Could this be Britain's largest ever lure-caught pike?
A PREDATOR angler has banked what’s thought to be one of the largest UK pike ever to fall to a lure.
The impressive 45lb 11oz specimen was landed by Dan Hill (29) during a session with his friend Steve at a private stillwater.
Dan Hill and his 45lb 11oz lure-caught pike
The pair had taken several big fish from the venue over the past four years, but nothing to compare with Dan’s new 127cm-long personal best, which falls just over 1lb short of the current British record.
Dan said:
“After a bad day at work I planned to meet Steve down at the lake for 3.30pm and couldn’t wait to chuck some lures about. After clipping on my favourite white mouse lure, I cast it around 40 yards out, let it sink for 10 seconds, and it was taken instantly by this huge fish... which pulled me two feet closer to the water when I set the hooks!
“The lake is crystal clear, so we could both see it was massive from the off and Steve just kept telling me to take my time. When it finally folded into the bottom of the net I was a trembling mess.”
The Doncaster angler owes the success of his catch to his trusty mouse lure, which has since been encased with a plaque to commemorate the achievement!
Following the capture, Dan ‘retired’ his favourite white Miuras Mouse lure
Massive pike caught on film!
BOAT partners Ross Sneddon and Cole Milne couldn’t contain their excitement after filming the capture of a 35lb pike!
The Scottish Pike Anglers Alliance members were fishing an access day at the Lake of Menteith when Ross’ floatfished sardine was taken by the predator.
Visit scottishwildfishing on YouTube to see the film.
Ross Sneddon and his giant 35lb pike
Quest for first 20lb-plus pike ends with 30lb monster
AFTER spending several years in pursuit of a 20lb-plus pike, Wayne Coulson managed to go one better with this 30lb 4oz specimen.
The Boston and District AA bailiff was fishing a four-hour session on his local drain when his floatfished sardine was picked up just a few feet from the bank.
“I had a very slow run but as soon as I struck I knew this fish was extra-special as the rod just arched over into the heaviest weight I’ve ever been attached to while pike fishing!” said a delighted Wayne.
Wayne Coulson and his 30lb 4oz Boston drain pike
Season's biggest pike smashes 40lb barrier!
A RELATIVE newcomer to pike fishing has become the envy of seasoned predator anglers nationwide by banking the largest specimen of the season at the jaw-dropping weight of 41lb 10oz.
The 41lb 10oz pike is the biggest caught so far this season
Despite only taking up this arm of the sport two years ago, 67-year-old Jock Galloway had a pretty decent personal best for the species of 29lb prior to attending last week’s ‘pike experience day’ at Loch Ochiltree in Dumfries and Galloway.
But halfway through his seve-hour session Jock obliterated his old PB when the popped-up chunk of sardine he’d cast around 30 yards from the bank was picked up by the giant predator.
He said:
“Line started to peel from my reel at a rate of knots. By the time I struck it had already taken a good 50 yards, so I knew I was attached to something special.”
It wasn’t until the fish neared the net 20 minutes later that Jock’s friend Jimmy Costley got a glimpse of the fish.
“Judging by the look on Jimmy’s face, it was a much larger pike than we’d first thought,” Jock said.
“It then made three or four surging runs before eventually sliding slowly over the net cord. The relief at that point was immense. At this point another club member, Martin Cluckie, came over to help us with the weighing.”
Wary of having such a large pike out of the water for too long, the trio quickly weighed it before Jock asked Martin to hold his catch up for the camera. Although he didn’t manage to get a picture with his prize, Jock wasn’t disappointed.
“The memory of just seeing a pike of that size is more than enough for me,” he added.
A 40lb pike is a truly rare fish
12-year-old and Father left speechless by monster pike
ZANE’S dad Leighton said: “With the pandemic going on, it’s not been safe for my 12-year-old lad, Zane, to get out of the house, so I treated him to a few hours’ pike fishing on the local river.
“I cast out a legered Bluey deadbait close to the bank for him and sure enough, the rod was away half-an-hour later. It was clearly a big pike and gave him an awesome fight – taking him all over the swim.
“He really struggled to hold the rod at first and I thought he was going to lose it, but he got there in the end and managed to guide it towards me and the net.
“As soon as I scooped it up he just looked at me, speechless – the size of it was ridiculous! His largest fish before this was an 18lb common carp, so this will take some beating.”
Zane Ryan and his 25lb 8oz pike
Monster pike in harsh weather
TREE surgeon Jamie Barnes had poor weather to thank for the capture of a 34lb 5oz Chew Reservoir pike, after heavy wind forced him and his boat partner to target a sheltered bay.
Within two hours of fishing sprat deadbaits in the new spot, the 33-year-old managed six pike to 19lb before something much larger pulled his float below the surface.
