Locate those Pike
with Locator Lures
says Alex Wood

INTRODUCTION by Nick Caine, Editor
Well, for my intro to Alex's interestign article, I can't do any better than to quote the author himself:

"Whether it's a a big lake or Fen drain, a new venue need not be quite so daunting and difficult if you use your head and the right lures to find those pike !"

NEW VENUES
If you're sure that your new venue actually has some pike in it, then locating those pike is very obviously going to be a big factor in your on-going success, but just how do you go about finding them? This is a question we've all asked ourselves and others!

But whether it's a big lake, a Fen drain, river or what have you, a new venue need not be quite so daunting and difficult if you use the right lures and your head to find those pike !

If other anglers are already fishing the venue, perhaps they'll be helpful and chatty and you can soon find out if there are any pike to be caught, otherwise you're on your own.

LOCATOR LURES
Actually there's no better way I know of finding out what's in a new water from a piking and predator point of view than to give it a good going over with the right locator lures. By locator lures I mean lures that will let you cast and cover large areas and, more importantly, the depths, fairly quickly and without losing them on snags, often a big potential hazard in new venues.

Even so, it's never quite that quick and easy to survey new waters for pike and other predators such as perch, even with the right lures; often it's simply a matter of quite a bit of hard work and a lot of persistence.

However, in spite of this, some predator anglers seem to know where, when, how and which lures to fish; although they may almost appear to be acting on some sort of magic instinct, usually they are drawing on a lot of knowledge and experience gained from previous sessions on many varied waters.

On a new water, things are often very different though, whether you're an experienced predator angler or a novice -- new waters are a great leveler!

Fish with a Friend if you can !
However, if, like me, you only have quite limited time for fishing each week, it's great if you can find a sure-fire short-cut that will consistently almost guarantee success to locating these elusive predators.

I have to say that if you can fish with a friend, it halves the amount of effort required! But then of course, you have to share the knowledge gained! It's also a whole lot safer than fishing on your own. Fortunately I have a very good friend who is quite a well-known and very successful bait angler for pike and zander who also fancies frequent fishing with lures as well, so I often enlist his help which is freely given.

Of course, this technique of using locator lures is far from being a new idea because it's one that many experienced lure-anglers use almost subconsciously, but it is also one that is sometimes overlooked, forgotten or under-estimated by some predator anglers.

FEN DRAINS for example !
As I live within fairly easy striking distance of the Fens, I'm going to use a Fen drain as an example but I hope that my suggestions will apply to and be equally successful on your lakes, rivers, pits or whatever you plan to fish for pike and other predators. But for me, another nice thing about Fen rivers and drains is that they have zander as well as pike, and some nice perch too !

I also have to say that I'm still a staunch observer of the Annual Closed Season! Anyway, at the beginning of one New Season, with this good friend of mine, I began to fish a totally new venue, an isolated East Anglian Fen drain that was more than six miles long and had very few distinctive features anywhere along its entire length! Even after the dreadful Foot & Mouth business, there were still a few cows grazing along the levees, but they were no help! In fact this is very typical of many Fenland drains and other new venues -- just where the heck do you start?!

First of all, we made a few local enquiries about this particular drain and soon discovered that although several zander and big pike had been caught there over the years, we were told that they were very few and far between, so we naturally assumed that locating them accurately wasn't going to be quick or easy. Straight away we decided to try to find these elusive predators using our special locator lures.

WHICH LURES ?
But which lures? Well, as I said earlier, with new venues you never know where you're going to bump into weed and other snags, so weedless lures are the order of the day as far as I'm concerned because I hate losing lures and not just because of the cost.

In my opinion, many lure anglers fish far too shallow, partly and quite naturally I suspect, for fear of losing their lures, but by doing this they often retrieve their lures much too high in the water, well above the heads of any big, lazy, old pike lurking there!

Except in warm shallow waters where I like to use surface lures especially weedless ones like the Heddon Moss Boss, I use weedless spoons and spinnerbaits to map out any new venues. At the risk of losing them on snags, I'm also very fond of using big-bladed heavily hackled bucktail spinners because they're pretty much weedless too, and as they're fairly cheap it's not too much of a problem even if I lose the odd one or two, although of course I don't like to.

The good news is that I've usually found that spinners, spoons and especially spinnerbaits are excellent for quickly covering large areas and depths of water and are good pike and perch catchers, plus zander seem to take a fancy to them sometimes.

