Monster Pike

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Although I would never call myself an expert pike angler, I have always heldthe species in a certain amount of awe. I also love to read accountsof monsters that bite the noses off drinking horses, take cygnets off the surface and grip the thighs of full grown men who are swimming in the lake, taking them to their doom!

Of course many of these tales are totally untrue. We had a lake near me when I was a youngster that held a leviathan called Jake. It was supposed to be 100 years old and weigh over 100 lbs. Many anglers claimed to have hooked this gigantic pike and the stories of epic battles were told in local hostelries for several years.

But just howlarge can a pike reach?

The fabled Loch Ken monster was supposed to reach 72lbs. Then there was the legendary Endrick fish from Loch Lomond, the skull of which was accurately measured by Fred Buller and **** Walker.

Are there real monsters swimming about in some of our waters that will never be caught? What about our reservoirs such as Rutland or Grafham? And what about the Scottish and Irish lakes.

Perhaps one day a fortunate angler will catch one of these giants. It would be the stuff of dreams.

What do you think?

 

[Graham Marsden (ACA)]

It's one of those things you desperately want to believe, but deep down you know the truth is probably something else. I hope I can keep on kidding myself though - why lose the magic for the sake of reality?

 

[David Marrs]

I think Pike are subject to legend than any other coarse fish. When I was a whipper snapper, we had 'Nelson' (one eyed superpike) in the 'Clay Hole' and 'Whitelips' (possibly around the 10lb mark - obviously a deffo 30 when we were 11yrs old! lol) in the 'Figure 8'.

I'd love to hook and land a monster Pike but I have to say I'd consider a 25lb+ Pike a veritable monster /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Any pike over 20 lbs is a big one - avery big one make no mistake.

I count myself fortunate and honoured to have caught a few over this magic mark.

But often I hear of pike anglers who speak glibly of 30 pounders. I have only known personally a handful of people in my life who have caught 30 pounders. They are John Weston, Eric Hodson, Derek Gibson, Barrie Rickards and Gord Burton.

20 pound pike are rare fish these days, and many of them are caught several times over.

 

[captain carrott]

i would say as a rough guess i know exactly which lake you reffer to with the jake story Ron.

it would be the one from our collective youth where the place ends in old. which has a wooden pontoon on it and you could swim in it.

now having caught 30's my self a couple of times, without doubt the biggest pike i ever saw in my life by a considerable margin was swimming past me in that very same lake back in the 1980's.

i once saw a trio of rather big roach swim past in there also.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

The lake I speak of is Harthill Reservoir which is close to the Notts/South Yorks border.

Sadly now stocked with "match carp". Can someone tell me what "match carp" are, then when I ever catch any I will know to clonk them on the head.

But during the 60s you could catch big roach, perch, good pike and some of the biggest tench in South Yorkshire. My old Mate Steve Crawshaw had several 2 lbs roach from Harthill.

 

[Lord Paul]

Ron Harthill still has some 15- 20lb in it - an angler showed me some photos of an 18lb from there and it look 15-18lb to me - but i'm no expert

Pebley is rumoured to hold some big pike - stories of 30 -40 lb are told but I've fished it on quite a few times and only had jacks of 2lb out

Tally Ho

 

[Gary Knowles]

Both I and a very well known and respected pike angler saw, at very close quarters, a pike spawning in the shallows a few years ago that would blow have totally blown away the current record.

There are others who fish there have seen similar.

I don't expect many to beleive it but blith really could do a monster...

 

[captain carrott]

not the place i thought then!

the place i meant is a bit bigger i think.

harthill resser had some decent tench in but baileys always had bigger, if you could find the big ones.

the best place i found for them was bay 2 fished off the back of the point by the carpark bay. either that or off the end of the point into the trench that ran from the middle of the car park bay very close in, then went past the tip and off between the 2 islands round behind.

decent pike in here too with the odd big 20.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Anybody remember Kimble from the 60s at loose in Billing Aquadrome?


