31lb pike caught on floating bread!

Pike over 30lb are rare fish to catch on conventional gear, so a 31lb specimen caught on floating bread is exceptional. 

Londoner Spencer King, 72, was targeting carp on a two-acre lake on the Kingscote Estate in West Sussex when he made the freak catch.

“I could see a number of swirls near to my crust when all of a sudden it disappeared and my lined zoomed fast to the right. I struck, but I thought I was attached to the bottom because it was so heavy,” he says.

After a 20-minute fight, which saw the fish cover all corners of the lake, Spencer got it into the net where he discovered it was a pike, and his line had just missed its teeth. According to top predator expert Neville Fickling, pike have been known to take unconventional baits before now.

“A few years ago, I can remember a 39-pounder being caught from Sussex on a popped-up boilie,” he says. 

“These strange things seem to happen after pike have spawned.”

Spencer King was targeting carp when the big pike struck