new to pike fishing need help

db97

Anyone know a nice lake not overfished around the limerick area with some decent pike in it because I cant really find a nice spot like.. I am tryin o briens bridge co. Clare iv caught loads here many times like bream trout roach rudd dace and a handfull of pike but nothin great so any advide would be appreciated.. sound.

Reedsie

You'll struggle to find a piker who'll share too much information regarding good spots, especially on a public forum.

I don't know that area very well but I know that plenty of good pike have come out of O'Briens Bridge over the years.

Check out the following link for some ideas: http://www.fishinginireland.info/coarse/shannon.htm

db97

Sound man and what kind of places should I cast in your opinion like in the margins or far out or does it matter ?? I will be using dead bait.

dodderangler

db97 wrote: »

Sound man and what kind of places should I cast in your opinion like in the margins or far out or does it matter ?? I will be using dead bait.

Margins and reed beds.
Pike are ambush predators. They'll sit in one spot all day waiting for a fish to swim by.
Sink and draw is always effective but can't guarantee you'll hook a monster. Don't think anyone knows that.
Also presentation can be the difference between hooking something and a blank day.
Either single or treble in the lip of roach trout etc and curve the tail slightly and put treble in it's flank to give it a Bend

db97

Thanks man.. ye iv tried jerkin the dead bait plugs and rubber lures I think the pike in this spot are lazy pure scavengers ha so I think ill try legering because most of the bites I got are on the bottom so ill try the way you said with the curl but would it not look more natural straight ? And what size dead bait ? Like my tackle shop gives mixed bags like roach dace perch some of the roach and dace look a bit big like would this matter ?

dodderangler

Was always told bigger the bait the bigger the pike but basically not all the time. Small pike will take a bait that's 3/4 their size hungry little shiits
If spinning bait curl the body as it gives better movement
Dead baiting on bottom put first hook on it's tail and second on it's flank as pike tend to swallow head first

db97

Sound for all the advice lads does anyone no anywhere to fish along obriens bridge iv been tryin along the walk way after the tennis court with no luck

pullandbang

Do a Google search (or You Tube) for Water Wolf videos. It's the latest craze amongst Pikers - and others. Some amazing footage of Pike ignoring some lovely dead baits and lures :-)

Gives you an insight into what they go for and what they ignore........

dodderangler

pullandbang wrote: »

Do a Google search (or You Tube) for Water Wolf videos. It's the latest craze amongst Pikers - and others. Some amazing footage of Pike ignoring some lovely dead baits and lures :-)

Gives you an insight into what they go for and what they ignore........

Same with underwater ireland. His videos are absolute brilliant

db97

Them videos are very good.. thanks. was out in obriens bridge today tried everything there last few weeks think its time to find a new spot was talking to a chap downn there he said there has been alot of poaching. Sad to see a great spot ruined man.

gumbo1

Poaching is wide spread across this country, every lake river canal or any other body of waterhas been stripped of almost every fish in it! Pretty soon all oour fishing tackle and gear will be made redundant as there will be no fish to target! Sad times!

db97

Yea course fishings is gone tough.. but I hate the way If you get caught catching salmon out of season or without a licence you can be jailed or fined at least but go down your local canal/ lake you will see some chap with a bin bag full of perch roach skimmers anything and they cant be eatin them because the fish do be only a couple of oz's its sickening man

dodderangler

db97 wrote: »

Yea course fishings is gone tough.. but I hate the way If you get caught catching salmon out of season or without a licence you can be jailed or fined at least but go down your local canal/ lake you will see some chap with a bin bag full of perch roach skimmers anything and they cant be eatin them because the fish do be only a couple of oz's its sickening man

Oh they're been eaten alright.
They don't give a Shiite what size it is. Anything fish finger size will do them

db97

And the worst thing is everyone knows its going on like the fishery boards or something are surely tryin to stop it or restock some nice venues.. this pisses me off man big time.. and as gumbo said there will be nothin left for us man

twin_beacon

gumbo1 wrote: »

Poaching is wide spread across this country, every lake river canal or any other body of waterhas been stripped of almost every fish in it! Pretty soon all oour fishing tackle and gear will be made redundant as there will be no fish to target! Sad times!

I strongly disagree. if I believed everything I read or am told, then I would have no motivation to go fishing.
Yes, some areas were hit, and hit very hard, but the vast majority of the damage was done between 2003-2010. Most of the people doing the damage are no longer in the country, and most of these venues are now recovering.
Some areas are still being hit hard however, but not to the extent of the boom period. If those anti poaching pages on facebook were around 10 years ago, they would have a lot more pics to upload!

Too often I have seen anglers blame poaching for a blanking on a single session, without first questioning their techniques, bait, and overall fishing conditions. If I blanked 3-4 times in a row, in perfect conditions, when my rigs, bait, and presentation were perfect, then I would question weather or not the venue had been poached.