“After an epic battle, which felt like a lifetime, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the sheer size and length of this pike,” Jamie told us.
“I’m still on cloud nine!"
Jamie Barnes and his 34lb 5oz Chew pike
Biggest lure caught pike of the season is landed at Chew
A PERCH imitation lure has produced the largest reported pike of the season so far at 37lb 8oz.
The remarkable specimen was a new personal best by nearly 10lb for its captor, Andrew McNicholas, who watched as the pike engulfed his lure just feet from the boat during a trip to Chew Reservoir.
He said:
“This pike frightened the life out of me when it came up, took the lure then dived back down to the depths – causing my clutch to scream!”
Andrew McNicholas and his 37lb 8oz pike, which fell to a perch imitation lure
100lb of pike topped by cracking twenty - Jon Neafcy
“With bad weather forecast all week, I had a very small window of opportunity to get out and fish a Scottish loch for pike.
“Thankfully, my timing was spot-on, and I enjoyed an unbelievable session, catching more than 100lb of pike!
“By the end I’d taken 11 fish, including 10 doubles and two 20-pounders, by legering deadbaits into a couple of deep areas.
“The trip meant I’d now caught more than 30 pike over 10lb in just a few sessions so far this season. I can’t wait to see what the rest of autumn and winter brings!”
Jon Neafcy’s 21lb 2oz pike. Part of a 100lb-plus haul of the species
How fish communicate
The fundamental ability to communicate is something we take for granted and is a skill that is common throughout higher animals. But what about fish?
Are they able to pass on information, such as the location of food supplies, warnings of imminent danger and the desire to mate? With the transmission of such information being so important for survival, it is hard to imagine that they cannot react to one another in some form or other.
Fish such as these barbel will react off other shoal members behaviour
Warning signs
Perhaps one of the most common forms of communication is body language and this is something that we see in many fish species.
If you have ever watched a shoal of roach or minnows moving almost as one as they turn in unison, then you will be well aware that fish do exhibit body language and react to each other. For this to occur, and for shoals to form at all, must mean that fish recognise other individuals of the same species. It is thought that this ‘imprinting’ takes place soon after hatching, with fish associating with those that hatch around them.
Body language in shoaling fish can also indicate the presence of danger, such as the approach of a predator. With an arched body and fins held erect, fish can signal danger very effectively. It only takes one individual to alert a huge shoal of fish to a threat, because the signal quickly passes from fish to fish.
This same form of body language could signal the presence of a rig or bait that some have been caught on before to others seeing it for the first time. It is unlikely that the naive fish know what is putting their shoal-mates on edge, but they are sure to react to it by being guarded.
Chub are a species known for being crafty and, in a bid to stop the fish relaying warning signals to any shoal mates in the vicinity, many specimen anglers go out of their way to retain any fish caught in a keepnet, or put them back well upstream of where they have just been caught (as most chub bolt upstream once returned).
Chub are known to bolt once returned, often spooking other shoal members
Show of strength
Most coarse fish do not have complex mating rituals or show off to their potential mates or ward off rivals. Other fish are much more showy. African cichlids use body language to perform complex mating rituals and to discourage competing males. The same fish also build large pits from which to display during their spawning courtship, the size of the excavation being linked to the size and fitness of the male.
Many species of animal, including fish, use displays to signal their strength to rivals. Even bream are thought to hold a territory and defend it from other males, primarily with a show of strength.
These non-conflict behaviours make a lot of sense, especially among species which have more serious armaments. Large sharks, for example, may swim parallel to other individuals in a show of strength that keeps them at a distance from their competitors’ razor-sharp teeth. They roll their eyes and arch their bodies to indicate their size and willingness to attack.
Pike can be very territorial and use signals to ward off rivals
Sound and vision
Some fish species are able to communicate by sending out sound waves. Fish have quite complex hearing organs buried in their heads that can pick up sound waves, in the form of vibrations, travelling through the water. Cod are able to communicate with their shoal-mates by producing a sound through their swim bladders. This low-pitched drumming can travel several hundred metres, alerting other fish of their presence.
Other fish species may make sounds as they crunch up tough foods, such as mollusc shells. This could alert and attract other individuals to potentially rich feeding grounds.
Rolling and especially jumping, often seen in carp and several other coarse species, could also be partially a response to finding good feeding areas and wanting to signal this discovery to other fish. The sound will certainly travel a good distance in water, much further than in air, so this remains one of several possible reasons for this behaviour.
Pheromones, chemicals produced by animals and plants specifically for the purpose of communication, are widely known and for many years were investigated in fish. While there still remains some evidence that fish can respond to certain chemicals in the water, especially around spawning time, much of the evidence suggesting that fish release pheromones when attacked or damaged by predators has now been debunked.
