MAMMOTH PIKE by Neville Fickling Neville Fickling is the most successful pike angler ever, so it is not inappropriate that a compendium of all the pike ever caught in the UK and Ireland, on or over the weight of 35 lbs, should be put together by him, following on the splendid groundwork of Fred Buller’s ‘Tthe Doomsday Book of Mammoth Pike’ which took us up to 1979. In the 25 years since then so many fish over that weight have been recorded that N.F. should be congratulated on pulling it all together. This is not just a dry read, a list plus a few pictures. It is actually a good read because he often comments on claims which seem in some way odd to him. This is not always critical comment and he does, often, bend over backwards to find a supporting argument even when some things seem unlikely. The problem is with such exceptional pike, of course, that aspects of their growth, their behaviour, and their capture may be exceptional, so odd features may abound in the reports. Added to that the risk of errors creeping in as reportage runs its course and it is clear that many stories are not really likely to be 100% accurate even when the fish has been caught, and the weight is correct. Let me give you two examples from my own experience. I once reported a big weekend catch by seven anglers to the angling column of a newspaper. Some big fish were included in the report which was brief, correct at submission, and typed. On publication every single fish weight was wrong, and every single name incorrectly spelt (some almost unrecognisably so). Just imagine, if you were an angling historian, chasing up such a story. The second example concerns a very large pike, my biggest, that I caught a couple of years ago. Its throat had three sizeable fish in it, one of which was a pike of 3-4 lbs (ie, 3 to 4lbs). When it was reported in Denis Moule’s fenland pike book that figure had been accidentally altered to  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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