Nathan Edgell has begun his pike season in the best possible way, landing this 31lb 10oz fish on his very first trip to a Wessex river.
It leapt 2ft clear of the water as it smashed into his large, soft plastic shad lure, before crashing back and tearing off at breakneck speed.
For Nathan, it’s the culmination of a six-year search for a river ‘thirty’.
“I was lifting the lure out ready to cast again when this enormous fish exploded out the water and smashed it in mid-air,” he told us.
“The spray from the splash actually hit me, and the rod was almost ripped from my hands.”
After a nervy fight involving tail-walking and more blistering runs, Nathan finally had the pike in the net.
“It was only after releasing the fish that the enormity of what had happened hit me,” he added.