Spinnerbaits come with a single large introverted hook which helps stop them from snagging but which I also find reduces hook-up rates a tad, so I often add a small "stinger" treble to boost my results. Something like a Bomber BushWacker, a Wordens Super Rooster Tail or similar does me just nicely and they don't hurt me in the wallet as much as some I could mention !

For larger and deeper venues I like to give them a good going over with a nice fat spoon such as a Kuusamo or, for smaller ones, nice Rapala Minnow spoons which you can get in a weedless versions if you prefer.

Once you've checked out a new venue with some weedless lures, you can then get a bit bolder with more expensive lures such as big plugs which are always a good choice for tempting pike in new venues.

There's no sure-fire plug for instant success but it's always worth having a bash with, for example, a Bucher lure, something like a Raider -- you can't really go wrong with them.

For smaller and shallower venues, our other favourites plugs are the jointed Storm Thunderstick, magical Manns 1-Minus, Jake Mania, Lindy Shadling and Bomber Minnows .... oh, and of course Rapalas e.g. Super Shad, Husky Jerk or big jointed Minnows.

COVERING THE WATER
By getting a fellow lure-angler to help you, the actual task of covering the water quickly can be made much easier. So, arriving just after dawn, my friend and I made our way on to the bank of this particular drain.

One advantage of this Locator Lure technique is that you only need to have and to take the bare minimum of tackle:- a lure rod and reel, a variety of well-chosen lures, a decent landing net with largish anti-tangle mesh, a small bag with some food and drink, a set of weigh scales, a weigh-sling which doubles-up as an unhooking mat, and a camera are all you need. By working in tandem and by sharing and swopping lures, other equipment and refreshments, you can virtually halve the amount of stuff you each have to carry.

During the course of these searching sessions with our locator lures, we often travel long distances along the bank and so it pays to keep a very close eye on the weather, which can deteriorate very rapidly at any time of the year particularly in the Fens, which are windy at the best of times, and to be prepared for the worst: lightweight waterproofs and a good pair of walking boots are essential for mobile predator anglers.

If you're fishing a lake or pit venue, then it makes good sense to wear waders because they're always handy to have if you don't have to walk very far, and if the margins aren't too silty or muddy, you can wade in and fish the parts that other anglers can't reach.

A LOTTERY
In spite of everything I've said, exploring a new water is always a bit of a lottery and you need every bit of help you can get to shift the odds in your favour. On this particular drain the pike seemed to be located on or near the marginal shelf, virtually the only underwater feature in this otherwise featureless drain.

As a result, we found that the first cast parallel to the bank was almost always the one that got a result. We followed this by other casts to the far bank and gradually casting around the swim. Then, working in tandem, my friend and I leap-frogged with our lure-rods along the bank, quickly but thoroughly, covering the water as we went.

NOT QUITE 20 lb. !
As I've already described, the drain itself was fairly featureless but eventually, in the margins, we came across the remains of a reed bed that had died-back during the winter.

I thought that it might to hold good potential so while my friend fished on down the drain, I cast one of my favourite spinner-baits along the margins, again and again, and finally ..... WALLOP! .... a pike grabbed my Locator Lure!

It didn't feel very big and it was quite lethargic so I didn't bother to call my friend to help with the landing net but to my surprise it weighed more than I expected, just over 15 lb in fact and not bad for a first-off trip with my locator lures on a brand new venue though !

Your Own Venues
In new venues, when you're trying to locate predator fish quickly, it's important to keep moving and not to linger in one specific area for too long - Fenland drains and rivers suit this style of fishing very well, being quite narrow and very straight. As a result, it's very easy to cover the margins and swims by fan-casting and then moving and repeating the process.

Of course your own waters may well be very different from ours but hopefully Locator Lures will work well there too. Gravel pits and lakes require a similar approach when fished from the bank. Ideally of course it's best to use a boat if you can, although unfortunately they are only allowed on a few of the waters where we fish. Rivers can be a completely different kettle of fish but almost certainly Locator Lures will still help get you better and quicker results.

FREEDOM !
Lure-fishing allows so much freedom to explore and I always tackle a new water with my Locator Lures first: it gives a huge boost to your confidence to rapidly find-out that there are predators to be caught and approximately where they might be, so why not try fishing with a friend and locating those pike with some Locator Lures, and see for yourselves .......

Lucky locating and tight lines!
Alex Wood

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or Nick Caine, (Editor)
email us at: NickCaine @ Talk21.com