After much deliberation I went fishing this morning, the river looked in good condition. After bait droppering in half a dozen droppers of maggots I let the swim rest for 45 minutes before casting out, pretty soon the rod hooped round and I was into the first barbel of the day. The fish felt heavy and slowly powered off downstream ,after a couple of minutes I felt a jolt on the line and then the fish felt lighter. It soon surfaced and I was shocked to see a barbel of about 4lb, across it's flank were fresh cut marks caused by a pike. I reckon a pike had grabbed the fish before I had a chance to pick the rod up and for the early part of the fight I was playing the pike as well. 
 The fish swam off strongly enough but the commotion killed the swim until last knockings when I added another barbel just over 9lb.