I finally managed my first pike of this season yesterday.
I've really struggled with getting up early so camped out Tuesday night by the lake under the umbrella. After coffee yesterday morning I got the rods out and within an hour had the 15lb pike on float fished dead roach.
A while later I had a pick up on ledgered mackeral, which was dropped, a recast and a little later I managed an 11lb pike, as I netted it, the hooks fell out.
I also had 3 more dropped takes on mackeral, which leads me to believe that mackeral has been hammered as a bait.