pike fishing in Leixlip Reservoir

flowerman

does anyone try pike fishing in this spot,, ?? any luck with pikes?

fret_wimp2

Like every stretch of water thats remotely close to a road in Ireland, Its been decimated. There are still a few fish there im sure, but in tiny numbers and anything of any size will have been taken out and either killed for no reason or eaten.

Result of the non existent wildlife protection laws, lack of IFI enforcement of any laws that do exist, and in this situation, IFI's hatred of pike.

MarcinG

I'm afraid it may be the case. If you have chest waders you may try luck on shallow part by landing strip (very mucky and weedy). But i tried of the belly boat (shh not permitted i learned afterwards) from bridge down in places where there is almost no access from shore, using all that ever worked for me (from small soft lures through jerk baits to hairy killers) not a single bite. However i got few pike there up to about 80-85cm and a friend of mine got a decent one at about 110cm. PS small perch may be good fun on light rod when you find them (once i would get one every cast for about an hour - lost count after 30 or 40 fish...).

kildare lad

ye marcin had the right idea, tryin to get to unfishable places around there. Unfortunately the place has been decimated by poachers, but i reckon theres still a few huge pike up around there somewhere because that section of the liffeys huge and itd be very hard to eat them all, alto the eastern Europeans have done a good job tryin to... Its a shame what happened to the place cos it was a great stretch of a river with huge everything in it. I live 5 mins from there and i wouldnt bother my arse goin down. last time i went there was about two years ago, there was about 10 eastern europeans up there fishing. I just turned around and went home. I know not all of them are bad, but the ones that are have ruined that river.

kildare lad

the last four times i fished it for pike, i got nothing... that was a couple of years ago..

Reedsie

It's always worth giving these places a shot, there's always a chance of a big fish or two. And in some cases the decimation will not have been quite as bad as many believe. I've experienced this a couple of times

pheasant tail

Reedsie wrote: »

It's always worth giving these places a shot, there's always a chance of a big fish or two. And in some cases the decimation will not have been quite as bad as many believe. I've experienced this a couple of times

That's true I've seen that also and how quick a species like pike can bounce back if given a chance at all. I don't know the river but from my experience it's close to impossible from any fishing by rod and line to have a very severe impact on any fish, especially on a river. Venues which have done good fish in the past im sure will still have some good fish knocking about them!

fret_wimp2

pheasant tail wrote: »

I don't know the river but from my experience it's close to impossible from any fishing by rod and line to have a very severe impact on any fish, especially on a river.

That's the kind of logic that has the species in the shape its in right now.
Irelands waterways are not particularly big, barring one or two rivers and lakes, making it easy to put a large dent in a species over a 20-30 year period.

In particular predatory species like pike, where the numbers are only a fraction of the fodder fish.

Although its unlikely you could completely wipe out a species with just rods, one side effect of not releasing large fish is that as individuals, the population becomes smaller. This has been seen with alligators in florida where giants were once common but now exceptionally rare due to culling.

You keep removing the animal with the genes that give it the advantages that help it grow large, and eventually all that's left are mostly the smaller fish.

A canal system which is narrow and easily accessible by everyone gets hit very heavily as its close to Dublin. Effects of not putting back rod caught fish is very visible in all the canals around Dublin.

pheasant tail

fret_wimp2 wrote: »

That's the kind of logic that has the species in the shape its in right now.
Irelands waterways are not particularly big, barring one or two rivers and lakes, making it easy to put a large dent in a species over a 20-30 year period.

In particular predatory species like pike, where the numbers are only a fraction of the fodder fish.

Although its unlikely you could completely wipe out a species with just rods, one side effect of not releasing large fish is that as individuals, the population becomes smaller. This has been seen with alligators in florida where giants were once common but now exceptionally rare due to culling.

You keep removing the animal with the genes that give it the advantages that help it grow large, and eventually all that's left are mostly the smaller fish.

A canal system which is narrow and easily accessible by everyone gets hit very heavily as its close to Dublin. Effects of not putting back rod caught fish is very visible in all the canals around Dublin.

I could have wrote that myself, don't disagree with anything you said and I'm not minimising the issues where facing. Sure you'll always here IFI coming out with things like 'anglers exaggerate, it's not as bad as they think' etc, which of course is s wrong attitude and is only said to justify it to themselves.. But at the same time you'll get very little fishing done anywhere in this country if you where to listen to everything some people will be telling you. OP go fish the area a couple of times, if unsuccessful try elsewhere or go off the beating track and find new waters for yourself, 1 of the most enjoyable things about pike fishing