Reeling in a record-breaker

Helping to land a friend’s personal best pike makes for a memorable outing on the Great Ouse

- RICHARD NEGUS

For some, the end of the game shooting season can induce a bout of melancholy so complete that only the poet WH Auden could be more wretched. I am of a more positive persuasion. Therefore, rather than displaying my angst by stopping clocks or cutting off the telephone, I simply went to my shed.

Among the array of hazel rods, mole traps and camouflage nets hangs my fishing tackle. My salve to allay any end-of-season blues was to try my hand at pike fishing. I undertook a stocktake of my current kit. This revealed I own three fly, two saltwater rusty ringed spinning, and one float rod.

To take on toothy aquatic leviathans, I believed I would require some meatier equipment than I currently possess. I planned to fish with the sort of vintage tackle that is found festering away in the sheds of many Shooting Times readers. To achieve this, I placed a pitiful request for help on social media. This resulted in the generous loan of a 10ft Hardy’s fibralite spinning rod and KP Morritt Intrepid reel — both circa 1972 — by Calum McRoberts, the head gillie from the Meikleour fishery on the Tay. Another kind soul, Peter Lowth from Somerset, posted me a bundle of vintage pike plugs. I added to these some eBay purchases — decrepit lures and cork floats — and I was ready.

The best pike fishing is to be had in late winter and there are fewer places more wintry, gnarly or pike-y than the Fens in February. By a bit of luck, my gunstock guru pal, Adam Bragg, is an arch pike fisherman and owns a boat that he moors at the Twentypence marina near Wilburton. Adam readily agreed for me to tag along with him.

River cruiser