John Uilenberg
John has a passion for pike! He fishes a lot and he catches a lot of 'big' pike on the fly from his belly boat (geared up with Float Plus 😉). He uses a very long leader that connects to his fly line in a way that the jointed parts do not get stuck in the guides. He's not casting (maybe a false cast or two when he starts) but slowly paddling with his fins, searching the depth where he expects the pike to be. This is a very effective way of fishing with a fly rod as the streamer is effectively in the water about 95% of the fishing time. I have fished with John two times using his technique. Both times we caught a meter+ pike. The video's are on his YouTube channel (Dutch language).
Personally I love casting with a fly rod so I fish a different technique searching waterlayers for the pike using floating, intermediate and sinking lines. Casting, counting and stripping. I love it! My loop to loop connection never gets into the rod guides as my pike leaders are always shorter than a 9ft rod.
For those interested in the smooth connection between fly line and leader here is a YouTube video (Dutch language) about how John glues his leader into the Airflo Elbi Pike Fly line WF10F:
