or smelt dive enticingly towards the bottom., while slightly more weight might be needed in flowing water. Some squaddie’s carry a few favourite lures, particularly rubber shads, but all are confident the wobble will out fish artificial’s.  This isn’t a big fish method. Matches are decided by weights, so the BPS tactic is to try to catch as many pike as possible. What the British Pike Squad is about is quantity not quality.” says Wayne, “Everyone is on the move all the time. When people join the team, we explain they’ve got to fish for the team and keep on the move”. Having said this, there have been a few exceptions to the rule, with Stuart in particular taking some cracking fen 20’s.

It’s not just about the fishing of course. It’s the tremendous camaraderie that has grown up between pike anglers from the two nations over the 13 years, not to mention one or two sessions on the black stuff! “Forty fishermen drank a river of beer”. The Sun reported one year when the two teams literally drank a hotel dry. As well as boosting International relations and the share price of Guinness, the squad has no bar as far as sex is concerned with Suzanne Waller qualifying to represent her country at a sport which literally has a handful of female participants. Louise is also doing her level best to qualify and soon proves worthy. “Woo Hoo” she whoops, hitting a take as a larger fish surges away, “I thought I felt it last cast. I had a gentle knock”. She slugs it out like a prize-fighter as it bow-waves and tail walks in and out of the lilies. I’d let it have it’s head if I’d been using size 8 barb-less doubles, but she grins and barely gives an inch. When the live coloured low double is in the net, hook hanging by just a thread in it’s scissors. I tell her. “You did well to get that one in gal.”

“Nah mate,” she says, as she turns the hooks out and holds the fish up for a picture. “You’ve just got to show ‘em who’s boss.”

The pike squad have found their second wind. I’ve got blisters, back-ache and a two mile walk back to the car. We say our goodbyes, and when I pause a few hundred yards up the bank and look back, they’re already three specks in the distance.

This article was written by Chris Bishop, the Press Officer for The Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain and published in the Autumn 2006 issue 113 of Pikelines.