Pike Fishing Story
This story was sent to me about a huge pike caught in Scotland over 40 years ago by John Branch-Evans, then a 16 year old lad. Few of us have ever seen such a pike never mind caught one on 'cheap tackle' when so young.
Here it is in his own words... Thanks very much John.
The story is that I lived in a small crofters cottage on the side of St Michaels Loch situated about 4 miles from Collistone on the route (A975) from Ellon to Cruden Bay in Scotland. The loch was approx half a mile long and about a quarter of a mile wide. Rumor had it that a German plane crashed into it during the war and about three years ago when I checked on the Loch found it had been closed off to fishing due to heavy pollution suspected to have been caused by the contents of this plane.
At the time I lived there, it was not known how deep it was as the bottom could not be reached, the loch itself had a sloping shelf which stretched approximately 20 feet from the edge and then just dropped away, possibly because it was the vent of an old volcano or such like feature.
I lived there from 1961 to 1963, it was Easter of 63 that I caught it when I was 16 and a half. I had been watching it each evening swimming up behind the young ducklings and devouring upwards of ten in an attack by starting with the last one and just working up the line.
I took a trip to Peterhead and in Woolworth's purchased a fishing set which came complete with reel, line, 3 floats, hooks etc., for 7 shillings and six pence or thirty seven and a half pence in decimal.
The cottage was situated about half way along the loch on the right hand side approx 30 feet from the edge and you could sit out some evenings, just before dusk and the surface would go completely still like glass and be able to see everything that moved.
The day I caught the pike, it was sunny and quite still and around 10 in the morning, I used dead bait and had only been fishing for about an hour when it took it. Just after hooking into it, the postman arrived and stayed to watch (you can just see the back of his bike in the picture). When I finally landed it, which seem to take forever as I only had very light tackle designed for beginners fishing for tidlers, the postman took the photo for me using the neighboring farmers camera where we took it to weigh. Using the farm scales which had the sliding bar balance weight which I understand are fairly accurate, it weighed 44 pounds 9 ounces. Although this was witnessed by the farmer and postman, this weight is not confirmed as the scales were general use ones on the farm but having seen the photo, I think you may well agree it would reflect the size of the pike quite accurately.
