Some catches have something truly special, like this 122 cm lady pike… in the European competition!
Although I have already caught more than 8,000 pike in my fishing life, and all the 120+ ladies from 120 to 132 cm are on my record, some of them even multiple times. Still, it is not the biggest one, my personal best, that I cherish the most, but the 122 from this story! For this special moment, we go back to June 2022 during the European competition The Predatortour 2022. The pre-fishing was, as always for us, very short because it coincides with the extremely busy opening of the season. On top of that, our pre-fishing was so bad that we were at our wits’ end. What tactic could we play? So Didier and I decided, pretty much out of desperation, to do what we do best: just having fun and powerfishing! That worked surprisingly well and on the first day we managed to land 30 fish! 5 pike, 3 perch and no less than 22 zander were the victims!“What is this man, only six full cards among the 150 participating boats and we are immediately in 4th place after day 1!!!”
On the second day it became a crankbait session on the Merwede, a large river next to the Biesbosch, part of the competition area.
We had a marshal on board because we were in the top 10. He turned out to be very friendly, also named Hans, and a friend for life.
The goal was to upgrade our zander, because that could earn us the most points.
That also worked surprisingly well and we now managed to land 22 fish!
We upgraded all our zanders, one perch and one pike, a 103 cm that gave Didier the fight of his life in the strong current and gave me the scare of my life when it jumped out of the net twice. Luckily the third time was the charm and our first meter pike on the scoreboard was a fact.
Still, we were somewhat disappointed that day, because we didn’t catch any truly big zanders.
And although I knew those could give us the most points, I said:
"For the last day I want big pike!"
Didier is my very best friend, and we understand each other like no one else. "Ok buddy," he said, "let’s go to that spot where we caught so well on the first day."
We weren’t entirely on the same page there. I said: "Nope, too many bites there! Remember the long drift we made afterwards to catch that third perch. We had no bites there, that’s where the big ladies were!!!"
He looked at me very skeptically, but trusted me blindly anyway.
On the third day we really had to race to be the first to reach that spot, but we kept the rival boat just behind us and could start our plan.
I cast big, Didier preferred smaller, and after 45 minutes of bite-less casting, a mega pike turned around my lure from behind a plant!
A 110 came into the boat, and Didier even gave me a kiss on the forehead. Joy all around and with full confidence we continued casting. No time to lose of course in competition, and the last day is always an hour shorter, so go!!!
And again 45 minutes later it happened. A long cast, I started the lure and it had barely swum 1 meter when it was stopped very brutally.
"REALLY BIG ONE!"
I shouted, and I immediately started praying that it wouldn’t come off!
But luck was on our side, and this beautiful lady filled our scoreboard even further, my happiness knew no bounds! The adrenaline rushed through my body.
A 122 cm lady pike in full competition, it doesn’t get any better!!!!
Fun detail: although our three biggest pike scored 335 cm and towered far above the second pike score, we still only finished 13th.
The purest proof that in a European competition you really need to catch 9 record fish!
122 CM PIKE IN EUROPEAN COMPETITION !!!
When suddenly your world changes, and a pike catapults you back into the top 10!
Unforgettable memories.