Gearing Up For The October Opening: Pike Season Prep

Close season is nearly over. The weed has started dying back, the water is cooling, and if you have been counting down the weeks like the rest of us, you already know what is coming. October means one thing: pike season is back on.

Every year it is the same story. You tell yourself you will be organised this time. Rods checked in August, traces sorted, kit sat ready by the door. Then the 1st rolls round and you are stood in the shed at 6am trying to remember where you left the forceps. This one is for getting ahead of that.

Check the kit you already own

Before anything else, go through what is already in the tackle box. Traces perished over summer. Trebles gone rusty at the back of a drawer. Forceps and unhooking mats that need a proper clean before they touch a fish again. None of it is exciting, but it is the difference between a smooth first session and standing on the bank at first light realising you are missing something.

Layer up properly

October on the bank is a different game to summer. Early mornings, longer sits, the first proper cold snaps. This is where the wrong kit starts to matter. A heavyweight tee under a jacket does more than people give it credit for, and once the temperature really drops, a proper hoodie earns its keep for every session between now and March.

If you are after something built with the season in mind, the 9°C And Rising tee is a straightforward nod to the water temp that switches everything on, and the Started On Jacks, Still Chasing Crocs tee is for anyone who has been doing this since their first scrappy jack. Both come in the heavyweight hoodie version too if you want the warmth to match the sentiment.

Know when it switches on

Pike do not read the calendar, they read the water. Once it drops toward that 9°C mark, the big females start moving shallow and feeding properly. October is often too early for peak conditions down south, but it is when the first signs show, so it is worth being on the bank rather than waiting for perfect.

Sort your session kit, not just your rods

Flask that actually seals. Bank chair that does not leave your back wrecked after hour six. Head torch with fresh batteries for the walk back when you have stayed for one more cast longer than you meant to, which, let us be honest, you will. None of this lands a fish, but it is the stuff that decides whether you are still out there at hour eight or packing up at hour three.

Get kitted out before the 1st

Whether you are after a tee for milder early sessions or a hoodie for the proper cold mornings, now is the time to sort it, not the week after opening when everyone else has had the same idea. Browse the full range of pike tees and hoodies, or grab a beanie for when the frost properly sets in.

Shop the full Pike Plug range and get sorted before October

See you on the bank.