A few tackle tips might lessen your frustration. Although personally I am a lover of light fishing tackle I would suggest not going lighter than a #8 rod. It will certainly make it easier to cast big flies, plus it helps to fight a big fish quick. When casting big flies you want to have a rather short stout Powerflex leader and an even shorter Powerflex Wire Bite Tippet on the end. You can also use RIO’s Toothy Critter leader, as that already has the wire bite tippet built in. Make sure that your leader is no more than a rod length in total – even better if it is shorter. The more compact your leader and line set up is the better.
The new RIO Pike line is a good choice for these fish, and though it won’t necessarily make your cast look prettier, it will certainly help you to transfer the energy between line, leader and the big fly. If you are more a shooting head aficionado the RIO Max II Shooting head floater in 300gr does the same straight forward job. Together with RIOs coated Powerflex Shooting line in 0.024 or the more extreme distance-orientated RIO SlickShooter in 35lb it makes a brilliant pike set up. Both recommended set ups have a short but powerful head which helps to turn over big mama pike flies more easily. Your casting will feel much more at ease too, as the short but heavily weighted heads help get that extra ‘umpf’ into your cast – even in the toughest windy conditions. Choosing the right gear for your fishing trip really means choosing an outfit that is easy and enjoyable to cast. You should enjoy the time you have at the water as much as possible – and choosing the right outfit might show that you are not such a poor caster after all!