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Big baits for pike?


Dave H

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I've not much experience with big pike, but Daves post reminded me of something that happened many years ago.

A group of us used to go on a camping/fishing holiday on the R Swale, for first week of the, then Yorkshire season. The bailiff on the stretch above ours used to go on about a big pike he was chasing, but could never get to take. He showed us the fish, and we guessed about 20lb. Over a couple of years, both on the holiday, and on subsequent day trips, we'd ask how he was getting on, and the answer was the same. No matter what he tried, from live, to dead baits, legered, to float, wobbled deads, to lures, he couldn't get it to take. The following June, after our yearly trip, we heard stories of a big pike being caught in the area. When next we saw him, the bailiff was not a happy chap. It seems that there had been a match on our length, and a few blokes had packed up early. While walking up past the shallows, they had seen this pike laying mid stream. One of them got out his leger rod, 8lb line, put on a trace with a size 4 attached, a couple of swan shot for weight, and threaded as many maggots on as he could. He waded in upstream and worked the maggots past the fish, on the third or fourth cast, it took. After a poor fight it was landed, and weighed in at just under 27lb. The fish was in a poor state, obviously an old fish, and despite attempts to resuscitate it, it died. It was the same one that our friend the bailiff had been chasing, and it had drifted down onto our length, and into open water. He said it looked thinner than when he'd last seen it, a month or so earlier, and had it been in good condition, it might have nudged the magic 30lb mark.

 

John.

Edited by gozzer
  • Like 1

Angling is more than just catching fish, if it wasn't it would just be called 'catching'......... John

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