New UK pike record.

[HallyButt]

Agreed, those long thin river twenties are pretty fish and easy to hold for a photo, those big old 40-pounders make your back ache holding the buggers..

This was the thread

Any of you Guys go Pike Fishing?

Just out of interest do any of you guys go pi9ke fishing? I took it up last Autumn after Marlene came out of hospital just to get the odd couple of hours now and then out in the open air for some exercise. I only fish at a couple of local reservoirs where it is free fishing but I thoroughly...

www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk

 

[Dazb1967]

This is more my type of fishing, I caught this 40lb cod on one of my fishing trips to Northern Norway.

 

[Mickeydredd]

This is more my type of fishing, I caught this 40lb cod on one of my fishing trips to Northern Norway.

Did it get off....?

 

[SikaSeeker]

This is more my type of fishing, I caught this 40lb cod on one of my fishing trips to Northern Norway.View attachment 351155

Big old worms in that one I’d say!

 

[Dazb1967]

Big old worms in that one I’d say!

Never kept the big cod, I only like cod around 5lb and the only fish we brought back was Halibut and Catfish we only kept the Halibut that were around 40lb, We regularly caught Halibut around 160 to 200lb but would let them go as well.

 

[Foxyboy43]

What a glorious fish and great to see it going back in.
Would love to know the age of it - anyone?

 

[Dazb1967]

What a glorious fish and great to see it going back in.
Would love to know the age of it - anyone?

Prob somewhere around 20yr old at a guess, Like you say good to see it going back, I don't think pike in the UK have a particularly long lifespan. I'm no expert but just from bits I have picked up from other anglers whilst fishing for them

 

[SikaSeeker]

Never kept the big cod, I only like cod around 5lb and the only fish we brought back was Halibut and Catfish we only kept the Halibut that were around 40lb, We regularly caught Halibut around 160 to 200lb but would let them go as well.

Same as, did a lot of winter cod fishing when I lived in Aberdeenshire. The 5lbers were just right.

 

[SikaSeeker]

What a glorious fish and great to see it going back in.
Would love to know the age of it - anyone?

Pike that live in stocked trout waters grow a lot quicker then their cousins that don’t have fat rainbows to pack on the pounds. When they get to that size they are normally near the end. History has shown big trout water pike don’t do well when spawning in spring.

 

[FrenchieBoy]

This was the thread

Any of you Guys go Pike Fishing?

Just out of interest do any of you guys go pi9ke fishing? I took it up last Autumn after Marlene came out of hospital just to get the odd couple of hours now and then out in the open air for some exercise. I only fish at a couple of local reservoirs where it is free fishing but I thoroughly...

www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk

That was me that you mentioned RJD, but the one I caught was nowhere near as big or "chunky as that one! Let's just hope that it was returned carefully and unharmed so that someone else can have the pleasure of catching it again when it is even heavier!
Yes I am a little envious of the new "record fish" but I am still buzzing with the one that I caught and landed, especially as mine was from a small reservoir that is not known for it's big fish. Even so I raise my hat to the captor of the new record pike, it would surely have given him a good fight and got his heart thumping"!

 

[John Gryphon]

and a Mahseer, ever since I picked up Wade & Boote's book Somewhere Down The Crazy River...

Me also but after reading Jim Corbetts "the fish of my dreams"

 

[Bo Diddley]

Me also but after reading Jim Corbetts "the fish of my dreams"

Yes, good book, but a different era, Mahseer were abundant when Corbett was chasing them.
Wade & Boote picked up an old book allegedly about fishing in colonial times and got captivated by stories of huge Mahseer, they sold up their few possessions to fund an adventure, everything done a shoestring and with no idea if any Mahseer still survived, the rivers had been dynamited into oblivion, the only places that still held them were the Holy stretches of the great rivers.....
Somewhere Down the Crazy River is worth a read if you haven't already John.

 

[John Gryphon]

Somewhere Down the Crazy River is worth a read if you haven't already John.

Thank you.

 

[levigsp]

According to the Angling Trust the British record is 48.10lbsView attachment 351124

Really? Have you read what it says on your own attachment

 

[Cyres]

Big fish. Chew Valley have been doing everything to get the UK record for years. Pity it was not tagged as I suspect most v big pike do not react well to being caught and kept out of the water for so long. Might have been a better idea to keep it and case it. Its not as if it will be a one off as there are lots of v big pike in Chew. I doubt it will.be that old. If you plotted a graph of UK pike weights its close to topping out around 50 lb but looking how many pike in the mid 40s are recored there seems to be a plateau which is unusual suggesting they may not be surviving. I think in Llandegffed the v big fish were rarely re caught and one was recorded being caught as a big 20 some years prior to being recaptured. My memory is a bit hazy on this. What always worried me is the excessive time big fish are kept out of the water. Witnessed it on numerous occasions and as I studied fish biology it always concerned me.
D

