Part of the code of practice the Pike Online site suggests (even preaches) to all new, novice and experienced pike anglers alike is to handle all pike with great care, that small pike you catch today may just one day be the thirty you really want catch! This has been proven many times over a personal pike fishing career, when recognisable fish are recaptured season after season often having increased weight by a couple of pounds each season. Pike are not the 'hard case thug' their visual image suggests and are in fact very susceptible to damage and resulting death from poor handling. Again this is something witnessed over many years of pike fishing.

A key area of handling and unhooking ultimately involves the angler exposing the pikes achilles heel, its 'gill rakers' to the opportunity to be damaged, often unknowingly, when these are damaged or even broken during the handling/unhooking process, leading to a slow death for the pike as it slowly bleeds to death, often unseen by the angler once the fish is released.

You often see images of pike being held up for a trophy shot with the telltale evidence of gill damage, trails of blood down the flank of the fish, on the anglers hands or on the handling mat, if one is used.

Poor handling can and will lead to loss of big pike with devastating impact on any fishery, both from the opportunities to catch big pike and on the general balance in terms of the the amounts of small pike that populate any fishery. With none or few big pike, a fishery can become over run with small pike leading to a long lean period when sport is poor and frustrating, and have a further impact on the fishery silver fish stocks, to the point of becoming a nuisance to other anglers in the warmer months, leading to calls for pike culls with further impact on our sport.

Protect all the pike you catch, put them back safely and help sustain the fishery for the future.