Personal bests were smashed as Pike Anglers Club members enjoyed a massive haul of pike at a club-run fish in on a Scottish trout water.
A thirty, 16 twenties, 42 doubles and more than 150 smaller fish were caught on the legendary Lake of Menteith.
Top fish of the day was a 30lbs 2oz pike to David Ross. Preston-based lure fan David, whose previous PB was a 26lbs 8oz Menteith fish, was working a chrome Lucky Lizard spoon through a shallower area of the lake when everything went solid.
‘It went off on one long run, I got it back and then my boat partner Pete Wilkinson said it was only loghtly hooked,’ said David. ‘He netted it first time, if it had gone off on another run it would probably have come off.’
Junior member Jack Culpin almost doubled his previous PB when a 28lbs pike picked up his makerel deadbait.
Jack, 13, made the 400-mile trip north of the border with his dad Dick Culpin – who reached the ripe old age of 40 before landing his first twenty. His current PB is a 28lbs pike caught during a PAC event on Menteith in March.
‘It fought like stink, my arms were aching,’ said Jack. ‘I was fighting it for nearly 15 minutes, I just couldn’t get its head up.
‘I kept getting the float up out of the water but it just kept diving – it was an amazing pike. I’m catching my old man up now – I’m only half a pound behind him.’
Darren Bragg, who was left paralysed from the waist down and wheelchair-bound after an accident at work in 1994, took to the water on the fishery’s specially-adapted disabled boat with fishing partner Ross Greaves.
Darren, from Doncaster, notched up another PB with an 18lbs 8oz pike on mackerel tail.
‘My previous best was 17lbs and it’s taken me a good few years to beat that,’ he said. ‘It was ripping some line off my reel.
‘When I broke my neck I thought that was it and gave all my fishing tackle away. Then I got a whip and had a few goes on my local ponds.
‘Then I got back into my barbel and about four years ago I met Ross. he’s helped me a lot, he comes all the way down from Newcastle to fish with me.’
Lincolnshire-based Graham Slater bagged his 99th twenty as part of a haul of five fish over the 20lbs mark shared with boat partner Howard Thomas.
After losing a rod over the side, he caught the line with a lure, handlined it back in, rewound the braid back onto the spool and had a twenty within minutes of casting back in.
Places have already been drawn for a return visit in March. But the PAC has a growing callender of events on waters stretching from Surrey to Scotland between now and the end of the season.
‘We are always looking to give members the opportunity to fish waters which might not normally be open to pike anglers or where access is restricted,’ said PAC events organiser Mark Skinner.
‘Plenty of people have caught new PBs on our events, as well as enjoying the social side of meeting other PAC members and forging friendships with other pike anglers from all over the country.’
Two thirties, topped by a 39lbs 8oz pike, along with almost 40 other 20lbs-plus pike have been caught on PAC events in 2007.
Any member of the club can apply to fish them. For more information go to www.pacgb.com.
Darren Bragg
Graham Slater
Jack Culpin