 

[SikaSeeker]

Big fish. Chew Valley have been doing everything to get the UK record for years. Pity it was not tagged as I suspect most v big pike do not react well to being caught and kept out of the water for so long. Might have been a better idea to keep it and case it. Its not as if it will be a one off as there are lots of v big pike in Chew. I doubt it will.be that old. If you plotted a graph of UK pike weights its close to topping out around 50 lb but looking how many pike in the mid 40s are recored there seems to be a plateau which is unusual suggesting they may not be surviving. I think in Llandegffed the v big fish were rarely re caught and one was recorded being caught as a big 20 some years prior to being recaptured. My memory is a bit hazy on this. What always worried me is the excessive time big fish are kept out of the water. Witnessed it on numerous occasions and as I studied fish biology it always concerned me.
D

The only thing going for it is that pike do a lot better being returned in cold water temperatures.

 

[FrenchieBoy]

Big fish. Chew Valley have been doing everything to get the UK record for years. Pity it was not tagged as I suspect most v big pike do not react well to being caught and kept out of the water for so long. Might have been a better idea to keep it and case it. Its not as if it will be a one off as there are lots of v big pike in Chew. I doubt it will.be that old. If you plotted a graph of UK pike weights its close to topping out around 50 lb but looking how many pike in the mid 40s are recored there seems to be a plateau which is unusual suggesting they may not be surviving. I think in Llandegffed the v big fish were rarely re caught and one was recorded being caught as a big 20 some years prior to being recaptured. My memory is a bit hazy on this. What always worried me is the excessive time big fish are kept out of the water. Witnessed it on numerous occasions and as I studied fish biology it always concerned me.
D

Unfortunately that is not always possible nowadays as a great many waters have a "Catch and Release Only Policy".
The problem comes when someone without enough experience in handling big pike (And I am certainly not saying that is the case with this record pike) gets one and they either handle it wrongly/badly or they keep it out of the water for too long as this can be harmful/dangerous for the fish. I know it's nice to get plenty of photos of a "Prized Catch" (And some of these huge pike that are getting caught are fish that many pike fishermen only dream about, a once in a lifetime fish) but nowadays most pike fishermen are (Quite rightly) putting the welfare of the fish first. Big Pike for all their size and "ferocious looks" are quite delicate when caught and taken out of the water and you need to know how to handle them properly and in the least stressful way and even then you need to know how to help them to recover fully before releasing them back into their water!
Whenever I catch a "reasonable sized pike" that I feel is worth photographing (Which isn't very often) I like to try to unhook it while it is still in the net and in the water (I always use de-barbed/barbless hooks which make unhooking much quicker and easier) and then give it time to recover before taking it out of the water for photographing and even after that I will still give it as long as needed to allow it to recover fully again before watching it safely swim off!

 

[Bo Diddley]

Big fish. Chew Valley have been doing everything to get the UK record for years. Pity it was not tagged as I suspect most v big pike do not react well to being caught and kept out of the water for so long. Might have been a better idea to keep it and case it. Its not as if it will be a one off as there are lots of v big pike in Chew. I doubt it will.be that old. If you plotted a graph of UK pike weights its close to topping out around 50 lb but looking how many pike in the mid 40s are recored there seems to be a plateau which is unusual suggesting they may not be surviving. I think in Llandegffed the v big fish were rarely re caught and one was recorded being caught as a big 20 some years prior to being recaptured. My memory is a bit hazy on this. What always worried me is the excessive time big fish are kept out of the water. Witnessed it on numerous occasions and as I studied fish biology it always concerned me.
D

They take some time to recover when they get big, but with good handling, they seem to recover OK.
I caught one at 43lb 4oz and it took an hour in the recovery sling before I released her, she swam off strongly. I caught the same fish just over a year later on 3rd Jan 2020 @ 43lb 8oz, again she took a long time to recover but swam off fine. I pulled off the pit then as I didn't want to keep putting her through repeated captures, plenty of anglers would have kept chasing her until the end of the season hoping for a record when she was full of spawn.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Pike fishing at Chew is a big money spinner for the owners, the tickets are snapped up within minutes, so they want the pike to survive.

 

[FrenchieBoy]

They take some time to recover when they get big, but with good handling, they seem to recover OK.
I caught one at 43lb 4oz and it took an hour in the recovery sling before I released her, she swam off strongly. I caught the same fish just over a year later on 3rd Jan 2020 @ 43lb 8oz, again she took a long time to recover but swam off fine. I pulled off the pit then as I didn't want to keep putting her through repeated captures, plenty of anglers would have kept chasing her until the end of the season hoping for a record when she was full of spawn.

Your post highlights exactly want I suspected - Just the same as the biggest majority of shooters most serious pike fishermen like to put the welfare and conservation of their quarry first - Without the successful survival of the species we will have no sport left for us!
I raise my hat to you Bo Diddley sir!