An old pike fishing story

Everyone likes an old pike fishing story, so here's the tale of my personal best, caught many, many years ago from New Road Pit, Shepperton.

The photo below shows a couple of old Abu Hi-lo lures from the late 1970's.  They have adjustable diving vanes, which makes them very versatile, especially in the floating version. When I was growing up I used these lures all the time, for the pike from my local gravel pit.   They both have a story to tell and the stories are one reason why I am now loathe to use these two old friends.

The dark green lure is a slow sinker and it was reasonably successful, if fished deep and slow.  One winter, I fished it too deep and too slow - the lure snagged and I lost it.  But years later, whilst in the same spot, there was the body of the lure washed up on the shore, missing the hooks, which had long rusted away.  The rest of the lure was fine, except for the fixing point for the middle treble. 

The olive coloured plug caught me my best fish.  One February evening, after school, I landed a pike of 22.5lb, after an epic fight that started in daylight and ended in the dark. I had a shocking experience of unhooking the beast, on my own.  The fish closed the old fashioned gag I had at the time and I hadn’t heard of the modern way of unhooking.  I soon learnt by trial and error and got some deep cuts for my lesson.  Staggering home in shock, my mum almost fainted when I piled through the front door, gory but happy.  She insisted on taking me to the doctors next day for a tetanus boost, in the backside.  The excuse letter for my teacher was priceless: ‘Dear Mr Bennet, I am sorry Alex missed school this morning, he was bitten by a fish’.