Those of us who fish for pike know that they can be a moody species. Some days, no matter what you try, they can be in a sulk, and refuse to look at any bait thrown their way. On other days, they just switch on, and they are the days that live long in the memory.
Newbridge District Pike Anglers had one of those red-letter days on a recent club outing to a lake venue where they were fishing for the ‘Dubs Cup’. It was an early start, as anglers checked in at 7.15am for an 8.00am start, but the weather was perfect with southwesterly winds and no rain. After half an hour, the call went up that Danny McEvoy was into a fish and it looked like a ‘good un’. And when cheers went up around the lake, it became obvious that this was no run-of-the-mill pike. All crammed around the scales to see the weight settle at 27.05lbs, double his previous PB and a cracking fish by any standards.
A fish like that would have most of us on cloud 9 for a year, but Danny hardly had time to register his good fortune, as 5 minutes after re-casting his bait, he was in again. When the fish jumped a couple of times, it became apparent that this pike could actually better his previous one… So, the fish was netted and put in the weigh sling and all crammed around again to see the weight settle on 29.02lbs. Two pike for over 56lbs landed in the space of a few minutes is something most of us can only dream about, so congrats to Danny on catching two fish of a lifetime in short succession.
Danny didn’t have a monopoly on big pike on the day, though as there were a couple of other twenties landed and another four doubles, like I said at the start, a day to live long in the memory, especially for Danny.
