“It didn’t seem that big until it neared the boat where it woke up and started taking some serious line”
Belfast angler Frank Donnan underlined the stunning predator potential of Northern Ireland’s stillwaters recently by banking a stunning brace of pike scaling 35lb and 31lb.
Both fish came within a few hours’ fishing, but perhaps even more remarkable was the fact that Frank had caught another, different 35lb fish just a few days prior, making his haul one of the best in pike fishing history. Targeting a private lough an hour-and-a-half’s drive from his home, Frank arrived early in the morning and float-fished mackerel over-depth on a sloping ledge.
He told us “The first fish I hooked didn’t seem that big until it neared the boat where it woke up and started taking some serious line, I was using a 6ft rod, and my friend Desy and I were laughing at the bend in it!”
After landing that fish, the thirty-one-pounder, Frank was understandably over the moon as it was his second ‘thirty’ in the space of a few days, but little was he to know that things would soon get even better! He added “It was only 7:50am when I had the 31, so I cast back out to the spot and started getting small pulls which I thought were eels, so I decided that the next time it happened I’d hit it. After striking I still thought it was an eel, with the fish coming straight to the boat, but that’s when it turned and all hell broke loose! Seeing the fish, I knew it was bigger than the earlier one, but when the needle went round to 35lb, I was gobsmacked. Three thirties in just over a week – I still can’t believe it!”
After landing that fish, the thirty-one-pounder, Frank was understandably over the moon as it was his second ‘thirty’ in the space of a few days, but little was he to know that things would soon get even better! He added “It was only 7:50am when I had the 31, so I cast back out to the spot and started getting small pulls which I thought were eels, so I decided that the next time it happened I’d hit it. After striking I still thought it was an eel, with the fish coming straight to the boat, but that’s when it turned and all hell broke loose! Seeing the fish, I knew it was bigger than the earlier one, but when the needle went round to 35lb, I was gobsmacked. Three thirties in just over a week – I still can’t believe it!”
Well done Frank!