Over the years I have had a passion for fishing big waters, indeed I spend a lot of time fishing England’s biggest water, Lake Windermere, as well as many others in Cumbria. Being a two-hour drive away means the lakes are not on my doorstep, so to speak, but it does make them accessible for a day’s fishing. 

My preferences presently for fishing in the Lakes during the winter period are static deadbaits, although in years gone by I have taken my biggest fish from these waters trolling. I just seem to have fallen out of love with the method, which I suspect is costing me some big fish, but that’s a story for another day…

There are now some stringent, albeit unnecessary by-laws in force relating to fishing deadbaits and livebaits, which is probably worth a mention at this point. No livebaits allowed at all in most of the waters. Whilst I don’t agree with this law I can and do accept it. Sadly, there are also some very draconian rules in relation to freshwater deadbaits; in so far as they to are no longer allowed, which is a shame as they were very effective baits. The only good thing that did happen at the time of the introduction of these rules, with two rod licences four rods can be fished per angler all year round. It is also worth noting the Environment Agency do have a fast boat they use in the Lakes and it is likely if they come across you, you will be asked for your licence and they will check your baits too.
Whether you are new to big waters or fairly experienced, fishing big waters like this can be a daunting prospect. To be honest, some of the big Irish loughs still scare the hell out of me, especially where you have huge areas of water with very uniform depths; such as big bays. Finding productive areas in these places can be very tough indeed. In my experience on big waters, when the pike are ‘on’ they’re ‘on’ and success can be relatively easy, one or two twenties and a pile of big doubles can be relative child’s play. However, when there ‘off’  boy can they be off! And catching even a jack can be a struggle. I can honestly say Windermere, of all the lakes I have ever fished, is the moodiest and most unpredictable of the lot. It is not unusual to catch a dozen fish one day and blank the next! 

My approach
For boat fishing big waters, I have developed a simple approach that has worked well for me for a good number of years now. Basically, it’s all about timing, in effect, making sure you are in areas or on spots that have produced pike at a certain time of day, either the previous time I fished the lake or even in previous years. For example, if I fished a swim last time I went fishing and caught a pike at 11.30am, I would look to be fishing the same swim at my next visit between 10.30 and 12.30am, in order to be ‘in the window’. This is where keeping records of your catches in a diary comes in handy! I record every fish I catch, the area, the time the bait, and obviously the size of the fish. This information helps me to find patterns of fish behaviour. Just as importantly, I also record the times I fish on spots where I don’t catch. I rarely accept that a spot I blanked on between the hours of, say, 10am and 12am wouldn’t produce fish between 4-6pm, but these beliefs stem from experience and confidence in the areas I am fishing. 

I have also found these patterns are often cyclical; the same areas that have produced big fish for me at certain periods of day last year, will often be productive the following year. This isn’t always the case, but I have a number of swims that I have been fishing for over five years that produce big fish during certain months of the year at certain times of the day, what I call ‘their window’. I rarely fish outside the window for an area unless the area keeps producing fish, in such a situation only a fool would move. I may on occasion drop on a spot, say, an hour earlier than I had been on it catching pike the week before, just to see if the I have the ‘window’ times about right. As an example last winter Ian Fallows and I fished a spot that had been producing a few big fish but had got slower. In fact, we had been sat there a couple of hours without a sniff. I therefore decided to up anchors and move away; a friend had said he had seen some bait fish on a reef close by the week before. So, on a whim, we anchored up on this reef at about 3pm. Within two minutes of the first bait being in the water, Ian had a run, that fish turned out to weigh 21lb. We fished that spot and took five more fish between 3 and 5pm. The next week when I went back with lucky Clive from work, we went and fished the reef from 1.30pm and took another six fish to 23lb from 2pm till 5pm. So as you can see I had found the ‘window’ for that reef. The fishing lasted two weeks before it became unproductive.