Although they don’t have the same communication strategies seen in other types of fish, exactly how coarse fish signal to each other remains a fascinating subject.
Rolling carp could be indicating to other fish that a good feeding area has been located
Monster pike takes a boilie! - Andrew Rockley
“By trade I’m the boilie line manager at Dynamite Baits, and recently a few of my colleagues arranged to fish a weekend social on a lake not far from where we work.
“We’d not long finished rolling some new pop-ups which are due for release next year, so I thought it would be rude to not take some with me on this trip.
“We got to the lake after work on the Friday, but none of us had received a single take by the time Saturday morning came around. However, I was sat having a brew when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a fish roll. Immediately I wound in one of my rigs with the new pop-up attached and cast it to the spot.
“Five minutes later the line tightened and started to trickle off the spool, so I hit into what was a very heavy fish.
“I thought I had a new PB carp on the cards but after a few good runs, when I
had to slacken off the clutch as it nearly pulled me in, this huge pike jumped clear of the water!“After a few more runs up and down the margin my mate Trev managed to scoop it up in the net.
“By the time we’d rested it, all the lads had come round to have a look and the sheer size and length of the fish was hard for us all to take in!
“On the scales she went 31lb exactly, which beat my previous PB pike by a good 12lb.
“I’m still in shock over this catch!”
Andrew Rockley and his new 31lb PB pike, which took a boilie hookbait!
Enormous pike landed on a tiny trout fly
A TROUT angler experienced the fishing fight of his life last week after a 30lb-plus pike grabbed his tiny size 10 damsel nymph fly.
Gareth Griffith, from Barmouth, was targeting the stocks of brown and rainbow trout at Llyn Cynwch lake in Dolgellau, Wales, when he connected with the immense predator.
“There wasn’t a single moment in the 50-minute fight where my rod wasn’t bent double,” Gareth explained.
“It went on several long runs in that time and I tried to play it carefully so my 8lb line didn’t snap like cotton!
“I only had a small trout net with me, so I had to wedge its head into it and grab the tail with my hand – it was then that I could see my tiny fly was just nicked in the scissors. It was a fight I don’t think I’ll ever forget,” he added.
It’s not the first time this summer that an angler has landed a giant pike on an unconventional approach, as Spencer King (71) proved in June when he landed a 31lb specimen from a West Sussex lake after it snatched his floating bread off the surface!
Not quite the trout Gareth Griffith was expecting!
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
Giant croc is "most impressive fish ever played"
ED Matthews had the River Severn to thank for the capture of this stunning 33lb 8oz pike, as it was so flooded he was forced to fish somewhere else.
The Shropshire-based predator ace targeted a local lake instead and after catching a few small pike on smelt deadbaits, it wasn’t long before he was battling something much bigger.
“From the way it was headshaking I could tell it wasn’t a small fish,” he says.
“I had to walk up the bank so my mate could slip the net under her. On the scales she went 33lb 8oz and I have to say she was one of the most impressive fish I’ve ever played.”
A boilie grinder helped me smash my personal best pike - Rob Malseed
“It was a Friday and, having finished work, I arrived at my Essex syndicate. I deposited three deadbaits at varying distances from the bank with my bait boat – one to a 10ft-deep spot at 50 yards, another in the margins and a final bait between the two at around 25 yards.
Sadly, though, it was a quiet night and by 3pm the next day I hadn’t had so much as a bleep, so I decided to reel in and swap the deadbaits for some fresh ones.
I put lamprey and smelt on two of the rods, but I had also packed this giant herring which was around 1ft long! I’d normally cut a bait this size in half, but I had nothing to lose so I just stuck it on whole.
Before I shipped the baits back out to their spots I realised I had an unopened boilie grinder at the bottom of my tackle bag and had what you might call a bit of a brainwave…
I filled it with pieces of chopped mackerel, sardine and herring and mushed them up. Then, I poured the mush into the compartment in my bait boat, added maggots and breadcrumb and ferried it out to each of my three marks, before using the boat again to drop my rigs and deadbaits back into position.
I hadn’t put the last rod down when the herring rod at 25 yards bleeped a couple of times then signalled a single-toner!
I was quick to strike, but saw my line kite fast to my right, so it was a bit of a panic trying to keep up with it.
There were a few heavy tugs but I didn’t think the fish was that special, at least until I saw the slap of its tail at the net and thought: “This could be the one.”
This was the first pike that had ever scared me – its shoulders were massive!
The feeling of seeing the scales pull round to over 30lb was overwhelming. I’d waited 20 years for this moment.
All those years of blanking made me think outside the box, and now I have a new personal best of 33lb 4oz because of it.
It just goes to show that by being brave and trying new things you will eventually get the result you want.”
