Piking today.....

[oneillbox]

was piking today at my local lake hotspot near sleaford in lincolnshire, id had 4 pike including one decent double when the guy on the next swim (there were only 2 of us fishing the lake) proclaimed that he had 'got a decent one' and would i give him a hand.(he had been wobbling a full mackeral) he tired out the pike and we lifted it from the water. as i went to weigh the blighter we noticed a dark coloured fishes tail in its throat. i grabbed the tail with my long needle holder forceps and extracted a still alive tench from the pikes gullet, the tench was the worse for wear but made a vague effort to swim away. the tench must have been about 3 lbs. (the pike weighed in eventually at 15lb 7oz without the tench in situ !!).

 

i have never seen anything like this in my life, and i doubt i ever will again. it made a half decent day very memorable.

 

god knows how long the decent tench had been 'in there'

[andy_youngs]

guess that proves it, the best bait for a big pike is a 3lb livebait ...

[Dick Dastardly]

You go piking regular enough you will see this sort of thing regularly.

[Leon Roskilly]

 

 

!!

[Peter Waller]

Just imagine what you might catch with a 20 lb carp livebait!

[Tim Kelly]

Obviously not Nige in the swim next to you then!

[oneillbox]

guess that proves it, the best bait for a big pike is a 3lb livebait ...

 

i looked at the tench and thought how the hell could you use something that big for livebait..you would not even consider it.

[Newt]

It really says something about the habits of big pike that with a 3lb fish only partly swollowed, it still wanted more food.

[oneillbox]

only the tail of the tench was visible, but the bloody thing wanted to swallow a 12 inch mackeral to go with it...

[luckyjim]

What is the largest prey item eaten by a pike that anyone has seen a reliable account of?