Where do I start?
So how should and angler new to big waters pike fishing get a grip on catching pike from these sheets of water? If you are only going to somewhere like Windermere for a one-off trip, the chances are you will struggle. Especially if you haven’t got some local knowledge which would at least put you on a few swims to start you off. Unlike trout waters where many of the hotspots will be known to most of the anglers fishing the water, on big isolated lakes you can be the only angler on the place, believe me. With that said, people do get lucky. A friend of mine who is not a Windermere regular but fishes the place enough to know what it’s all about, has had one twenty and one thirty in his boat. Whereas I have seen over one hundred twenties in my various boats (I haven’t caught then all you understand) but never been fortunate enough to see a thirty. Put simply, there is no substitute for time on the water. As with most things in life, there is no gain without pain, it will often seem like there is a mountain to climb, but once some swims have been established and a few fish put in the boat, patterns will start to emerge that should enable you to start getting the best from these often daunting lakes, lochs and loughs

Obviously, there are times when things don’t go according to plan. For example, somebody may already be sat in your favourite morning spot. This happened to me last November, when there was another boat sat right where I wanted to be. Rather than get upset, I just set out to find a new morning area, so I dropped on another swim that I felt had warranted some attention for some time but had never got round to fishing. We got ourselves set up and within three hours had had five fish, two over the twenty mark. That swim produced fish for a period of four weeks till it died a death. Was that a stroke of good fortune or inspired angling?

On large waters the weather will often play its part in governing where you can fish. Winds of 25mph or more make exposed windward reefs and features very uncomfortable, if not impossible to fish. Once waves get over 2-3ft standing up becomes a struggle, even big anchors slip. Excessive boat swing can be a problem too and it’s especially frustrating when there are big fish patrolling in an area and you know a carefully placed bait will be all it takes to put it in the boat. Don’t risk your life for the sake of a fish, but rather see these times as opportunities to discover new swims. In fact, I can think of many occasions when out of adversity something magical has happened. For example, the first time I took my mate, Chris Foster, the wind was so strong the waves were well over 6ft, it was truly impossible to leave the vicinity of the slipway. All that was open to us was to hide behind a headland and fish a spot I had never considered worthy of any attention. Yet hat day Chris had his first brace of twenties at 21lb and 24lb and I took a 26lb 8oz pike and an 8lb ferox!
Messed up

I had an incident earlier this year, which messed my plans up for the day, which was most disappointing. I met a chap on Windermere who said he was going to fish the lake for five or six days, depending on his results. We fished that day and had six fish, 5 doubles and a low twenty. I saw the same chap again four days later I asked how he was getting on he said he had all but blanked and was finding it a struggle. I offered the individual some genuine advice on fish location, depths, baits etc. He listened attentively, but as I was pulling off the slipway he said, “will you be fishing the reef you were fishing last week?” I hadn’t realised he had seen me fishing there so I said I would be expecting to fish the area in the afternoon. “Oh great” he said “I’ll fish there this morning then, as you had some fish of it the other day.” I found this sort of an attitude disappointing after I gone out of my way to help the guy and believe me I told him so! This deflected from my plan and forced me to fish on the swim a lot earlier than in ‘the window’ for fear of not being able to fish there when I wanted to. Ironically enough we blanked on the swim and after six hours gave it up as a bad job. We then checked out another spot about eight miles away for the last hour or so, and took five doubles and two twenties, with Ian taking a new personal best fish of 29lb. However, I was a lot more careful what I said to my friend when I saw him on the slipway as we left. I have always had the view as one door close another door will open, it doesn’t always happen but when it does there can be large reward awaiting you. 

In conclusion
Although I have talked about Windermere a lot in this article, and static dead baiting, the principles I have laid out here can be applied to any large water and with any method of fishing. Indeed, I use the same principles wherever I fish and I tend to try and adopt the method to my lure fishing too, although due to its more mobile nature, lure fishing often requires a more flexible approach on big waters. What I am trying to achieve is to maximise my time on the water, by being in the right place all of the time. Clearly that’s never going to happen as there are too many factors outside our control, such as weather, water levels, water temperature. As well as the biggest factor of all – the fish we are trying to catch. Especially the females, which are unpredictable beasties at the best of times; especially the females! However, if you can get your timing right the rewards can be worthwhile.

This article was first published in Pike and Predators magazine