They say that big lures produce big pike, but Marc Wilson proved that small patterns can sometimes tempt them when he landed this 38lb 9oz specimen from a large Irish Lough.
After a 6am start, his day started poorly when he found that the battery of his boat’s engine was dead. Marc managed to find some cables and charge it up, although it wasn’t until 10am that he was at his first spot. Soon after, he spotted a very large fish sat in 14ft of water. After running two of his trusted lures by it without reaction, Marc switched to a small Ryuki Spearhead – a small jerkbait that he usually uses for trout.
Casting out and retrieving with small erratic twitches, Marc saw the fish immediately lift to the lure, giving him a true sense of its enormous size. It followed the lure until it was just a few feet under the surface, at which point Marc paused and just twitched it. The fish grabbed the lure and all hell broke loose, with the pike h giving a powerful fight before he managed to slide the net under it. The fish measured 119cm and is a wild Irish specimen that he’ll remember for the rest of his days.
Well done Marc!