Will 70 metres of 1.5lb line be ok on a deep spool reel for stick float fishing the canal?

There are three main reasons why a Pike can end up swallowing the hook: 1) You didn't strike soon enough - this is a case of being near your rods at all times, and paying attention. It takes very little time for a pike to engulf a dead or live bait, if you're not on top of your rod when a take happens then you're doing it wrong. 2) Your rig isn't sensitive enough - this has two benefits, firstly, it'll tie in nicely with the rule above.

A sensitive rig will give you better bite detection thus allowing you to respond to the bites quicker. Secondly, pike will avoid resistance like a plague, so making your rig more sensitive is likely to improve your catch rate. 3) Your method of bite indication isn't very good - unloaded floats work well if float fishing live or dead bait, but if you're ledgering then your best indication method by a country mile is going to be a good quality, high volume alarm in conjunction with a drop-off indicator.

If you have any questions about the answer given, or further questions about any form of fishing in general, feel free to give me a shout and I'll try my best to help you out. Regards Ontrent Angling www.ontrent.com.

It's hard to prevent but that means your using good bait.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.