Last century, Norfolk piking was as famous as it gets in angling and the county even held the record for the species for many, many years.

I was brought up to dream about famous fish and revere legendary heroes like the Vincents, Billy Giles, Reg Sandys, Frank Wright and many more names that deserve to be kept alive.

Today, of course, pike, along with every single other creature in the wild, have suffered as a species, but it’s still my guess that the county holds more and bigger fish than any other county by far.

You’ll travel the UK and you won’t find anywhere with as many piking options as here. The Fens, the Broads, the pits, some estate lakes, trout lakes, the tidal rivers and even some of the upper ones still hold good numbers of fish.

There are Leviathan fish too - my bet would be that there are still a sprinkling of 40s here and a good few 30s - but perhaps we might have to revise down our estimation of what is a big fish today. I’d still rate a 20 as the ultimate target, but I’d say now that fish in the teens are never to be sniffed at and a 15 is a fish to celebrate.

I had my first 20-pounder 43 years ago and I have landed scores of 30s since (for clients and friends mostly I’ll hasten to add) so I think I know something about them.

Pike can be the voracious predator of myth, but I’d say way more often they are as cunning and as danger-aware as the spookiest chub or wild brown trout. What I’m saying is that if pike are your desire now that winter is closing, treat them with the care you would any wild species. Once a pike has been caught once, certainly twice, that fish learns, wises up and can be the very devil to catch again. On a pressured water, a pike can go missing, presumed dead, for years before making a mistake and hitting the net again. So, my advice is to think twice about your bait, your approach and above all, think outside the usual piking boxes.

I’ll give an example. A few years back I sensed that pike on a particular water had seen it all before and I began to pre-bait three swims with 1-2 inch square chunks of dead bait, mainly any sea bait I could buy in bulk and relatively cheaply. A couple of food introductions a week and after a month I gave the swims a whirl… but here’s the key. I presented the baits under a waggler float, on a size 6 single hook. I could have been tench fishing but for the wire trace I obviously needed to incorporate. I was lucky the water responded to marginal approaches but, goodness, the idea worked dramatically. I’m not saying you always have these opportunities, but the gist of what I am saying is that it will always benefit you to think your own way to a solution than follow the crowd.

Talking of dead baits leads inevitably to the question of live ones. There’ll always be the old school angler in me, the thinking that piking means live baits, most especially when the going gets hard. But, to be honest, these days I’m not as sure as I was. If you present a dead intelligently there are loads of times I’ve known one out-fish the wriggling baits around it. Lives always offer an option, but perhaps these days, that’s what they are, an option not a go-to?

I’ve always been a huge fan of using dead baits in the sink and draw style, sometimes called wobbled baits. Simply attach a bait through the lips and then in the flank so it retrieves through the water head first. A dead five-inch roach is perfect so throw it out, let it sink and twitch it slowly back towards you, imparting little spurts time to time. This is an interesting method, exciting and deadly too.

Fly fishing really is an option and one that can be massively successful on some waters and in some conditions. A well-worked fly is something most pike have never seen and they will wallop one in clearish water in warmish conditions.

Finally, never let’s forget the advances made in lure fishing this last quarter of a century. Once all we had was a copper spoon and now there are more lures than fish in the sea. I’m not great with lures I’ll admit, but Robbie Northman is. Look him up, book a day on the Broads with him and you’ll learn more in eight hours than you will in eight years on your own.

NO! This is 'finally' and most importantly.  Always learn the right ways to handle and unhook pike before you go out to catch them. The good news is that Robbie will teach you this as well.