The second of the two pike trials on Farmoor I and II trout reservoirs turned up trumps for specimen hunter Paul Garner, who landed a cracking female of 31.12.0.

The massive fish fell to a Rapala lure fished from a boat on the west bank of Farmoor II and was released safely back into Farmoor I.

After the previous week’s disappointment, when only a ‘jack’ was taken, sport was better, with reports of several more takes during the day, while one lure was bitten clean through!

We will have to wait and see if the piking experiment continues at Farmoor, but once again, it has proved really hard work.

l Stewart Moss, who works for Drennan Inter-national and is no stranger to these pages, had a session on the Thames around Oxford and caught one of its large chub weighing 6.10.0.

He used a CC Moore meteor 14mm boilie and also caught another chub of 4.7.0 during the session, having baited up several swims and fished each one in turn.