Ivan Sanders
New member
‘It has over the years become increasingly difficult to find a lake where one can be private.’ the late Rod Hutchinson
Hello ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for allowing me to join this forum. I write to introduce myself. I’m Ivan, and presently Devon based.
Hello ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for allowing me to join this forum. I write to introduce myself. I’m Ivan, and presently Devon based.
I’m an old timer who has been a big pike fan since I landed my first one in 1957, but confess that when for ten years I lived in the Fens (Sutton St. Jimmy) I also loved summer night angling for specimen eels, and trying to keep on top as to exactly where elusive zander shoals had moved to. All these years I have fished for little else but pike although I do love eels and tench. I never got used to the coarse feel of zander!
After my first thirty years of pike hunting I considered that I had almost secured enough experience (in the 1980s) to write on the subject. So, I wrote pike fishing articles for several angling periodicals, and these were heavily conservation biased. So much so in fact that I was instructed that unless I stopped writing articles on the effectiveness of single hook pike angling I had to resign from a very well known pike organisation. (Even though I did not write a single bad word against trebles). So naturally I resigned.
My articles had very little impact, but I did then manage to secure two known (to me) converts to single hook piking. Notwithstanding my dislike of pike angling competitions, in 1986 all three of us qualified for the 1986 British Champs. And, out of 697 finalists, we were all in the prizes – then won via a top fifteen place. I guess that is what I’m most proud of - proud for the three of us. Nowadays I no longer write for mags. and have instead opted for privacy. By doing so I avoid upsetting folk with my single hook etc. techniques, and also I keep my big pike catches safe as many pike don’t move around much.
For my own part I have moved my catch techniques a little further forward beyond single hooks but don’t publicize such until now. I don’t feel that I’m keen beyond my dignity to share. These days when I have patience and inclination I catch pike just as effectively using no hook, instead sewing netting to half of each dead bait. Such obviously cannot cause any gut hooking.
‘He has to be joking?!’ I imagine the wails of laughter the whole world round. No I’m not. Sew fine netting onto half of your dead bait and the pike’s teeth will get so entangled that it cannot shake free. (Still necessary to use a wire trace leader). I do however confess that it can be easier removing a single hook from a pike’s mouth than netting. At least until you master the de-netting removal technique. But the bigger challenge is sewing everything together, and I often still use the relatively crude technique of a smallish single hook because I’m lazy.
Having recently suffered from heart trouble I thought that I’d file this post before having to fish in the clouds, and thereby maybe persuade a few pike angler thinkers to try something new? I hope so as fundamental pike angling techniques have remained essentially unchanged (bar frills) over the last seventy plus years.
P.S. The truth of anything begins with an open mind, then moves on into self experiment. But without the former nothing is possible. In other words you will only believe the results of your own tests. Even then I suspect half of you will initially cry ‘fluke!’ as one can become brainwashed by many years adhering to the conventional. To the brave – have fun and be pioneers! You may become hated by some for it, but how much do you truly love pike and their welfare?
After my first thirty years of pike hunting I considered that I had almost secured enough experience (in the 1980s) to write on the subject. So, I wrote pike fishing articles for several angling periodicals, and these were heavily conservation biased. So much so in fact that I was instructed that unless I stopped writing articles on the effectiveness of single hook pike angling I had to resign from a very well known pike organisation. (Even though I did not write a single bad word against trebles). So naturally I resigned.
My articles had very little impact, but I did then manage to secure two known (to me) converts to single hook piking. Notwithstanding my dislike of pike angling competitions, in 1986 all three of us qualified for the 1986 British Champs. And, out of 697 finalists, we were all in the prizes – then won via a top fifteen place. I guess that is what I’m most proud of - proud for the three of us. Nowadays I no longer write for mags. and have instead opted for privacy. By doing so I avoid upsetting folk with my single hook etc. techniques, and also I keep my big pike catches safe as many pike don’t move around much.
For my own part I have moved my catch techniques a little further forward beyond single hooks but don’t publicize such until now. I don’t feel that I’m keen beyond my dignity to share. These days when I have patience and inclination I catch pike just as effectively using no hook, instead sewing netting to half of each dead bait. Such obviously cannot cause any gut hooking.
‘He has to be joking?!’ I imagine the wails of laughter the whole world round. No I’m not. Sew fine netting onto half of your dead bait and the pike’s teeth will get so entangled that it cannot shake free. (Still necessary to use a wire trace leader). I do however confess that it can be easier removing a single hook from a pike’s mouth than netting. At least until you master the de-netting removal technique. But the bigger challenge is sewing everything together, and I often still use the relatively crude technique of a smallish single hook because I’m lazy.
Having recently suffered from heart trouble I thought that I’d file this post before having to fish in the clouds, and thereby maybe persuade a few pike angler thinkers to try something new? I hope so as fundamental pike angling techniques have remained essentially unchanged (bar frills) over the last seventy plus years.
P.S. The truth of anything begins with an open mind, then moves on into self experiment. But without the former nothing is possible. In other words you will only believe the results of your own tests. Even then I suspect half of you will initially cry ‘fluke!’ as one can become brainwashed by many years adhering to the conventional. To the brave – have fun and be pioneers! You may become hated by some for it, but how much do you truly love pike and their welfare?
