What’s the difference between catching 400 twenty pound pike and 40? About 35 years of fishing is the answer! For good or bad I’ve always kept a record of the number of big pike I’ve caught and slowly but surely the big pike have accumulated.
When I had caught around 375 I wondered if I could get to 400 knowing all to well the Englishman living in Ireland, Alastair Rawlings was the only person who might manage to beat me to that target. By the time I reached 395 I was sure it was in the bag, but five twenty pounders cannot be materialised out of thin air.
Number 398 weighed in at 24lb 8oz and came on a really wet day from an Irish river. Number 399 was a fry feeder from an estate lake and incidentally my first fish over 6lb from the water.
Now number 400 needed to be special, but in reality I had no way of making it so. The weather went cold and it was time to launch the boat on the river. I was trolling lures, one a Super Shad the other a Jake. I passed through several known areas without any offers at all. I was just beginning to think that it was a day for fishing static baits when the rod whacked around. The Super Shad had found something. However was it a stray bin liner or a pike? It proved to be a pike and when it came near the boat a big one into the bargain.
In the net and number 400 was ready to be weighed. At 25lb 14oz it was my best from the river and so all in all a special fish. What then of the future? Let’s see what happens, I’ve not set any targets at the moment.