Huge Scottish pike for the Piking Pirate
“THIS awesome specimen is the highlight of my angling career and unless the British record is broken there won’t be a better fish caught this year.”
These were the words of legendary predator angler Gord Burton after he banked his biggest ever pike weighing 34lb 14oz.
Better known as the ‘Piking Pirate’ and renowned for his passion of fishing natural venues, Gord targeted a vast Scottish loch measuring almost 14 miles in length and boasting a width of 1.5 miles. Despite having banked mostly jacks in recent visits to the water, which he’s fished for four decades, he remained confident that it was capable of producing something a bit special. And late in the afternoon of his latest session his float slid away and he struck into his fish-of-a-lifetime.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life to catch a pike like this from this wild, natural water,” Gord told Angling Times.
“If someone was to offer me a trade for two 40lb fish from a trout water I’d turn them down without hesitation. This is in a different league all together.”
Gord cast a float paternostered perch in to 25 feet of water and he beat his new personal best, that measured 45 and-a-half inches in length, with the help of a 15lb mainline, a Drennan wire trace and a pair of size 4 trebles.
“A short while after slipping her back I hooked another extremely big fish that also felt like it was over 30lb but unfortunately it came off,” Gord continued.
“The fish I caught had already spawned, so I’m intrigued as to what its top weight would be. I know that this huge water has much more up its sleeve and I want to be the one to uncover some more of its surprises.”
Boosted baits produce pair of pike bests
LEWIS Gaukrodger had every reason to smile after breaking his pike personal best twice in a single session with specimens of 27lb 15oz and 26lb 6oz from a Nottinghamshire estate lake.
The biggest of the two predators set a new venue record and was fooled by the 21-year-old, Pike Angling Club of Great Britain member with a mackerel head on a simple leger rig.
He also used a float leger system with a herring hookbait to land the second twenty as well as smaller fish of 14lb 8oz and 13lb 6oz.
“This catch will really take some beating and it was by the far the best day I have ever had on the bank,” said Lewis. “Both of my baits were injected with salmon oil and the heads sprayed with red dye to improve their attraction and it worked a treat.”
Roving approach scores for 24lb 8oz pike
A ROVING session on the picturesque River Test in Hampshire produced this fine 24lb 8oz pike for Dom Garnett.
After enjoying no success using deabaits for the first half of his trip, the Devon-based all-rounder’s fortunes changed for the better soon after he switched to using large lures.
Dom, who added a much smaller fish later on, said: “The fish took right before my eyes little more than a rod length out from the bank. She took a 6in-long yellow Kopyto Relax shad. My only other pike was a fish that would hardly have made a snack for her!”
To read Dom’s excellent blog or to book a day’s guided fishing with him, log on to www.dgfishing.co.uk
Two pike for over 50lb
THE importance of being observant when you’re fishing was perfectly demonstrated by Justin Grapes this week when he banked a superb brace of big winter pike weighing 52lb 6oz.
The 38-year-old all-rounder, from Norwich, landed fish weighing 30lb 8oz and 21lb 14oz after repositioning his mackerel hookbaits over a patch of bubbles that emerged in his swim and looked like the ‘tell-tale signs’ of predators feeding.
Justin’s watercraft certainly paid off, with the bigger of the two fish setting a new personal best after he landed it on his first session of the winter at a stillwater in Norfolk. He beat both pike with a simple rig comprising a homemade trace carrying a pair of size 6 treble hooks and a 1oz rig on a running set-up.
He told Angling Times: “I got to the lake at first light and just as the sun began to rise over the horizon I noticed a few small patches of bubbles just a few rod lengths out, so I decided to drop my bait in over the top.”
“These bubbles are often formed when predators are feeding close to the bottom, and this certainly proved to be the case, as the first of the pike I landed - the ‘twenty’ - coughed up a number of fry and a small roach.
“The thirty-pounder’ came from exactly the same spot not long after and as soon as it broke the surface I knew that it was a little bit special and one of, if not the biggest fish in the lake.”
“I’ve been trying to beat my personal best, a fish of just over 24lb from Chew Valley reservoir, and it’s always been a dream of mine to catch a pike over the 30lb barrier. I never expected to do it so early in the winter, so now I’m on a roll I’m going to turn my attentions to big river chub and perch!” added Justin.
29lb pike hits the net on debut session
Fishing a 100-acre pit for the first time could be a daunting prospect but Callum Mcinerney-Riley rose to the challenge to the net this 29lb pike.
The Essex-based rod has targeted small rivers in the past for predators but decided to take the next step in his progression by heading to a huge water in the Lea Valley.
Rather than sit in one area, the BitG Carp Clothing owner and Nash consultant took a roving approach and he eventually struck gold when the predator fell for a floatfished sprat presented on a shallow bar close to an island.
Within seconds of setting the hooks he was convinced a personal best was attached and he said: “The 3.5lb tc rods bent round with ease and once I saw the head I had a mega adrenaline rush – a feeling I haven’t had in years! I usually fish for carp but maybe I’ve now found my true calling.”
