BOTTOM UP : TOP TECHNIQUE !
" You don't want to fish like that! You want to fish on the bottom
because that's where the pike are ! "
says Len Parker
(with apologies to Harry Enfield!)
INTRODUCTION
Now I know that you can catch pike off the top with surface lures and there's no doubt that it's great fun, but wouldn't it be easier if you fished from the bottom up, rather than the other way round? After all, that's where the pike are, mainly down on the bottom, camouflaged and lurking in the weed, ready to ambush any unsuspecting prey fish passing by.
"Harry Enfield" Anglers
How many anglers start off their lure fishing with floating plugs? A lot, I reckon. To my mind they'd do much better to start off with some nice spoons and maybe a couple of spinnerbaits. Then they can get right down to where the big pike are. Sorry to sound so much like that Harry Enfield bloke who's always saying "You don't wannah do it like that!" but I really do think that it's best to fish from the bottom up, not the other way round.
OK, so a lot of anglers are worried about losing their lures on snags and perhaps that's one of the reasons why they fish so high in the water, but they're not doing themselves any favours fishing like that, in my opinion anyway.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy fishing with surface lures as much as anyone else; I do. It's just that, for me, it only seems to work best at certain times of the year and even then I don't try to kid myself that I'm getting the best results. I know I could get better results fishing from the bottom up.
By my logic, if a big pike can be bothered to swim up to the surface to grab a topwater lure, then surely it's more likely to grab a lure that's much closer. I always try to think like a pike and work out what they'd do to get the most food with the least effort; they're a bit like lure anglers really!
Location & Depth
You read all this stuff about location but I think that a lot of pikers forget that this doesn't just mean finding out where the pike are along the bank or in a lake, it means finding out how deep they are as well.
And if they're lying right down on the bottom or even cruising and scavenging around just above it, the best way to catch they has to be by getting your lures right down into their strike zone.
You can use deep diving plugs to get down into the strike zones but a lot of them tend to be too buoyant. You can add extra lead to hold them under if you want. I also add a bit of extra lead to my suspending lures like Rapala Husky Jerks. This all helps get your lures right down where they're going to get the best results.
Superb Senses
Pike have got superb hearing, if that's the right word, as well as a superb sense of smell, so they can detect moving prey a mile off, and when they're scavenging around, they can smell their prey easily.
That's not to say that pike haven't got superb eyesight too, they have. Did you know that pike are one of very few fish that can see their prey with both eyes at the same time? They've even got sighting-grooves along their noses so they can line-up and take aim on their prey before they strike. Awesome!
Smelly Hackles
Some people say I'm crazy but I like to think that I'm giving myself that extra chance of catching if I try to take advantage of the pike's sense of smell.
What I do is to put some red wool on my trebles and soak the wool with some nice smelly fish oil like smelt if you can get it; sardine or mackerel will do if you can't.
Also I think that as well as retrieving their lures far too shallow, quite a few anglers bring their lures back in too fast as well. If you bounce your lures along the bottom in a nice gentle way, occasionally giving them a nice enticing spurt and stop, I reckon that you'll be very pleasantly surprised at the results.
Of course it doesn't always work, no method does. It's just that I've found that my top technique gives me as good as and consistent results as I could possibly hope for, almost all year round. Of course you catch less sometimes than others, but that's fishing for you.
Colours and Flash
Obviously pike can only use their eyes when they're close enough to their prey or your lure and the water's clear enough. That's why personally I reckon that a lot of this stuff about lure colours etc., is a load of old cobblers. It might be different in shallow waters that are permanently clear though, I don't know; mine are usually coloured or dark and deep.
Flash is good to have though, so it pays to keep your spoons really shiny and polished. Mine get the treatment before and after every trip, and I reckon that it pays me big dividends.
Big Lures, Big Dividends
Big lures can also sometimes pay big dividends. I know there's a lot of lure anglers out there who will tell you that you need big lures, jerkbaits and the like, to catch really big pike, and I guess on really big waters, and some small ones too, they're probably not far off the mark. Big lures must look like big easy tasty targets to a hungry Grandma pike. But it's always dangerous to think like a human when you're dealing with pike. You've got to think like pike, and it's not always easy.
Soft Spot for Small Lures
As well as big lures though, I've got a very soft spot in my hard anglers heart for much smaller lures too, just as long as they get right down to the action. Spoons and spinnerbaits don't have to be massive to get good results, well not in my personal experience anyway.
You can quietly fish them along the bottom without causing too much disturbance but plenty enough to alert those big pike, oh yes! Sooner or later, if they're there, and they're half hungry or grumpy, they're going to grab your lure and then the fight starts. Great!
I've also got quite a soft spot for sinking plugs, the CountDown sort — it didn't take me very long to get the hang of them — I just cast them in and let them sink until no more line is pulled off my reel and then I wind in — easy? NOT! You have to give them quite a lot of action, stop, start, sink, swim and so on, to get the best results.
Spinners
I haven't mentioned spinners yet and that's because I don't use them very much; I prefer my spinnerbaits most of the time, to be truthful. Spinners do have their place though. I haven't got a lot of time for the lightweight ones that take ages to sink even though they're pretty good in shallower still water.
I much prefer spinners that have got a bit of meat on them and whose weight makes them sink down to the bottom nice and quickly so I can put them to work right away. Where do I get them? Well, mostly I make my own. It's pretty easy, and cheap too. I run much bigger bodies than a lot of commercial spinners because for my liking the blade sizes eg. No 5 are quite OK but the bodies are too small and light. Except maybe the bigger sizes of Aglia Longs: they're OK for my bottom-up style of fishing.
Bottoms-Up
So now you know the open secret of my top technique: fish from the bottom up, and I guarantee (well almost!) that you'll have a lot more luck and success, and then afterwards you can go down the pub with your mates and do the same with a nice cool glass of beer.
Good fishing and Bottoms-Up!
Cheers ! 
LEN PARKER