Sound like perfect pike stretches lol
I actually dislike pike, I’ve caught some decent ones but they scare the crap out of me.
I remember you could easily drop a couple of grand on a top-end match pole 30 years ago.
Me too! I used to go piking with mates when younger but never really got into it, handling even smallish ones takes care and the proper tools. I used to let everyone else do it! Im more comfortable with a gardening glove on…
Surprised you haven’t combined two of your hobbies and BBQ’d a pike
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I’m surprised still… The technology has got cheaper I think and to my eye, there are not really many new advances, I bet most are made in China regardless of rrp.
I’d like a decent one, I really enjoy pole fishing and have always had one but only ever cheapies.
I dont think they should be killed. I brought home a near ten pounder when I was about 12 and my dad went berserk. My mum cooked it though and I remember it being pretty good but his lecture about killing wild fish made me think.
Haha.
The other perspective is that eating them is the only real reason there is for catching them 
It became my favourite way to fish. I used to love making the rigs. I was well into match fishing on canals as well as lakes and farm pits.
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My parents lived near Norwich for 25 years and I used to take a pole to the city stretch of the Wensum for the roach that pack in there in the winter. One day I turned up, only to find a match in progress and none other than Bob Nudd in my favourite peg. I sat and watched him until the match finished- which he won with 25 pounds of quality roach. His ability was AMAZING. I reckon he was fishing 5 mtrs to hand with a flick tip. He swung the rig out with his right hand, picked up the catapult with is left, loaded it and fired a perfect group of about 10 maggots along the pole, around his float which disappeared at exactly the same place every time and he never missed a bite. He swung each fish in, stuck it in the keep-net and re-baited so quickly it was bewildering! A pole angling machine. Everytime I pick mine up I remember this and I’m acutely aware at just how shit I am with it. I still love it though.
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Great story!
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On a family trip to Ireland we went to visit an old friend of my Mum who lived in Fermoy.
We left them chatting and my Dad me and my brother went off for a walk.
My Dad wanted to walk along the river.
I remember standing on a bridge and seeing these shapes in the water and Dad cursing that he didn’t have his fishing gear with him and didn’t have time to fish anyway.
Apparently the River Blackwater was famous for specimen roach.
When my Dad asked a few of the locals about the fishing they said nobody but tourists fished there and they regarded the roach as a pest and blamed them for eating the trout fry.
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I’ve never fished in Ireland - I think @Jim has - but here roach have been in decline for years. A big one is quite a catch these days. I wonder if it’s the same over there?
RMC?
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Yes, had a 2 week cruising/fishing holiday in Ireland about 10 years back with a mate and his son - just the three of us. Mostly on the Erne and Shannon. Caught loads of roach and decent sized slabs. Not massive roach though - biggest one was just over a pound.
My FiL (yes him) did loads of fishing in Ireland. He turned professional match fisherman for a few years, mostly on the Thames and Shannon. He told me that if you didn’t catch a 100lb+ bag in a match on the Shannon, you’d have no chance of winning.
I told you he was a character - during the war he was a prisoner of war guard in various camps in the UK, including the Tower of London when Rudolf Hess was incarcerated there for a short time!
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Pole fishing?
Yes, I was mostly on the pole, but my friend and his son didn’t have poles (not really serious anglers). Tbh, the holiday was pretty much a boating pub crawl, with fishing thrown in 
. Some fantastic pubs along the waterways in Ireland 
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Sounds great! I’d love to go one day.
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AA Holiday!!
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Yeah, tried dropshotting for the second time in my life, had precisely the same number of bites as last time.
Bylaws posted at the entrance say spinning only allowed from West Hythe dam to giggers green.
Loved using a small and light rod again, bit I’ll probably go back later and fish the waggler.