"I reckon this pike will be a future British record" - John Goble
“For years I’d wanted to improve my Norfolk Broads pike best of 35lb 10oz and after hearing of a few thirties caught recently I knew I had a chance.
“My mate and I set up in a likely spot and I decided to fish with two rigs – one with a roach livebait and the other with a free-lined section of lamprey.
“After half-an-hour I hadn’t had a bite but I accidentally backed into the rear rest holding up my lamprey rod, which ultimately moved the bait out of position.
“Before reeling in I twitched it a couple of times and then WHACK! Pike on!
“I backwind all my fish but this one kept the handle spinning, and coupled with the bend it imparted in the rod I knew it was a monster.
“When It surfaced I shouted ‘oh my god’ before my mate netted it first time – it was a proper magical moment!
“It was so long! I didn’t realise how big it was.
“My mate said: ‘You’ll never believe it… it’s 38lb 2oz and 49 inches long!’
“I’m 75-years-old and not in the best of health so I’m super elated to have caught this pike.”
Trout is the golden ticket for pit pike!
A 200-acre Lincolnshire gravel pit has provided Mark Doodson with one of his best-ever predators – this 26lb 8oz pike.
The impressive specimen is one of the biggest pike to grace Mark’s rods in recent seasons, as he continues a 25-year quest to beat his current pb of 31lb.
He told Angling Times:
“The fish was in outstanding condition and truly a sight to behold – I was completely blown away.”
A golden trout deadbait fished into a deep hole just 10 yards out secured the run from the pike.
Mark also caught two other double-figure pike during the same session.
Trashed deadbait tasty enough for stunning pike
Pike are famous for their beautiful markings, but we’d challenge you to find a better-looking example than this immaculate 24lb 8oz specimen landed by Richie Evans.
After catching several smaller fish on lure fishing tactics, as well as a 21lb 12oz pike, Richie was told to try dead baiting for a bigger fish.
“Initially I just had small jacks and I was pretty much out of dead baits,” Richie revealed,
“so I flicked a battered old smelt that had just caught me a little jack in the margin.
“I looked up to see the float creeping out against the wind and as soon as I hit it, I knew this was a decent fish.
“To my delight it was a new PB at 24lb 8oz.”
Whole mackerel too much for this pike
A crafty hookbait modification resulted in the capture of this 26lb 8z pike for warehouse operative Tony Bennet.
After having a take an hour into the session, Tony’s whole mackerel hookbait was dropped after being carried about 20ft.
Tony admitted:
“I think I might have been a bit too optimistic with the bait size, so I reeled in and cut the mackerel in half before casting it back to the same spot.
“Five minutes later the float was away, resulting in a new personal best from a northern river.”
PB pike claims the Monk Lakes title
IT WAS third time lucky for Kelly Crush who finally won an annual Monk Lakes pike competition when this 25lb beast devoured her float-fished smelt.
The predator expert has been a runner-up in the last two matches and would’ve blanked in the latest, had her float not disappeared just five minutes before the final whistle!
She said:
“When I found out the pike was bigger than my previous PB of 21lb 8oz, I jumped around screaming and hugging my friends – the atmosphere was amazing and everyone was smiling and cheering!”
Flurry of large pike hit the bank
THE TURN of the new year has been highly productive for pike enthusiasts who have weighed-in a flurry of specimen fish from both still and running water.
Here are three of the best catches to get you in the mood for a week of predator action…
Ryan Barnett 30lb 2oz pike
PREDATOR fanatic Ryan Barnett said his ‘heart was in his mouth’ for every second of the fight against this giant Northern Irish 30lb 2oz specimen.
It was the largest of 11 fish banked by the Londonderry-based lad who fished mackerel deadbaits on a running-leger rig from the boat launch at The Oaks Fishery.
Ryan said:
“She was a real fish of a lifetime – over the moon would be an understatement!
“She gave a really good account for herself and was the biggest pike I’ve seen in the flesh.”
Melvin Clarke 25lb pike
RETIREE Melvin Clarke only started pike fishing in October but he’s already netted a fish that most experienced predator anglers would be proud of!
On the scales it went 25lb and devoured the Suffolk-based angler’s sardine deadbait, which he float-fished close to the bank on the River Little Ouse.
He said:
“The pike took a while to get in as it seemed to look at me and shot off down the river!
“It really was a great buzz on my carp set-up.”
Allen Cunningham 24lb 6oz pike
EAST Yorkshire isn’t noted for its huge pike but Allen Cunningham proved otherwise when he landed three fish for more than 70lb whilst targeting a local gravel pit.
The pike fanatic spent two days fishing the large Stillwater and hooked into fish of 21lb, 24lb 6oz and 26lb 4oz on popped-up roach deadbaits fished close to the bank.
