Viking Lars | Saturday, 14 October 2023
For me, pike season is beginning to pick up now, November and December are really good months on the pike lake. They’re protected from March 15th to April 30th (in fresh water). May can be good, but for me, prime time is now and a few months forwards. Even popper fishing, which most associate with warmer water, can be very effective over shallow water still. We’ve had unusually warm weather in September and the first half of October this year, so the lake is warmer than usual. Maybe we’ll wait a week or two before launching the float tubes.
When I’m not fishing on the surface, I’ve turned almost exclusively to fish upside down flies. I’ve not really noticed a decrease in landed fish, maybe a little, but I live with, because I’ve noticed a significant decrease in lost flies.
The colder the water gets, a slow moving fly becomes more and more effective. Even in cold water pike can and will hold in shallow water and a reeds, because sometimes that’s where the big shoals of bait fish are. A slow fly in shallow water is of course a recipe for snags, so all the more reason to fish upside down flies. The alternative is of course to use weed guards, but for them to be effective, they need to be quite sturdy and with them. I’ve noticed a decrease in hooked and landed fish. So upside down flies it is for me.
Last week I wrote about hovering flies. I’m experimenting with hovering flies for pike as well. I’m modifying a few of my bait fish patterns to incorporate a foam back. Gartside Gurgler-style, but with too little foam to float them, yet enough to nearly off set the weight of the hook. It needs experimentation, because the amount of foam is of course different across hook sizes and wire gauge. The first two had too little foam on them and they sank a little too fast. However, the Gartside Gurgler-style foam head gave them a completely erratic motion on the water and I like that.
As mentioned, even with upside down hooks you’ll lose some in the snags, so I also make an effort to use flies that don’t take too long to tie, yet still act and look the way I want them to. I’ve really come to like using dubbing brushes. They take a while to make, but I make them in batches. They durable and make tying a lot faster.
This fly is my preferred style and with a few modification in the tying method, I can tie them from 3-4 inches to 10 inches. I very rarely use the really big ones now a days, 4-5 inches being the most common on the leader, I think. Once the dubbing brushes are made, this fly takes me 7-8 minutes to tie. White/chartreuse, black and tan/brown/orange are the colours I prefer.
Time to go and tune some foam and restock the upside down flies.
Have a great weekend!
Lars
PoD: Hook point exposed.