Biggest pike of the season

44lb giant!

THE biggest pike of the season has been landed in the shape of this 44lb 12oz specimen.

Captor Brendan Guilar caught the giant predator – which he described as ‘the fish of a lifetime’ – after it devoured his herring deadbait at Ravensthorpe Reservoir in Northamptonshire.

To cover as much water as possible the 65-year-old suspended his hookbait under a drifter float which eventually buried from sight around 70 yards away from his boat.

Speaking exclusively to Angling Times, Brendan described the heart-stopping moment when his float sailed away.

He said: “I’d already taken a couple of small jacks in the morning, but when I wound down into this fish I knew I’d hooked something completely different.

“This pike stayed deep from the off, then it went bananas – it piled continuous pressure on to my rod and made several long, deep runs.

“After around 15 minutes it surfaced and I thought it was a good thirty. It wasn’t until I’d got it in the net 10 minutes later that I realised I’d caught a true monster.”

On the scales, the pike fell just 2lb 1oz short of the current UK record and obliterated his 26lb 8oz personal best for the species.

Brendan added: “Once it went back I sat back in my chair and smoked a whole vape pen – I needed to calm myself down! It was the fish of a lifetime!”

Brendan used a Greys Prowler 2.75 test curve rod coupled with a reel loaded with 40lb Drennan Piker braid.

His terminal tackle consisted of an Eddie Turner drifter float and a Drennan trace armed with size 4 treble hooks.