working, and another is. Given that

knowledge what you have to do is try

something else. Anything else. And keep

trying different things unti l one of them

works. Then keep doing that unti l i t stops

working and do something different.

That, in a nutshell is how to approach lure fishing. Start out using the lures and presentations

that logic tel ls you should work under the prevail ing conditions and location. I f it works, fine. I f it

doesn't then, firstly, try something else, and secondly try somewhere else.

STEP ONE

No matter what methods you are using to try and catch pike, l ivebaits, deadbaits or lures, the

most important thing to get right is location. I know this has been said many times before, but

that's because it is the primary factor to consider in al l fishing. You simply cannot catch fish that

are not there. Locating pike is exactly the same no matter what baits you are using, and is

mostly based around looking for changes; changes in depth, changes in vegetation (weed

edges), changes in water clarity (mud or algae lines), even changes in l ight level from

overhanging trees or other shade. Of course sometimes pike are found in open, (apparently)

featureless water, which makes no logical sense to us humans (unless there are prey fish there

or it is close to a physical feature).

The way to find pike is to use the general principles, starting out with what seems obvious given

the time of year and prevail ing water and weather conditions, and to fish the most obvious

looking spots. Pike, however, don't read Pike and Predators, so there wil l be times when they

aren't where we think they should be! This means you have to look elsewhere. When fishing is

tough trial and error has to be applied - and not only to location.

Given that there are loads of different situations to deal with, efficient lure anglers need to have

an equally wide range of presentational options open to them to maximize results. Which is why

there are so many lures on the market, al l designed to be fished in various ways. Which brings

us to the second important aspect of lure fishing - lure control.

STEP TWO

Lure control is not something that can be easily written about. I t is al l about being able to gauge

With practice lure control becomes like learning to play a musical instrument. When you start you

have to look at what your fingers are doing all the time to ensure you play the right notes. After

much practice you can play with your eyes closed. That's the state you have to get to with lure

control - to tel l by feel what the lure us up to, how deep and how far out it is. I t's not a black art,

although it may well seem impossible to master at first, but it is the one aspect of lure fishing that

wil l have the most bearing on your success once you have located some pike.

There you have the two main things you need to know to be a successful lure angler - location

and presentation, the former dictating the latter. Location varies from water to water, and the only

way to get to grips with that is by getting out there and fishing. Aside from looking for obvious

pikey looking places, catching pike, seeing pike caught by others, and maybe even spotting pike

activity are the best guides to spots that are going to be productive in future. The only way to

really learn about lure presentation is, as I have already said, by fishing various lures and getting

to know them well .

As I tried to get across in my Essential Lures series, it is better to have a small range of lures

that you know and understand really well than a large range that you don't. The same can be

said for lure colours. The main things to consider when selecting a lure to fish a particular spot

are the depth and speed at which you want it to fish. All else is decoration on the cake. Get the

depth and the speed right and the chances are that you wil l succeed - if you have got the

location part right. I have seen many occasions when one angler has been throwing a particular

lure in a certain colour and catching. His boat partner obviously reaches for an apparently

identical looking lure - same model, same colour - and fails to match his friend's catch rate. After

some chopping and changing the second angler has run through a few more lures and started

catching by using the same model of lure in a total ly different colour, or maybe a different lure

altogether. The reason for the change in success rate being how and where the lure was

presented. Even with plastic lures there can be variation in running depth, rise or sink rate that

can be crucial at times.

There is no doubt at al l in my mind that what the lure does is the most important consideration

for its selection. Colour, presence or absence of eyes, rattles or not are of far lesser importance.

Where you chuck it is of even more importance. The 'spot on the spot' has been discussed many

times and it is just as crucial as lure behaviour. Even a foot or two can make a world of

difference. The closer you can put a lure to a pike the better. Especial ly when pike aren't

prepared to move far to take lures. Of course, we have no way of knowing when that wil l be the

case, but coloured water and low water temps are two conditions that spring to mind when pike

need to be 'hit on the head'. No matter what the conditions it is a good idea to assume the worst,

and make your casts as pinpoint as you can to spots on spots you hope wil l hold pike.

STEP THREE

Persistence. You cannot catch pike on lures that aren't in the water! You have to keep casting -

but you must be thinking about what you are doing to. Robotic casting and retrieving wil l catch

pike, but not as many or as consistently as thoughtful presentation and careful lure control. Such

concentration takes its tol l on your alertness, so a break every hour or so during a long lure

fishing day wil l help keep you alert and on the ball and improve your chances of success. You

can use these breaks to assess what you have been doing, to think how you might improve your

presentation and bring about an upturn in success. So although you might not have a lure in the

water you can make that next cast real ly count by even a slight change to one aspect of what

you have been doing.

Persistence is easier to maintain if you are

confident. Confident that you are in the right

place, throwing the right lures and presenting

them correctly - even when no pike have

shown. I t's funny how days when action is

coming regularly your attentiveness

and confidence levels wil l

stay high for longer.

What you don't want

is to lose faith in

what you are

doing and start

chopping and

changing lures, or to

lose your edge by

switching to automatic

pilot on a slow day, because

when that one take comes you might just fluff

it. Confidence in persisting with what you are

doing is al l a part of the final step to success -

experience.

STEP FOUR

There is no substitute for getting out there and

fishing. Not only wil l time on the water make

you more technical ly proficient in using lures, it

wil l also help you learn about pike location.

One good thing about lure fishing, unl ike most

other forms of piking, is that you can learn a lot

from your blank sessions. Seeing a pike fol low

or missing a take, even if you don't

manage to land a fish at least

fi l ls in a part of the

location picture. The

more lure fishing you

do, the more you

learn about which

lures work best for

you and where, when

and how to use them.

The strange thing is that the

more experience you build up the

more you realise how simple this apparently

complicated branch of pike fishing really is.

So there you have it. Find the pike, select and

present your lures well , stick at it - and do that

it as often as you can. Oh, and don't get hung

up on worrying about the things you don't need

to know about6