8:36am Wednesday 28th May 2003
By Gazette News Desk
A GIANT pike came to a slippery end as it found itself washed up on Windermere.
The 29.5lb predator gave Brockhole's maintenance manager Don Hunt a "big surprise" as he found the fish languishing on the lake shore.
At 42 inches long, the freshwater frightener was deemed "a very big catch any fisherman would be proud of" by Bob Carlson, the owner of Carlson's Fishing Tackle, Kendal.
Mr Carlson, who said only a couple of pike that size were caught on the lake each year, added that the fish probably met its end through the stress of spawning or old age.
The same size as a young child, the pike known as the freshwater shark because of its razor-sharp teeth has been taken to the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology in Windermere where scientists are investigating its cause of death.
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