Hawkeye's new PB

Here's the best pike of the season for me so far - not because I caught it, but because of the amount the guy who did clearly savoured every minute of it.

I lost touch with Hawkeye a while back when he retired from his job with a large conservation organisation. Hawkeye, who now lives not far from me, has re-discovered the joys of fishing since he became a gentleman of leisure.

He remembered I was into pike fishing and e-mailed asking if I'd take him out one day. Being me, I managed to lose his e-mail but he eventually found my phone number so off we went today.

I don't mind taking newcomers to pike fishing out for the odd trip as long as they weigh up the risks, the main one being they won't catch anything with how bad my season's been going.

Hawkeye didn't seem at all fazed by this, so we headed out for what used to be one of my banker take someone new out to catch a few jacks waters, where we blanked. I remembered another banker spot we'd passed on the way. I always used to catch there too, often on a bait twitched along a line of trees.

So when we moved I set Hawkeye up to do this and once he'd got his head around the depth and giving the bait the odd little twitch, the float goes and he hooks into a fat double of around 13lbs. I can't remember the last time I went out with someone who enjoyed catching a pike so much.

I guess it at eight or 10lbs in the water, but it's a fat fish not to mention his PB pike, so we give it a bounce on the scales and it goes 12lbs 13oz or thereabouts. Hawkeye's blown away by its gob-full of teeth. As he lowers it back in the margins and it slopes away, he says: "They're beautiful things aren't they."

Another convert to the cause. I spend the rest of the afternoon telling him horror stories about how hard the fishing is, but not even a downpour can knock him off Cloud Nine, as the day drifts into a soggy dusk.

When I get home, I dig out the picture to e-mail it to him and the smile says it all. Look out for Hawkeye - I have a feeling he's going to get into this pike fishing lark.