Returning to pike fishing & Thames Oxfordshire

[spurs_fan]

Good afternoon all,

As the title suggests, i am looking at making a return to pike fishing as i have just moved to Benson in South Oxfordshire. There are stretches of the Thames very close with locks and weirs so i'd be crazy not to go for it. I've not really done any piking for the last 10 years or more when i used to fish the drains and rivers in Lincolnshire. I used to fish them with what i think are standard tactics, float fished deads either static or trotted and small lives on bung floats. Is this still the way forward or am i miles away from what is now the done thing?

Thanks in advance

[Duncan Holmes]

All of those methods will catch you fish in the right situation. Stick with what you know and have confidence in.

Most of my pike get caught under a 1.5 inch polyball with a few SSG on the trace, pretty basic but ideal for where if fish most of the time, and pretty much unchanged for 20 odd years.

TBH, as long as you have a bait in the water with sharp hooks in it, strong enough gear to not break off on a snag, and sensible bite indication you wont go far wrong.