Scottish loch springs surprise with a 35lb 8oz pike

Here’s proof that you don’t have to fish the popular UK trout reservoirs to catch monster pike. Dave Turley slipped the net under this 35lb 8oz predator – from a loch in Scotland.
The 52-year-old Scottish Pike Anglers Club member latched into the huge fish while fishing with his friend Stewart Mcmath during a pike fishing trial on Lake Menteith, near Stirling.
The pike, which was tempted on a small Bluey deadbait cast close to one of the 750-acre venue’s islands, set a new personal best for the Chapelhall-based rod, who caught a 27lb specimen from the same loch last year.
As well as raising eyebrows, the catch will no doubt raise questions as to the coarse fishing potential of the fly fishing venue, which only opens to pike anglers two days a year. Said Dave: “You just don’t know what’s in the lake as we only get to fish it twice, and one of those days is lure-only.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something much bigger lurking down in its depths.”