Over the years, my Dad and I have had some fantastic fishing on Grafham Water, and there have been a couple of occasions where we’ve had a monster pike follow one of our flies to the boat, only to, frustratingly, turn away and leave us in awe of what we’d just seen. The first of those was in 2007, when, shortly after Dad landed a new personal best pike of 26lb 3oz, he had an absolute crocodile follow his fly to the boat, that dwarfed the fish he’d just released, and was the biggest pike we’d ever seen at the time. A few years later, a fish of a similar size followed his fly to the boat, but after 30 seconds or so of trying to decide whether Dad’s fly was real or not, it chose the latter option and swam off. The chance of tempting a seemingly mythical fish, like those two pike, are one of the reasons we both love fishing on the midlands reservoirs and keep returning, never knowing what the next bite could be from!
Fly casting had become increasingly painful for Dad though. Since a popping and jigging trip to Sri Lanka, he’d developed tennis elbow in his right arm. He’d tried all kinds of exercises and painkillers to try and help fix the problem, but after nearly eight months of no improvement, he checked in to the doctors, who recommended he should have a cortisone injection.
The day before his scheduled injection, we decided to fish a half day at Grafham. Dad said initially that he probably wouldn’t fish and just come along to watch, but knowing him, I knew that would turn in to at least a few casts! We left the harbour at around midday and headed to an area we’d caught six pike from on our last trip ten days earlier. I started fishing a fly pattern my Dad came up with in 2005, that I nicknamed the ‘Zander Lander’. He tied it with zander in mind, and it has been so successful for us, but it also works just as well for pike and perch. He keeps it very secret even now, and in that time, other than myself I reckon only a handful of people have ever seen it!
Within the first hour of fishing, Dad couldn’t resist setting up a rod, and also started with a ‘Zander Lander’, but in a different colour to mine. In just a few casts, he landed a pike just under 10lb. Shortly after releasing that fish, I saw a pike roll about 80 yards away, and it looked like a good fish, certainly over 20lb, as it was very broad across the back. I mentioned what I’d just seen to Dad, and we both thought that we should relocate, so we could cast to the area where this big fish had rolled. It turned out to be a good idea!
On just his second cast after moving the boat, Dad struck into a fish. I actually had my doubts whether it was a fish at first, as he couldn’t seem to shift it, but that all changed after a couple of heavy head shakes. Big bream can sometimes fight like this if you foul hook them, using their flat profile to apply lots of pressure, but you kind of know if it’s been foul hooked right from the start. This definitely wasn’t a bream though…….. it was a proper bite, plus I couldn’t see any other indication of fish around the boat on the sonar at the time. Whatever it was seemed to be hugging the bottom like a big grouper, Dad’s 10wt looked like it was going to explode!
We both kept nervously quiet throughout the fight, I didn’t want to say anything and put Dad off, and I think we both knew this could be something a bit special. Unfortunately though, it had found the anchor rope and the line started to grate over it, but thankfully he managed to steer it away, and then the fish went on two unstoppable runs, and circled the boat.
By applying short pumps with the rod and gaining line inch by inch, Dad slowly started to bring it up closer to the surface. Eventually, the fish emerged, and it was a pike of enormous proportions. Dad steered it towards the net, and I scooped it up, head first!
I can’t write down exactly what he said after I netted that fish because I’ve never heard him use so much colourful language all in one go, and this actually carried on for another half hour or so after we released the fish. Over many years of fishing Grafham, we had probably had two pike over 35lb follow our flies to the boat. This fish was in that league, if not bigger.
Still in shock, Dad chinned it with his dodgy arm and I took a few photos while he winced trying to hold such a beast. After a quick breather in the net, we laid it on the measuring mat. It was at that point we realised how huge it was – at 124cm it was the longest pike we’d ever seen, and on the scales it weighed 37lb 2oz. Whilst Dad held the fish in the water by the root of the tail, I measured its girth with a piece of 20lb line, and it was 59cm when I laid the line out on our measuring mat. After a couple more minutes of letting it regain its energy and admiring it in the water, it started kicking until eventually, it swam off in to the depths.
As we sat down trying to comprehend what had just happened, Dad showed me the fly that he’d caught the fish on, not realising at the time he’d clipped on a smaller version of his Zander Lander fly, which was tied on a size 2 hook! He’s caught some fantastic fish from Grafham over the years, but this one topped them all!
After a celebratory bottle of Lucozade each, we started fishing again, and two casts later Dad hooked in to another fish! It was another pike, weighing 15lb 12oz, which, in comparison to the 37lb’er, looked like a jack pike!
Dad hadn’t mentioned his elbow all afternoon, and when I asked him if he was in pain, I think he’d totally forgotten about it because his adrenaline had kicked in and he carried on fishing, trying to make the most of the afternoon that neither of us would be forgetting for a while! He started to become a little cocky and told me that he wanted to now catch a 3lb+ perch and a 10lb+ zander before we had to head back in!
Although he didn’t manage his ambitious target, he came very close and ended up having a phenomenal afternoons fishing, landing another three pike (all good doubles), two zander to around 8lb, and to cap the day off right at the last minute, he managed to achieve what we like to call a ‘Grafham Grand Slam’. This consists of landing a pike, perch and zander in the same day, and on his very last cast, he boated a stripey of 2lb 14oz (42cm). When I wasn’t taking pictures, I also managed a 17lb 7oz pike, a jack and a couple of nice zander too!
The next day, Dad had his cortisone injection. At least he went to the doctors knowing he’d finally landed one of Grafham’s monster pike! I’m not sure if it helped the pain though…
