ADTV Specimen Series - 40lb GIANT Pike - The Ultimate UK Pike Water

This latest February trip with Ollie started exactly how you’d want it to. Despite a cold easterly wind and persistent rain, we had three bites in the first 20 minutes. They were only jacks, but you can’t choose which fish picks up your bait. Every bite carries the possibility of something enormous so the key is to get as many as possible.

With 1,200 acres of water in front of us, we used the bait boat to position our deadbaits precisely. Working as a team, we staggered our rods, what we jokingly call “bingo the rods”, keeping the odds even and giving ourselves the best chance that one would do something special. By mid-morning we had six small pike on our first day. 

I fish a 12ft 3lb test curve deadbait rod paired with a big pit reel loaded with 58lb braid. One small tweak I always make is to add a 6ft piece of 40lb fluorocarbon leader below the braid. It helps pin everything down neatly and most importantly, I feel it’s kinder against a pike’s flanks during the fight.

The rig itself is simple and very strong; a running ledger with a 4oz flat lead, a run ring, and a short boom to prevent the wire trace tangling around the lead. Below that, 40lb wire and two size 6 trebles (barbs pinched down apart from those holding the bait). Sardines, smelt and whole herring are all firm favourites.

Day one tailed off after that hectic start. Six jacks and then nothing after 9:30am. But that’s Chew. It has a huge surface area and it can start to look like the North Sea when even a gentle wind starts to build. 

The forecast for day two was better, allowing us to move towards the dam end, an area that’s produced some incredible fish for us in the past. With calmer conditions and birds singing behind us, confidence crept back in.

Ollie was first into action again, three more jacks and a low double. We were gaining confidence and it was starting to look like we had a chance at something much bigger.

My first trip here was back in 2015, fishing from the boat with Jason Davis. I hit the ground running with a 27lb 10oz fish while trolling deadbaits under floats. For years after, I’d catch plenty of doubles, twenties, the odd upper twenty but that magical 30-pounder eluded me. I had very near misses at 29lb and 29lb 14oz. Brilliant fish anywhere, but at Chew they somehow felt like stepping stones. Then came February 2024.

On the first afternoon of a four-day trip, a positive clip-out on a whole herring changed everything. The fight felt different immediately, no frantic head shakes, just that heavy, deliberate mass kiting across the lake bed. When Ollie read the scales at 41lb 10oz, I genuinely thought he was pulling my leg.

This years trip didn’t deliver another giant in the end. We finished with twelve pike, all jacks apart from Ollie’s low double. But that’s part of the beauty of Chew, and the reality of pike fishing. Every bite matters. Every take could be the fish of a lifetime, but the reservoir does not give them up easily.

The venue is lovingly managed by Bristol Water, with strict checks on baits and rigs and limited pike permits each season. It’s open access so anyone can apply and that level playing field definitely adds to its charm. It’s demanding, it can be uncomfortable, and it doesn’t owe anyone anything. But it keeps producing the biggest pike in the UK.

I keep coming back because Chew demands patience and rewards preparation. It’s not easy fishing, and that’s part of the appeal. You really have to think about your location, your bait, your presentation, everything matters.

Some trips are red-letter days, others are steady at best. But because of the incredible pike there, you always feel like you’re in with a chance of catching something incredible. And when you fish somewhere with this kind of potential, it’s hard not to get drawn back year after year.