If you want good fishing, then avoid all the popular easy to get to areas. For the most part, those poachers are a lazy bunch, and dont move far from bridges, roads. Find an isolated spot, and you will reap the rewards.

db97

I agree with you man but I can guarentee you o briens bridge is wiped out.. 2 years ago I would catch at least 30 fish (roach, rudd, bream and the odd tench.. in the one session sunday I went as all the clare lakes were flooded.. not a single bite on the leger with maggots and not even a sign of a run for pike I tryed everthing over the last few months there for pike. float, leger pop ups you name it iv tried it and not a single run.. iv tried lures and everydead bait in me tackle shop.. roach smelt dace mackeral trout everything there was also 9 or 10 lads down from dublin and they had one jack pike and they tried everywhere.

Gumbi

db97 wrote: »

I agree with you man but I can guarentee you o briens bridge is wiped out.. 2 years ago I would catch at least 30 fish (roach, rudd, bream and the odd tench.. in the one session sunday I went as all the clare lakes were flooded.. not a single bite on the leger with maggots and not even a sign of a run for pike I tryed everthing over the last few months there for pike. float, leger pop ups you name it iv tried it and not a single run.. iv tried lures and everydead bait in me tackle shop.. roach smelt dace mackeral trout everything there was also 9 or 10 lads down from dublin and they had one jack pike and they tried everywhere.

Apparently here are mink wiping out the coarse stocks in O Briens Bridge.

db97

Iv never seen one there but you never know

dodderangler

Gumbi wrote: »

Apparently here are mink wiping out the coarse stocks in O Briens Bridge.

Mink wouldn't be massive threat to fish stocks. More so birds and rodent population. Yes they'll take fish and are good swimmers but they wouldn't be the cause for course fish dropping.
More so poachers

db97

Iv seen a black bird there cant remembeer what there called but it dives under and comes back up with fish.. there about the same size as a grey heron but jet black..

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

db97 wrote: »

Iv seen a black bird there cant remembeer what there called but it dives under and comes back up with fish.. there about the same size as a grey heron but jet black..

A cormorant. Another animal wrongly accused of decimating fish stocks. They are part of our native wildlife.

db97

Yea thats the one.. does anyone know if bream can be caught in the winter ?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

db97 wrote: »

Yea thats the one.. does anyone know if bream can be caught in the winter ?

It's not unknown for them to be caught in Winter but they are more active in warmer water.

db97

Yea I get you sound man.. winter fishings hard work haha it would test your patience like wouldnt it ha

dodderangler

Melany Black Matte wrote: »

A cormorant. Another animal wrongly accused of decimating fish stocks. They are part of our native wildlife.

They do damage to fish stocks I've seen it happen.
On a stretch I fish on the dodder was hit hard for two years as family of cormorants hit the waters and fish literally couldn't be seen by end of season.
Cormorants left and fishing has picked up big time

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

dodderangler wrote: »

They do damage to fish stocks I've seen it happen.
On a stretch I fish on the dodder was hit hard for two years as family of cormorants hit the waters and fish literally couldn't be seen by end of season.
Cormorants left and fishing has picked up big time

I kind of knew you'd be on to say something like that.:)

It's called Nature. Unlike poachers natural predators native to an environ will not wipe out stocks. I was involved in research surveys on the subject for years. Cormorants will not decimate fish stocks under normal circumstances.
Perhaps something led to excessive numbers of cormorants in your area but as a rule they are much maligned.

Hunter456

Pike in the winter are very active and have to keep moving around to stay alive due to cold weather, the key of catching any predator fish is to think like the predator, if the pike knows their is food around he is not going to stay out in the open to catch his food he will try and ambush his prey from cover or deeper water. use really smelly fish you buy from a fish market cut the head off it and wobble the bait either on a float or fish the bottom but retrieve the line as slow as possible

Joeseph Balls

dodderangler wrote: »

They do damage to fish stocks I've seen it happen.
On a stretch I fish on the dodder was hit hard for two years as family of cormorants hit the waters and fish literally couldn't be seen by end of season.
Cormorants left and fishing has picked up big time

That lake either side of the motorway in Limerick must have a never ending supply of fish so. Comorants there for years and its not just a handful of them.
A family would definately not wipe out a 'stretch' of a river.

twin_beacon

Cormorants like all predators, they will never "wipe out" their food source, if that was the case both species would have become extinct a long time ago.
same way as foxes will not kill all the rabbits in an area, or pike will not eat all the pray fish.

IMO, Cormorants only started to get bad press with the invention of the commercial fisheries in the UK, where there they started to eat the stocked fish, costing money to the people that stocked them.

db97

Id love to know what wiped out the stretch at obriens bridge probobly a mixture of things id say..