One world, one pike

In recent years, a photo of a mega-sized pike circulated wildly by email and on Internet forums, raising the eyebrows of North American anglers. The original story accompanying the photo told of a potential world record caught from the Winnipeg River in Manitoba. Others heard that the mystery fish came from Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods, Lake Erie, the Detroit River, or somewhere in Montana.
• The facts of the story were eventually explained in Pikelines, the publication of the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain. The fish was actually caught in a large lake in Holland by Ewout Blom. According to Blom, the 42.9 pounder fell to a perch-pattern Super Shad Rap.
• Specimens like Blom’s strike a fascination with anglers about the enormous size potential of pike swimming today, with Europe being the leader in producing fish of these proportions. Giant pike also are taken from Russian waters, but we hear little about those fisheries. Germany is home to the world-record 55-pound 1-ounce pike caught in 1986. Although catches in the 40-pound range are infrequent but possible across Europe, 30-poundclass fish are commonly reported. The North American record has stood since 1940, a 46-pound 2-ounce fish taken from Sacandaga Lake in New York—an exceptional fish indeed, as pike in North America typically top out in the 20s, with few breaching the 30-pound mark.