Fly-Fishing

The places to look for pike when you have a fly rod in hand are the usual shallow-water haunts of the fish. Cast to the edges of weedbeds, to eddies of rivers, to drop-offs, and among the lily pads. Some fly fishers will wade the shallows or nose through them quietly in a canoe. They cast to places where they think pike may be lurking. Occasionally, the flipping of minnows will give the pike away. Twitching a fly across the minnow's path often brings a strike.

One of the big advantages of using a fly to attract pike is that it allows you to fish at moderate depths without having to worry about snagging bottom in shallow water. The floating fly line will keep the fly from going too deep, permitting some of the most effective slow fishing. You can twitch the fly slowly through the water knowing that when you stop retrieving, the filaments of material that make up the fly won't stop moving. They'll continue to quiver in the slightest current, attracting fish even while making no forward motion.

A slow retrieve can be varied with a technique that quickly pulls the streamer back towards you. A falling/rising effect can be created by adding splitshot to the line just in front of the shock leader. As you retrieve, the fly will rise toward the surface, then sink again as forward motion stops.

When you have a pike on, you seem to start from an awkward position. The fish has the fly in its mouth but you are standing there with the line you've retrieved Iying about your feet. If the fish is small, there's little problem -- you can horse it in just by pulling the line. But you have to play a big pike by letting the fly line slide through the fingers of one hand, keeping enough tension on the fish to keep it from spitting the fly. With the other hand you must wind madly until all the slack is on the reel. Finally, you can play the pike from the reel, allowing the tension on the reel to help tire the fish.

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