When huge pike ruled our rivers

THIS is the time of year when pike spawn. They usually travel considerable distances to do so, moving into very shallow water. The males and females travel separately, as the females are much larger and have cannibalistic tendencies.

Pike have a huge range throughout the northern hemisphere and their size has been well researched and documented, in particular by an Englishman called Fred Buller. Remarkably, the largest specimens seem to have come from Ireland.

The reason is probably that most of the large pike records date from the 19th or early 20th centuries. At this time Ireland had some of the heaviest runs of Atlantic salmon in the world. Before the building of the dam at Ardnacrusha, the Shannon is thought to have been the most prolific Atlantic salmon river in the world. Pike fed on these large and nutritious fish and grew to immense sizes.