The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

After a fruitless 3or4weeks pikeing have been feeding a swim every day with left over lamprey makeral and other bits from last years fishing it was a stretch that used to produce low doubles on a fairly regular basis until some people saw me and spoilt the fishing by over doing it so haven’t seen anyone the last few days 5 days of gormay eating tomorrow is D day I will get there and fish the afternoon just off to feed again now I bet after all this I turn up tomorrow to somebody in the swim mike

Black Prince wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:02 pm After a fruitless 3or4weeks pikeing have been feeding a swim every day with left over lamprey makeral and other bits from last years fishing it was a stretch that used to produce low doubles on a fairly regular basis until some people saw me and spoilt the fishing by over doing it so haven’t seen anyone the last few days 5 days of gormay eating tomorrow is D day I will get there and fish the afternoon just off to feed again now I bet after all this I turn up tomorrow to somebody in the swim mike

If you've been pre-baiting BP, be prepared for delicate bites as the fish are unlikely to run off with the bait. To avoid deep hooking, fishing a float 'lift' style will help identify the bites and you can wind down and strike almost immediately. I hope your baiting has brought a few to the banquet and that you get a big 'un.

I wonder what the etiquette is if you find another angler in a swim you have been pre-baiting for a week? If I were made aware of the fact I would move without question......
Good luck Mike, look forward to hearing about how you get on!

Interested to hear how you get on Mike. I am also pre baiting, in the knowledge that it doesn't always work. To avoid double booking swims I tend to go out early and late when you are less likely to be spotted. I also lightly bait two fairly adjacent swims and only step up a little on the preferred swim the day before. So far I have never found both swims occupied.....

I used to pre-bait after dark. It gives the pike quite a few hours to feed through the night into early morning. I also covered quite an area, from under your tip to as far as I could catapult a frozen lump of fish! Also quite a few swims especially if others were fishing the water. This enables you to cover a vast amount of water, most of the waters I fished were 30-50 acres or even more.

The local fishmonger gave me a couple of black bags filled with heads & guts every week! Frozen heads go a long way but guts were an underhand chuck!

That is some sort of campaign Olly - I hope it was worth it. Smelly business though - we used to have eel fishing pairs competitions on the Wye 35 years ago in the spring /summer. I was paired with 'fishy' Gardiner , the local fish monger, and when we'd drawn our peg I used to swim out to the middle of the river with a wooden box of fish heads and guts and a couple of bricks, then duck dive down to fix the box on the bottom.

Trouble was that fishy (Martin) used to fall asleep half way through the night so we never did win anything.

Well I am back a cold day never got above 3 degrees 5 days pre baiting not a twitch of the floats I feed plenty of lamprey makeral etc my experiment a flop for pike it used to be okay at one time never seen another angler my father used to be able to bring ducks to the smallest of puddles by feeding grain for them so pherhapse more free offerings and more time for them to find it pike one mike nill at least I got some fresh air mike

Ah well, it also cleared some space in your freezer for some fresh baits

Yep - a good pre-baiting works well on some waters & a total waste of time on others! I have caught 50+ 20lbers - but not a 30 - yet!

Seen a river 20lber race after a lump of lamprey chucked in - as I finished fishing and was leaving!! Plus a live bait that had been used in a reservoir - eaten by a lump - again as I left the water.