Handling big Pike

[jassfly1]

I landed a couple of good sized Northern's last Saturday.
Caught on a big double diamond copper blade spinner and the other
on a 5 in senco bright orange fron the Charles River basin.

My biggest problem is handling the fish I try most of the time
to grab behind the head but these two where to big.
I don't own a sling net and when fishing alone they are hard to use
my trout net is too small salt water net too big.

Help me what is the best way to handel this big guys
I have been told to pic by the gills not sure how to.
Any suggestions?????

[Greenheart]

I was going to post a similar question myself. Had a pike yesterday using a snap tackle rig with two treble hooks. One hook was neatly hooked in the scissors of the pikes jaw & the other in my landing net mesh. Add to that, the fact that it was dark & I was trying to un-hook an pike using a headlamp. End result was that I had to cut a big hole in my landing net mesh with a knife & got a load of cuts to my fingers from the pikes teeth in the process as it thrashed about. Anyone got any ideas on an easier way of unhooking Pike??? I usually use single hooks shads on spinning gear to catch pike. Deadbait rigs with two sets of sharp trebles is something new to me......

[baitmaster]

personally if you are not sure how to chinned pike out i strongly suggest you get a net or please please go with someone who is competent but if not then this below might help you .
firstly pike are a lot more fragile than what they look like but i strongly suggest if you decided to chinned pike here a couple of points i think you ought to pay attention to these are firstly be confident don,t try it half heartedly and also make sure you have played the pike out as if not it might thrash at the last minute and this is normally when you will have an accident which will either end up with you with trebles in your hand or damage to the pike and neither are what any of us would like to see happen
and normally you will find that smaller pike are more of a problem than larger ones in with getting your fingers in behind the gill cover and also remember the smaller the fish the closer your fingers will be to the hooks ok..
some will recommend a glove and although i personally will not use a glove because i think this could catch on the gill rakers and do damage while attempting chinning but if i had to recommend one it would be this the Lindy glove best on the market
although i think most anglers who use a glove use the one from normark i think .

ok once you have played your pike out it will be laying hopefullly quite still and you can slide your hand gently under the gill cover taking care to be aware where the hooks are at all time and not to go to close to the gill rakers once you have done this close your thumb over the out side and hold very firmly then gently lift the pike toward you in the water this will hopefully know have its mouth open and you can use your forceps to locate the hooks and safely unhook the pike .
below is a picture of me with a zed but if you look my fingers are under its gill cover this is really how you should hold pike to .
but lay your thumb across not how i,ve got it as i,m handling and trying to hold the a zanders mouth open by applying a bit of pressure as these are a bit of a pain sometimes but holding a pike in this way and as the skinned is quite thin here any sudden movement could find your thumb going through the skin but what i,ll do is try and post up a picture of a chinned pike but some one else might have one and post it up for you to view. but i hope you get the gist of what i,m getting at .

note :
ok chinning is really all about holding it up right in the water while you safely remove the trebles safely not to lift the fish clear of the water
really you need to support it as its a lot of pressuse on the head of the pike to be lifted clear this way

i hope this helps but i,m sure there will be other along to give you more precise help as they probably fish more for pike than i do.


tightlines
kevin



.

[fishypaul]

i try to net my pike whenever possible as its the easiest and safest way to land your fish,
having said that greenhearts problem is an instance where using a net does become difficult.
whenever i am playing a pike the first thing i look for when the fish surfaces is the hooks,can i see them ? is one of the trebles outside the mouth,if that is the case then i usually lift them out.as kev said the fish has to be completely played out before you do this
the small jacks ( 1 - 4 lb ) often don't even come out of the water,i lean down and whilst holding the trace in my right hand i slip my hand under the gill cover ,as soon as i have a secure hold the right hand releases the trace and grabs the forceps that always live on my coat lapel,trebles whipped out without the fish coming out of the water
jacks can also be gripped across the back of the head but i am not happy about this as a fair bit of force is needed to grip the fish securely ,excessive in my opinion.
i must admit i have never tried to lift out a double figure pike,to be honest with the elbow trouble i have i don't think i would be able to do it to be honest.
biggies get landed with the net regardless of anything,i would much rather have a hole in my net then lose a biggie.

[pingu]

great info there guys

ians prob other day was realy made by fiesty pike tangling in landing net

i learnt loads from the link site on bottom of pauls signature, its a goldmine of info
Unhooking Pike