Most people, (according to the fly leaf) even those who have little or no contact with wildlife, are enthralled by natural history films showing swooping falcons, pouncing polar bears or striking snakes. However, many of those who prefer to experience such raw natural events first-hand go fishing. And there are few angling encounters more exciting than the heart-stopping, golden-green flash of a big pike as it lunges, like lightning, to seize your bait.
Topics covered include:
- Where you should put your bait and cast your lure
- The habitats favoured by pike and the results of scientific investigations on this and related matters
- Which waters are most likely to produce pike of differenct sizes and ages
- The natural history of the pike, its camouflage, muscle power, speed and what its needs and preferences are
- The prey on which the pike feeds and seasonal changes in the abundance and availability of prey
- The movements and migrations of pike· Fascinating accounts and reminiscences of the capture of pike
Tactical Pike Fishing describes the essential facts of pike behaviour and biology in a way that takes you right onto the muddy riverbank or reed-lined lakeshore. This fascinating book will provide you with lots of important facts and plenty of original ideas that will help you to catch more fish.
Available direct from The Crowood Press for £17.96.
Review
As well as practical and successful pike anglers Mike Ladle is a scientist in marine biology and Jerome Masters is a scientist with the Environment Agency, so it comes as no surprise that much of the book revolves around the biology of pike.
But don’t think this is a dry, scientific book; nothing of the sort, the authors simply write about how they use their scientific expertise to help them catch pike. And they’re pike anglers who fish like most of us, for all sizes of pike with a variety of methods, and catch all sizes of pike.
The reader will probably glean more useful information from this book about how to catch pike than from any tome written by the pike angler who does nothing more than chase monsters which are mainly out of the reach of most of us.
If you want to learn about pike, their habits, including their feeding habits, and then how to convert that knowledge into fish on the bank through your own efforts, then this is the book for you. This is the thinking man’s pike book and one that you can turn to time and time again to refresh your knowledge.
