Wye - Steve's Day

A cracking start, new PB, 17lb 12oz

Piking today with an old school mate of mine, we used to fish together all the time but now it's about once a year.

Steve is a very good angler with some great fish to his name, but he really hasn't been lucky when it comes to pike. He catches lots of them but the bigger fish always seem to go for my bait... Until today...

We fished pretty close together and both float-fished tiny bleak live bait. I'll let the photos do the talking...

Second double, 14lb 8oz

Deformed mouth, 5lb 8oz

Let's add a twenty! 20lb 14oz

Steve's first twenty, absolutely fantastic! He has spent a lot of years chasing this one and I'm glad I was there for net and photograph duties. Well done Steve!

Still not finished... 17lb 14oz

Double number five! 16lb 2oz

A total of six fish, including 5 doubles and a twenty for a combined weight of 92lb 10oz! I added up the weight just as the light was fading - which meant we stayed on long into dark with Steve trying to catch an eight-plus to get over 100lb in a day. It didn't happen, but I don't think he's too bothered!

And for those people who insist you can only catch big pike on big bait, I took a photo of one of the bleak used.

Paulos and Roger fished a couple of pegs downstream from us (just the morning). One run on ledgered sprat and a cracking 17lb 0oz pike to Paulos, the first of many - I hope - during his visit here.

And me - it just wasn't my day. One run late on and a recapture of the 5lb 8oz pike Steve had caught earlier. If I had to recapture one I'd have preferred it to be the twenty!