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Climatic influences on Irish Pike
Pike may be fished at all times of the year and fishing may depend on prevailing weather, water levels, barometric pressure and temperature. The influence of the Irish climate, as well as the habits of the pike, also have to be taken into account. Irish rivers and loughs are subject to seasonal rhythms of high and low water. Winter floods will put some rivers out of condition from time to time, and affect access to the loughs. The high winds of spring and autumn can render boat fishing on the bigger loughs unsafe for short periods. However, the pike fisherman in Ireland will always find sheltered waters available when others are affected by floods or gales. When water levels are high and some fisheries are unfishable, rivers like the Barrow can be the place to fish. The River Barrow has a network of weirs and there are many navigable side canal channels and in flood time most of the coarse fish move into these backwaters accompanied by the very large pike. Indeed over the years, most of the big specimen pike have been captured in the canal sections during the winter period. Hot summer temperatures are probably the only time of year when pike are not active during the daytime period.
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