Pike on a Hair rig...

[blackwater]

Today was a first for me.. I caught my first pike on a hair rig, and i took 3 fish to it, which was to my surprise.

I whipped a strong hair on a large single hook in hope of making something similiar to those "Pike Kebabs" you can buy all ready frozen in tackle shops. They have chunks of fish (in my case eel) placed on to a rigid plastic rod and then this is then hooked on to a treble hook, so i thought that it was similiar to using a hair rig.. So that is what i did, i also added a piece of bouyant foam to the top of the hair to pop the bait up..



I was sceptical at the start of the session about the pike adjusting to my new bait but i was to be made confident that the pike didnt mind shortly into the session. when i had a run... It turned out to be a very acrobatic 6lbs Pike.



The pike was hooked beutifully in the side of the mouth. Using the hair rig and single hook has made me consider not using treble hooks, for starters they are harder on the fish unlike the single hook which is easily slipped out of the mouth and secondly when landing the pike on your own you dont have to worry about gilling the fish as you can just as easily slip the net under it as there are no flailing trebles ready to lodge themselves in the net .

The next pike also came to the same rig and weighed a similiar weight..



The next fish however fell to my float fished smelt, it was a lovely take; the float bobbed up and down and then settled, it then started to move away from the bank and then bobbed a few more times and then bang!! This time it was a smaller but still very welcome 4lber.



There was still to more fish in the session, one came to the hair rig again and one came to a ledgered smelt ( i changed to ledgering on the float rod as the wind had made it nearly impossible to float fish)





This was the first session that i had went pikeing by myself, i felt an urge yesterday i hadnt been out for a few weeks and my fishing partner James was working so it was the only way. It was only a short session (9.30 - 1.00) but still very rewarding.

Cheers,

BW

[fishypaul]

well done bw,some nice pike there mate,
i have played with single hook rigs in the past but went back to trebles rather quickly,
i was definately missing more fish,

[pingu]

cracking session


dave

[Lman]

i have experimented with single hooks but have lost some of the larger pike.
The hair rig works well although sometimes difficult cast long distance could always be fished with a single treble if the single loses too many?
I notice your single hook is barbed which prob helps keep em on, the waters i fish are barbless so not too many probs unhooking but too many get away on a single.

well done mate nice session always good when something differant works

[Banana Steve]

Yes i

[Banana Steve]

Great Session, hopefully i will doing my first pike session this weekend

[808]

We have these new lure/plugs which only have the one hook in them, sticking out of the top. I think it's a sea bait, but the pike love them. Sadly the one hook makes it harder to hook them (maybe im just crap at striking?) and i've only managed the one pike out of a fair amount of takes. Fortunatly it was a 7lb so i didnt complain...

I like you're idea though. Did you use a trace for it?

[blackwater]

Fishypaul - I missed a few fish aswell but that is only because i panicked as i had fish on the bank and didnt really want the bother of catching 2 at once, things just get mad when that happens, well thats my excuse any way

Lman - yea it is barbed which i think does help with keeping the fish on, although i usually use semi barbed trebles they can still be hard to remove from things like landing nets and even though it is barbed it is very easy to remove from the mouth.

BannanaSteve - Tightlines for your session

808 - Yea always use a trace for pike, the hair was made out of 25lbs mono and when landing a couple of the fish they were in tatters and when any pressure was put on them they broke so if i wasnt using a trace there would be no hope of landing them

I will be heading out tommorow again for a short session like yesterday so i will try and get a few more fish on the hair....

Cheers,

Justin