Do you want to fish for pikes in Extremadura? Extremadura is one of the best communities in the Iberian Peninsula for pike fishing and other predators. Here are some tips based on my experience of the last few years: What are the best areas? What lures should I use? What are the best times of the year? If you want to know exactly where, when and how, the best thing is to hire a fishing guide. Logically I am not going to give you such specific information, but if you are not an expert in pike fishing or do not know very well where to start in Extremadura, I hope this article will help you.
Before starting
Fishing for pike in Extremadura is a lot of fun but you must be very careful when handling them. I recommend that you use a net to be able to handle the fish correctly and avoid accidents. You can watch this video in which our friend Marcos from BO Fishing explains it in detail. Pike have sharp teeth and gills, and although they will never try to bite you, they may twist and cut you when trying to break free from the hooks. Whether with the teeth or the gills, you have to be very careful because the cuts can be deep. In addition, pike secrete anticoagulant, so the wounds may be bleeding for many minutes until the bleeding stops.
I don’t want to take away your desire to fish for pike, but it is important that you know all this before you start, because it is one of the species that usually causes the most accidents. On the other hand, I recommend you to use long pliers to be able to extract the hooks without risk. And lastly, please do not use the bocagrip or similar tools. If you learn to handle pike well from the beginning and grab them where you should with decision, the risk is minimal. And the fish will not suffer. In the event that the fish twists hard while you are handling it, the most that can happen to you will be a few slight cuts on the back of your fingers.
Fish for pikes in Extremadura, Lake or river?
Before choosing one or the other scenario, it is important to know if we have the possibility of using a float tube. Most of the rivers have very inaccessible banks, so the use of a float tube is highly recommended, almost essential. Unless you want to spend some time in a small dam or a concrete spot, most of the time the pike will be in areas not accessible from the shore. If we opt for the float tube, we have several interesting scenarios: the Guadiana river, the Zújar, the Zapatón, the Gévora… And in the province of Cáceres we could highlight the Tiétar.
If we fish from the shore or we are lucky enough to be able to do it from a boat, our best option will be the reservoirs. Either big lakes like Orellana, La Serena, Zújar, Garcia Sola, Cíjara, Sierra Brava or smaller ones like Valdeobispo, Horno Tejero, Proserpina, Piedra Aguda, Ruecas… However, it is very important to consult the confederation pages before navigating, as some of these lakes or some sections may not be navigable depending on the season.
Of course, the level of the lakes will influence their “fishability” from the shore. Normally the ideal will be that they are not completely full, since advancing along the banks will generally be complicated. But neither is it usually good if they are too empty.
Pikes love the vegetation present on the banks, either underwater or submerged trees and bushes.
Ideally, all of these things should be taken into account before you start: lake level and current trend. If a lake is rising it will always help to have more pike near the shore.
What is the best time of the year?
Many times we hear “theories” that say that pike only bite in winter, theories that I do not share. We can fish for pike all year round, it will depend on the scenery, the time of year, if we can fish in a boat or not… Logically, if we want to catch big specimens: January, February and March will always be interesting, due to the spawning season. During the pre spawning and spawning season the big females will be closer to the shores and will be more accessible.
Spring is also a good time as there will be pike scattered throughout the water layers. As we get closer to June, most of the pike will go to deeper areas and summer is the time when they are more inaccessible from the shore. However, in cut areas we will be able to fish them perfectly well, because pike in summer eat a lot, despite popular beliefs to the contrary.
If we are in the river we can also fish them, mainly in pools, but it is not the best season. In summer they also suffer a lot with temperature changes, so if we catch one, we must release it asap. If we are also fishing in reservoirs at a considerable depth (for example between 10 and 12 meters), we must be even more careful. The ideal is to fight them calmly, so that they do not rise quickly to the surface and release them quickly, especially if we fish in the middle of the day. Finally, autumn is also a good season, especially when the rains start. Pike at this time also approach the shore to feed.
Fishing for pikes in Extremadura, top lures
If you ask people of a certain age, they will tell you that the red wool spoon is the best lure for pike. And I am not going to deny that it is a lure that gives very good results, however it has many limitations and is very easy to hook. Nowadays we can fish for pike with a huge range of lures, everything will depend on the scenario and the size. I have left the lures for the end, because many of you ask about them first…. But for me the choice of lure is the last thing. If we don’t know where the fish are, we may be casting the best lures that will eat bowling pins like castles.
Where am I going to fish? Why do I choose this scenario? Is the level high or low? Rising or lowering? Is the season good for this particular scenario? Do the weather conditions favor us?
These and many other questions are the ones we should ask ourselves before choosing the lure. And the answer to these questions will only come from experience. If we are lucky enough to have a friend to accompany or advise us, we will have a lot to gain. Even so, if you want to learn how to fish, I recommend you to try to draw your own conclusions. It is the only way. If you don’t do it, there will be days, the least, when you catch a lot of fish without knowing very well why, and others when you don’t catch anything and you go home thinking that they didn’t bite. Having said that, I am going to describe the best lures.
HARD LURES
If pikes are in the shallows, hard lures like jerkbait or crankbait can give us very good results. I usually use big lures, because pike have a big mouth and if we use very small lures we run the risk of the pike swallowing them too much. At certain times we can even catch pike on topwater, especially in spring and autumn on a rough day. I try to avoid lures with treble hooks as much as possible, as they tend to cause quite a few injuries to the fish. Many times there will be other equally effective options, which are less harmful to the fish and also better for our physical integrity. It is much easier to stick a treble hook than a large single hook of a spinnerbait, for example.
Fishing for pikes in extremadura, spinnerbait & chatterbait
Generally these are the lures I use in similar situations to the hard lures. Of course they won’t always work, they will never be able to replace a long stop of a suspending jerkbait, but on many occasions when we are simply sweeping the bank they will be effective. As effective, if not more so, than a hard lure. I don’t know what it is about chatterbaits but pike love them, and spinners will give very good results on rainy and windy days. In terms of size, I would also go for large sizes, between half an ounce and an ounce.
Swimbaits, SOFT OR HARD?
Especially if we are looking for big pike, the swimbait will always be a great option. The advantage of the hard swimbait is that we can make stops and keep it longer in the strike zone. Also the fact of having treble hooks will give us a greater effectiveness, the good thing about this type of trebles is that being bigger they will generate less wounds and tears. The soft swimbait will allow for more subtle presentations, both in the river and in the reservoir. It also offers us the advantage of being able to bring up pike from great depths in cut areas, or we can use leaded swimbaits to fish deep.
FISHING FOR PIKES IN extremadura, jigs
The jig, although it has traditionally been a lure more used for bass, can give us very good results with pike. It will be appropriate if we are in scenarios where crawfish is an important part of their diet. But it is also an appropriate lure for attacking submerged trees, algae areas or very apathetic fish totally attached to the structures. Whether at shallow depths on rocky steps or at deep depths doing the same or standing on the bottom, the jig will always be a good choice.
I could talk about many more lures that can be effective: big spoons, big vinyl jerkbaits, lipless, unleaded vinyls… Practically any kind of presentation can be used, as it is a predator with quite a big mouth. But I don’t want to make too long an article and I don’t want to give you too much information that could get lost. I prefer you to have a solid base to start with and then, little by little, go deeper into those aspects that interest you the most.
I hope you have found it useful, interesting and that you can enjoy great days in search of this species. It is one of the most intriguing, most sportive and most exciting species…. Having a pike over a metre on the other side of the line is an exciting moment for any lure angler and Extremadura is one of the best places to experience it. Cheers and good fishing!
