Hans Moolenaar has made a great start to the pike season, landing a string of fish from a large windswept stillwater.

“The key is to locate the shoals of roach. Once you have found the bait fish, pike will not be far away. And not only that, it is important to not fish to far away from the bank. On this venue, there is a small slope and down from that a small gully parallel to the bank. Too many anglers overlook the margins, thinking they have to fish in the middle of he water”

Hans likes to present his mackerel dead baits on a trace made from E-Sox Super Trace and Size 4 Extra Strong Trebles held in place using Slim Crimps and finished off with red
E-Sox Crimp Sleeves for added visual attraction. This is then fished with a simple semi-fixed lead arrangement on 35lb Piker Braided Reel Line.

“It’s important to make sure that the mackerel dead bait lays exactly in the right spot, I use a bait boat with a built-in depth finder, despite only fishing 25 yards out. Another advantage of using a bait boat is that I can make use of lighter rods as I do not have to cast a heavy lead and bait.”

Hans managed to produce 7 takes applying this tactic within a couple of short afternoon sessions from an otherwise notoriously hard water.