SUMMER PIKING part 2 !

[mikey-1001]

So its back in the angling press for yet another week, summers surely here now !! Can pike be caught safely in the summer months ? Well i think yes (like i said before !) they can as long as care is taken (see summer piking 1) and the fish is not kept in our elements for too long but not according to expert Des Talor and Nige Williams who say and i quote "Pike in the summer die after being caught" !!? How ridiculous is that ? The amount of summer pike i've caught i could only hazzard a guess at and ALL of them have swam off fit and healthy, now if at a later stage they all died do you not think i would have seen at least one floating belly up ? Well ??(and i do most of my piking on a reservoir so dont say they've drifted downstream!!)
Personally i think that Des and the rest of them are trying to make us "common" pikers jealous because they get to fish the pike rich waters of Canada and North America during the summer were they say it is all right because it is cooler.........what are the rest of us meant to do then? Twiddle our traces till winter ? I think not and i would be the first to agree if i thought it harmed the pike in anyway whatsoever so untill next year Des take the ripest smelliest bit of lamprey at the bottom of your baitbox and suck on it !! Oh, i forgot you dont DEADBAIT EITHER !!!! (see AT July 19 p38 for full story)

[Englishman.in.Sweden]

have this des and nige proven that pike die after being caught in the summer?????? i think not.
i think that they prob never catch much in the summer and when they do they handle the fish in the same way they do in the winter.
just because they write in some mag dont make their words gospal.

[aks19]

I think that what they are doing is deterring people from fishing for pike in england so that they go to these cold places to fish for them, they are being paid to do this so it only seems like they are spouting from a script myslef i tend to fish in rivers but leave piking for winter months as in the summer i focus on chub and roach

[mikey-1001]

Thank you boys.......my sentiments exactly.Every other week they appear in the angling press slating all us normal anglers who ,would love to but who cannot (usually!) afford to go and fish these cold pike infested waters in alaska and canada. I would also bet my last piece of deadbait that before they were rich and famous they too fished for essox all year round.....anyway as ive said before there is NO WAY that every pike caught in summer swims off only to die later in some mysterious place were no one ever finds them!!!!!

I was piking yesterday (in the mid day sun i might add) and i caught not far off my pb......the fish was immacculate and swam off kicking powerfully, she was out of the water no more than 3 minutes, and i dont think that that would have ended her life....do you?
If i thought for one minute that the fish that i lovingly handled died after release i would stop the sport NOW!!! No hesitation......but they dont so i wont!!