their runners-up Silver medals, not the Gold’s they had hoped and prayed they would have been taking home; but till gladly accepted after the tremendous effort that each angler had given over the two days......

The beginning of October has for decades spelt the start of the pike angling season, and for the past 16 years has also been the signal for the annual International Pike Championships between Britain v Ireland to be held. After a year of planning and waiting, the time had come for the top 10 anglers from Britain and Ireland selected at their respective nations Selection Finals to pack their bags and head off to do battle on the Somerset Levels around Bridgwater. Ireland came full of thoughts of retaining the trophy they had won the previous year at Roscommon in Ireland with the smallest ever winning margin of just 1 ½ lbs, whilst Britain were eager..

We have tried to include a variety of articles that look at the skills, tactics and tackle required within this branch of the sport. This list of articles and tackle reviews will be an on-going piece of work, so visit the site on a regular basis to keep up with changes.

If you have an article of your own that you think is suitable for this site, then simply drop us a line or email the article to us with any suitable photographs and we’ll add it to the list and credit it to you with our thanks. Webmaster.

Two more links to articles are  added below. ‘Keeping It Simple’ and a 3 page review of the New PROWLA range of tackle aimed at the Pike and predator tackle from Greys.

British Pike Squad Articles
 

Keeping It Simple

What is it about fishing and pike fishing at that; that drags us out of a warm bed in the early hours of the morning on a cold, wet and windy morning? Why do we do it? Is it the peace and solitude we encounter? Is it the magnificent and un-spoilt beauty of the British countryside at it’s best with an early morning frost glistening in the fields and branches of the trees around us, or is it just the deeply ingrained instinct of man the hunter exploring the need to pit his intellect and skills against the ultimate predator swimming in Britain’s waters?

Whatever the reason why we have to fish, we’re lucky to have one of the most cunning and perfect predators around in the shape of “Esox Lucius! Providing us with one of the greatest challenges around - us and our intellect versus the Pike. An inbred instinct formed

over millions of years, and perfectly honed to its environment.

For many the joy of simply being there is enough, not really caring whether or not we actually catch a pike today; whilst for many their whole ambition in life is in catching the largest specimens lurking somewhere in The murky depths of a giant trout

reservoir.

But for others like us in the BPS, it’s the realm of competing against others, in pitting our wits not only against the pike, but against other like minded anglers as well. For us the joy and success comes from roving with the minimum of tackle in search of feeding pike, picking up one here and one there, looking for those places that might hold a feeding pike and those that don’t. The skill mix required for our style of pike fishing is therefore far greater, and is one where the angler has to become a master of many tactics and not just a few. And at the end of the day the feeling of satisfaction even after blanking, is hard to explain to those who have not tried the art of “wobbling”.