unexpected fish whilst piking

As it says what's the most unexpected fish you've caught whist pike fishing, my son had an 18lb mirror carp yesterday on live bait.

Only unexpected fish I have had is a minnow on a 190mm lure, foul hooked obviously but saved a blank lol

Three years ago, I foul hooked a skimmer with a lure, next cast I landed a 1lb 4oz roach hooked just under dorsal find, only two fish I caught that day.
Have heard of a carp being caught on a lampry dead bait on a local lake.

Around twenty years ago I had a Bream of around 4 lbs, fairly hooked in the lower jaw, on a small silver spoon when trying for Perch on the River Delph and it appears that isn't too uncommon.

Some years earlier (mid 1960's actually) I had read an article in the now long defunct magazine "Fishing" where a writer described watching small Bream snatching at lures, I still have the magazine in my collection and when I get a minute I'll hunt it out and try to post on here. I had read the article with some scepticism until that morning on the Delph.

A little more recently, about 12 years ago I was sharing a boat on Grafham with an old fishing pal, it was early autumn and we were fishing big lures on sinking lines whilst anchored around 300 yards off the dam hoping for a good Brown or two. In late morning Jim hooked an obviously big fish, which kept very deep for a long time and we were somewhat surprised when it finally surfaced and was netted. A Bream of around 7lbs neatly hooked in the back of the throat.

Old-CodJA wrote:Around twenty years ago I had a Bream of around 4 lbs, fairly hooked in the lower jaw, on a small silver spoon when trying for Perch on the River Delph and it appears that isn't too uncommon.

Some years earlier (mid 1960's actually) I had read an article in the now long defunct magazine "Fishing" where a writer described watching small Bream snatching at lures, I still have the magazine in my collection and when I get a minute I'll hunt it out and try to post on here. I had read the article with some scepticism until that morning on the Delph.

A little more recently, about 12 years ago I was sharing a boat on Grafham with an old fishing pal, it was early autumn and we were fishing big lures on sinking lines whilst anchored around 300 yards off the dam hoping for a good Brown or two. In late morning Jim hooked an obviously big fish, which kept very deep for a long time and we were somewhat surprised when it finally surfaced and was netted. A Bream of around 7lbs neatly hooked in the back of the throat.

around a decade ago I also took a good breem around 4 or 5 lb on pike plug in a local sand quarry no one believes me but it happened

This is the article, as you can see, written by Stuart Seton and published in 'Fishing' in June 1966.



Pity this copy is a little 'dog-eared', but you can read it clearly enough.

good read...strange old world chaps

I caught a 5lb Chub on a Shakespeare Big S once whist fishing for Pike down one of my local lakes.

I have also caught a pretty large Dace on a spinner whilst fishing for pike in a river.

johnnym wrote:As it says what's the most unexpected fish you've caught whist pike fishing, my son had an 18lb mirror carp yesterday on live bait.

I think this post on the thread does seem to be pretty rare, though with fish oils being so popular in bait mixes, maybe we shouldn't be so surprised by the fact that so many species seem to be predatory at times.

symonh2000 wrote:I caught a 5lb Chub on a Shakespeare Big S once whist fishing for Pike down one of my local lakes.

I have also caught a pretty large Dace on a spinner whilst fishing for pike in a river.

Dace I haven't heard of on lures before, but there are quite a lot of articles that mention spinning for big old Chub written over the years.

This one (August 1969) tells how David Marlborough describes actually set about targeting average sized Chub with spinners on the Great Ouse.

In all the years pike fishing i can honestly say i havent caught anything unextspected other then pike/ perch/ eels

but i do use quite large baits i have fished loads of carp waters stuffed with these greedy fish but never had a carp on a deadbait or a lure

i can remember fishing a trout water years ago and catching an large eel on a fly/ zonker type it came out of the weed so fast and took it at speed just under the surface so not a scavenger as people believe they will activly chase fry and catch them too

I have had quite a few chub over the years on lures and sprats whilst fishing for pike but i'm not surprised as chub are a predatory fish

I have had a few of these...........I once was after cats and was fishing squid hair rigged, the trailing tentacles were definitely 5 or 6 inch long . 1 o'clock in the morning I had a steady slow run , I ran out of the bivvy, struck and missed (or so I thought) as I swung the bait back to my hand, in came a 2 ounce skimmer firmly hooked in the mouth..... On the same lake I decided to pre- bait an overhanging tree swim with fish heads from the fish monger mixed with ground bait, squid and cod liver oil, on top of this I fished a double single hook trace with 2 strips of lamprey, I remember taking the bail arm off the reel and walking the bait round the lake and carefully underarming the lamprey on top of the pre-bait and telling my mates that I had just guaranteed myself either one of the big cats or any pike that may have been present. I was that confident I knelt by the rods straight away, after an hour or so, I had a screamer, after one hell of a fight (and me thinking I had a real monster) I finally banked a low double common carp. My mates thought I was mental when I was absolutely gutted.  

Other times include on the Ouse paternostered live 4 ounce roach, screaming run and after an epic fight I netted a 4pound 10 eel and on the Trent a lovely 6 pound 10 Chub on the spinner, I know these last 2 are predatory fish but they were still very unexpected and a thrill to catch. Craig,

I was spinning a couple of years ago and reeled in a roach fry of around an inch and a half.

Hooked it fair and square......................in the tail!  

That self same roach went on to catch me a beautiful coloured perch of around 2lb.

one water near me is hard work trying to catch perch on fish baits as the carp love livebaits on there
different water i took this on an ultralight spinnerbait hooked fair and square in the chops


plus bream on sardines and all the usual

A barbel just over 9lb from the Trent on Lamprey from a private stretch on the tidal lol.

I spent a bit of time lure fishing down the local river today.

I caught a nice conditioned 2lb Brown Trout.

It wasn't totally unexpected though as I knew there were some in there, but I certainly wasn't after catching one.

I had a mink about ten years ago on a dead bait. Thankfully it dropped the bait when i got ot to the bank.