The Strike of the Mighty Pike

So the december holidays are finally over. It's both valuable and great to spend all those days together with family and dear friends, but it sure cuts into the fishing time.

I didn't get any further than some pike-movies on the web the last two weeks. Of all those (sometimes shamelessly poor) clips, this one kind of struck me though. Put the sound of your computer to the max and follow the bird to the left closely.




Now that's what we like most about fly fishing for pike: watching your fly wiggle through the water, always prepared for that sudden strike, but still almost getting a heart attack when it really happens. So whenever we can, we fish in clear or at least shallow enough water to be able to see the strike and - if necessary - use bright streamers for better visibility for ourselves.

Tomorrow Sander & Hajé will test 3 new rods, hopefully resulting in the first pike of 2010. However, due to the frost all the clear, shallow polder-waters are frozen over, so we're stuck to sinkers on the more turbid, running waters of our local river the Kromme Rijn. But there's alway the chance of a meter plus out there, so who knows....

If given the chance though, these are the kind of strikes we prefer: