Fresh waters monster

As a young man I can remember seeing crocodiles swimming in our torchlights at night but never did I ever dream that I would come face to face with northern Europe’s own fresh water crocodile. The dreaded pike (Esox lucius). Here is an animal that needs no introduction. I’ve seen some teeth in my days but these mothers are sporting one hell of a set of fangs.

My mates with two of the best

Wobblers are oftern the best thing to use

A bite mark from one of these monsters

Doing it the Danish way

I see these fish in a different light than a lot of other fishermen her in Norway. I’m first and for most a salmon fisherman added to this I live on the west coast of Norway. It is here the pike are not a natural part of the environment. In fact in my opinion many of our great trout lakes are almost destroyed because of the introduction of them. Why and when they arrived is a whole other story but the fact is they are here. So I’ve learnt to turn this negative into a positive and now I’m a fan of pike fishing.

Before I could attempt to catch one of these killers I had to find some one that knew what they were doing. So I rang the best, my good mate Paul Miles. He spent his youth in England chasing pike and he seemed to be the expert on the subject. With his help we scouted locations and after a few days we had found the perfect lake, Grimstadsvann. When searching for your lake its good to know that pike love lakes with low oxygen levels and plenty of reeds. Lets not forget a good supply of fish. Their preferred food sources are young trout, small ducks and frogs among other things. An interesting fact about these fish is they will eat up to 175 kg of small fish in their lifetime.

Pike have been fished in every possible manner both here and abroad. Here in Norway both trawling with wobblers and bait fishing are two most popular methods but in the last few years chasing pike with flies called poppers has become more and more popular. For us the first choice was a popular Danish trick. The eggs (rogn) of rainbow trout simply threaded through a set of gang hooks but don’t forget to keep the sack intact. This proved not to successful due to the wild wind blowing on the day. Finally we turned to trusty old favourite wobblers. Casting your wobbler into the reeds and retrieving it at high speed is the best way to catch their attention. I you are fishing from a boat then trawling your wobbler along the reed beds is your best bet.

We love our belly boats and fishing for mean hearted fish from a floating rubber tube sounded like a blast to me. Suited up against the cold and ready for some action we paddled out in to the best reed beds. It was then I had my first encounter with one of these creatures just a few meters from my boat a fish exploded out of the water and took a small bird from its perch. I love to watch nature at work but I was there to fish. Over the next half hour we set into a rhythm of casting and paddling until Paul had a strike. Lucky me I was only a few feet away and could sit and enjoy the action. What a show!

It was not long before Paul had control then the moment of truth came; we had to land the unattractive beast. With my trusty leather gloves and a shaky hand I griped the fish around the top of its head, Paul tells me it’s the safest way. Once on my lap all I had to do was humanly kill the fish I found this to be difficult. As I tell every one I don’t like to kill fish but as they are unwanted here in Bergen and we had planned try a 400-year recipe.

I could not have asked for more than that. I had all the photos I needed and Paul had proven that his was a real pike man so I figured it was time to go home and have a beer. I had almost forgotten about Glen the other part of our trio. He was fishing on the other side of the lake. Glen is one of these fishermen that can fish for hours, sometimes days with out a break. That day was no exception. Glen is in the same boat as me, he has never catch a big pike before.

To cut a long story short he did it. In fact his fish was so big that its photo was printed in the local paper. I must warn all our readers at this point while we were paddling in with enormous laughter and thinking we were kings of the hill. Suddenly Glen’s fish began to thrash and bite at any thing in a fit of fury. All I can say he as both lucky that he was not bitten and extremely lucky he did not sink. So always remember to bleed your fish. A knock on the head is not the answer for these savage creatures. Hey don’t let these small details stop you from trying pike fishing; after all we all need something to do during the off-season.


Fact you never need to know!!

They can eat food half their own body weight.

A 5kg pike can lay around 90000 eggs

They shift teeth every summer and are less bite willing

Old pike need (12 year 1meter) 174kg fish in their lifetime

Young pike need 3-5 kg per kilo growth but old pike grow slowly and need 10-30kg per kilo growth.