If you are new or perhaps not so new to pike fishing and in need of some advice on pike traces what follows can probably help you a great deal.
If you are new probably the best advice that we can give you is to start your pike fishing by using ready made traces. Whether you will be using them for lure fishing, or bait fishing (live or dead baits) all the traces you will need can be obtained in a ready made form from reputable manufacturers by asking for them at your local tackle dealer. Some typical example manufacturers are Mick Willis Tackle, Fox, Drennan or Middy Tackle.
We recommend beginners to do this as the task of fishing for pike is great enough in the first place to worry about whether the traces are strong enough and safe to use. By purchasing them in the early days will allow you to become accustomed to how they are made and how each varies for the job it will have to do. To fish with poor quality traces puts both your sport at risk by not just seeing a hooked pike lost but the pike itself may ultimately suffer if the hooks are left in the fishes throat or stomach because your trace broke.
We apologise for repeating warnings of this nature as they will appear in any chapter or article where there is a risk of mistakes or errors putting pike at risk, we hope that by providing these in addition to good advice on how to make tackle and set up rigs etc. we are helping not just you but the pike! Consideration for them by others will be providing each of us with the opportunity to catch them more than once.
What traces are there?
Lure Traces.
The simplest of traces but probably the most often overlooked is the lure trace, many times each season anglers wishing to have a go at pike fishing by tying spoons and spinners onto their reel lines directly with little thought for the fact that disappointment is all too often a certainty, both for them and sadly the pike. The lure is cast the pike hits and is played for a few moments, the angler is excited and then upset, the pike has got away and taken the lure with it! Had a simple wire trace been added to the tackle there would not be any disappointment for angler or fish. Can you imagine where the lure might be?
Always use a wire trace of at least 12 inches in length, of 30 lb BS wire with a ‘croslok’ type quick change link to attach your lures, this will ensure the lures are not bitten off and allow you to change the type and size of your lure quickly and simply!
Bait fishing traces.
When using legered or float fished live or dead baits there is always a need to use wire traces and apart from the hook traces there is one that we recommend you consider using at all times. This trace is now commonly known as an uptrace, you will see this shown in use in many of the tackle diagrams provided on the site. This should be 24 to 36 inches in length and any hook trace used in conjunction with one should not be greater than half this length so that there will be no chance of the hook trace and bait becoming tangled with the reel line at any time. Should the bait and hook trace become tangled with it there is the risk of a ‘bite off’ when and if a pike seizes the bait in this situation. This can also occur if a live bait should swim upwards and be close to the reel line when a pike strikes, if it does so with an uptrace the risk of losing it are very much reduced.
A bite off is assured in most cases if the reel line gets near the pikes teeth and will result in the pike swimming away with the bait and hooks either lodged in its mouth throat or swallowed putting its life in serious risk! So please consider the argument for using an uptrace at all times!
With modern tackle available to us today there is no disadvantage in using an uptrace when dead bait fishing either. We will show you in pages that will appear on the site rigs that will use current tackle innovations that overcome previous problems that made uptrace's impractical, so keep an eye on the site for these rigs to appear.
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