Two cracking 20lb+ pike for Florian Peter plus 'Catch of the Week'

Florian Peter from online tackle shop Fishing Tackle Ireland takes the day out from a busy schedule to go pike fishing and hits on some fine monsters !.  He reports:
This week I finally managed to get a full days fishing arranged. We have been busy in the shop Fishing Tackle Ireland for the last few weeks working on updating the website but as we are nearly finished a days fishing was badly needed. At this time of year my thoughts turn back to Pike fishing and day afloat sounded appealing.
My good friend Darren called round to the house round 7 in the morning and off we set. The nights are getting longer and it was still dark but by the time we got to the slip way 40 minutes later the sun was starting to show a face. For once the forecast was right and for once it was going to be a nice bright day. A quick launch of the boat and we were fishing. My plan was to fish hard on the lures and to do a small bit of deadbaiting.
4 or 5 casts into the session and I had a small jack on a 6 inch Spro BBZ. Despite fishing hard on the lures for the next hour and a half all was quiet. Darren then hit a nice spirited jack about 5Lb on a big S. The next hour produced just a few follows but no fish so we decided to pull in to one of the Islands for a bite to eat. As there was a nice drop-off on the margain we decided to flick out a deadbait so out went a couple of nice Trout Deadbaits.

Tucking into a sandwich, I noticed an oil slick appear beside my Float, seconds later the float slid away. A quick strike and the rod hooped over. This was no jack. The fish tore off into open water and after a strong battle she was safely landed. A nice Chunky fish that went just over 22Lb.
After that we gave it another hour on the Deadbaits before going back to the lures. This produced a couple more fish each over the next hour, with Darrens fish coming to his Big S and mine to a Savage Gear Line Thru Trout. I’ll definately be using these a bit more this year.

We decided to fish another marginal shelf where the water depth went from 6 foot to just over 20 foot. So out went the anchor and a couple of Trout deadbaits. I kept casting away and produced a fish on a Rozemeijer Tybrid. As I was releasing that fish about 8Lb I saw the float bob and then disappear. That was the start of a run of fish on the deadbaits, about 5 in a row with the biggest 10Lb. When the float went next I struck into a much better fish. This one stripped line the off the reel. After a spirited battle Darren slid the Net under a nice long lean fish. The scales recorded a weight of 20Lb 5 oz and i was over the moon. 2 fish over 20 in the same day.
It was quiet for a while after that with just a few hits on Lures. We upped anchor and moved along the shelf to a new spot. Within seconds of casting out the float disappeared again and I was again into a good fish. This one managed to get around the anchor rope but by remaining calm and having a good strong 50Lb braid on we managed to get the fish safely aboard. At 17Lb 8oz it was the last fish of the day. We fished on for another hour before calling it a day and heading home.

DISCLAIMER NOTE: Inland Fisheries Ireland do not support any brand over another.