Don't think they ever did catch it. Said it snaffled whole grown ducks off the surface without a trace. Rumours said it was anything from 20 - 60 lbs depending on how many drinks they'd had.

 

[Les Clark ( not too proud to nick a good idea fro]

I don`t know about monster pike but the lack of 20`s over the past few years down in my neck of the woods is bad news ,the last 20 plus i have had was about 5 years ago ( 25lb plus ) .
That old girl came from a lake that rumour had it had a couple of 30`s in it but then again rumour has it that they died .
Another lake ,one that Frothey and his dad know well ,i fished 25 years ago and had a fair few 20 `s up to 24 lb but fishing there again , nothing near that size.
I have a theory but nothing to back it up ( before you shoot me down ), that the vast stocking up with carp in most waters has caused an inbalance in the nature of things , low stock of silvers, , sivers being removed as much as possible for the sake of more carp , i may be wrong but before the 100% stocking of carp on most club waters and the disregard of other species there was more of a balance .

 

[Chris Bishop]

I'd like to believe the legends of Endrick, Dowdeswell etc but I just like fishing for them and regard anything over 10lbs as worth catching and anything over 20 as a red letter day.

 

[pcpaulh]

I think the German record is something like 62lbs? and over there they netted an ever bigger one. Alive aswell. Although I forget how big it was.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

I am sure that the German 62 pounder is the largest fully authenticated pike caught in recent years - a world record too.

There are also tales of huge Northern Pike taken by Native Americans in the Canadian Lakes. Northern Pikeare the same species as ours - Esox lucius.

 

[David Marrs]

Didn't the big German fish come from a absurdly small lake, if my memory serves me correctly?

 

[Coxy]

There was a rod caught55lbfrom Grefeern lake & 67lb from a German Gravel pit (not rod caught) both back in the eighties.

I remembera photo on some angling web site that had a large guy standingat the back of an old 1980's style Mercedes holding a German gravel pit caught pike, no weight or length was stated but it was ahugepike, anyone see that?

The pikes head was level with the guys chest & it's tail fin was dragging on the ground & this guy was no shorty.

I think localized tails of big pike canget vastly over exaggerated which is a shame because theres always the odd one thats true & doesen't get taken seriously.

As for the British record if it goes it will be a trout res or maybe some place like LLangorse.... Keep the mystery alive, a 25+ from the fens would do me.

 

[David Marrs]

"a 25+ from the fens would do me."

For sure Coxy, me too mate! /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Unfortunately 20lb pike from the fens are extremely thin on the ground these days. I know of severalhigh 20s taken by one man from the Witham and neighbouring drains during the past few months, all on lures.

I've seen the photos.

Way back in the 70s, 20 pounders were taken regularly by members of the Cambridge Pike Group from waters like the Relief Channel and Cut Off Channel. Bob Church had a 30 from the 16 foot if I remember.

During the past few yearsI have fished with my friend John on theOld Nene and whilst we have had plenty of doubles, a 20 has evaded us.

Personally I think the best pike water inEngland at the moment is the River Trent, but I will say no more.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

In 1996 we had the EA do a survey on a gravel pit we had, 9 acres or so, and they brought along their zappers. The haul was pretty poor, much to our disappointment, about 8 carp and all around the 8-10lbs mark.

One had an amazing set of teeth marks in it and having established that they were fairly recent, one of the fisheries guys declared we had a pike of thirty-odd pounds in the lake. This tied in nicely with the story that a sub-aqua club had done a dive recently to examine bouys that water skiers used as markers. He'd come up and declared there was a monster pike in the pit and didn't want to go down again.

It was some two years later that a member was fishing jerkbaits and caught a pike that took his 32lbs scales to the bottom. Using the landing net handle he balanced it out and reckoned the pike was 36lbs. The fish never saw dry land, it was weighed over the water and released without even a photograph. The guy was genuine and knew nothing of the two previous events.

 

[Steve Spiller]

Nobody ratesChew valley lake then?