Quest for pike twenty ends with a thirty

A dream of catching a huge pike ended in success for Aaron Burnside when he became the envy of hundreds of predator anglers with the capture of a 30lb 6oz giant from a Yorkshire river.

Accompanied by his granddad, Mick, who has over 20 years’ experience of fishing the River Ouse around York, he used his knowledge to great effect when he smashed his personal best, which previously stood at 18lb.

It had been the 22-year-old’s ambition to catch a pike over the 20lb mark for years.

“We have loads of experience of fishing this river and as it was carrying lots of extra water, we headed to a slack area where we’ve seen lots of fry in the past,” said Aaron, from Brighouse, West Yorks.

“As soon as I hooked the fish, we knew it was something special as it just hugged the bottom.

“But when we got it on to the scales, we both just lost it and I had to retain the fish for a few minutes to give us time to calm down and make sure that we’d weighed it properly.”

The duo had a frantic day’s fishing as, along with the big predator, they shared the capture of nine other pike to 12lb.

Aaron caught his new personal best on a smelt fished on a paternoster rig made from 50lb braid, a trace and size 6 trebles.

“I’ve been after a twenty for many years and to just skip that and get a fish over 30lb is something I really didn’t expect,” Aaron said.

“My granddad has caught three pike over the 30lb mark and to have one of my own and share it was what fishing is all about.”