River piking

As previous blog, I'd decided to get the pike gear out. After a grueller of a roving session last sunday which resulted in a blank (4 miles of cutting through vegetation!!). I was out again this morning in the rain, again roving about with deadbaits, and eventually the float sailed away and this tail walking pike graced my net.

This brings me to something I've been thinking about recently, that of nets. I was getting sick of a 42" triangular net with standard mesh, the hooks get caught, the shape of the net is wrong, etc etc. I've decided on a 32" round greys free flow, which is nice and deep. The pike today was 33" long and the net was brilliant, I think it would have no problem with a much bigger pike. However, I have now ordered some new mesh, 3" salmon mesh, which is very deep and should prevent hooks getting caught up. Just waiting on delivery of it, and i'll do a bit of a review once  I use it. The ideal pike  river net is, in my opinion, found by buying it in bits. A nice big round net, a long telescopic handle (drennan twist lock) and large mesh / deep net.