{"id":859,"date":"2023-02-25T02:10:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T02:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=859"},"modified":"2023-02-25T02:10:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T02:10:24","slug":"giant-record-sized-pike-caught-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=859","title":{"rendered":"Giant, Record-Sized Pike Caught in England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The first time Nick Gahagan fished Chew Valley Lake in Somerset, England, he caught a northern pike that set a new waterbody record and nearly broke the British record. This was last Thursday, Feb. 16. The 43-year-old stone mason and father of four usually fishes the River Avon, but he was looking for a change of scenery that day. So, he brought his gear to the 1,200-acre lake west of London, where he quickly found out that he\u2019d made the right call. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a huge bite, and I knew straight away it was a big pike,\u201d Gahagan told <a href=\"https:\/\/ftw.usatoday.com\/2023\/02\/anglers-enormous-pike-is-the-catch-of-several-lifetimes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">USA Today<\/a>. \u201cI picked up my rod and it almost bent in half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/fishing\/fly-fishing-for-pike\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Let\u2019s Get Real About Catching Pike on the Fly<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The heavy fish made a blistering first run. Armed with an Ugly Stik rod and 40-pound braid, Gahagan did the best he could to keep pressure on the pike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was the hardest fighting fish I\u2019ve ever encountered, so strong that my [rod] was absolutely bent double,\u201d Gahagan said. \u201cI really did think she was gonna spool me on her first run as she went off like an absolute train. The fight went on for a good while before she rolled to the surface and succumbed to the net.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmackereloil%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0UTiZTnJzo7CKNVmjkW1LbKRpuWdzkcWKgdkYXxNtAQ1WRHy7c8mYEaczoibfigGrl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"545\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Gahagan was using a dead sardine as bait, according to a Facebook post by the UK-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mackereloil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Holy Mackerel Fish Oil Co.<\/a> This wasn\u2019t your typical canned sardine, though, as he\u2019d injected and sprayed it with the strong-smelling fish attractant. Gahagan also chummed along the shoreline that morning with chopped fish that he\u2019d soaked in the stuff for a full two weeks. He figured the chum would bring trout into the area, which would then draw in the larger predatory fish.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-giant-by-north-american-standards\">A Giant by North American Standards<\/h2>\n<p>Gahagan weighed the 44-pound, 7-ounce fish in front of several witnesses. After snapping a few grip-and-grins with the massive pike, he released it into the lake. His catch will go down as a new lake record, and it\u2019s only two pounds shy of the British record\u2014a 46-pound, 7-ounce fish caught 31 years ago.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-default\" data-dimension=\"portrait\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gahagan\u2019s pike weighed 44 pounds, 7 ounces. <i>via Facebook<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s also within range of the IGFA all-tackle world record for the species. That 50-plus-pound pike was pulled from Germany\u2019s Lake Grefeern by angler Lothar Lews in 1986.<\/p>\n<p>Pike this big are almost unheard of in North America, where fish over 30 pounds are a rarity. Most U.S. anglers think of Canada and Alaska as being home to the world\u2019s biggest pike, but most of the real giants over the years have come from European waters. Looking at the <a href=\"https:\/\/igfa.org\/igfa-world-records-search\/?search_type=CommonNameSummary&amp;search_term_1=Pike%2C+northern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IGFA record book<\/a>, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland have all given up 40-pound pike. A 46-pound Northern was reportedly pulled from New York\u2019s Great Sacandaga Lake back in 1946, but the biggest pike recorded in North America since then is a 34-pound, 8-ounce fish that was caught in Alaska .<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v3.2\" id=\"facebook-js-js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/fishing\/giant-pike-caught-england\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first time Nick Gahagan fished Chew Valley Lake in Somerset, England, he caught a northern pike that set a new waterbody record and nearly broke the British record. This was last Thursday, Feb. 16. The 43-year-old stone mason and father of four usually fishes the River Avon, but he was looking for a change [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gun-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}