Unexpectedly, but the trophy was caught and released in the relatively small LVM Tērvete Reservoir, which actually is a small reservoir of river Tērvete, not in the wide and windy LVM Lake Kaņieris.

The Ramons Mārtiņš application of the102 cm long fish from Tērvete delighted us with the beautiful underwater scenes, as well with the fact that the angler was wearing gloves when handling the “mother”. The short, but informative video shows a great team work of two anglers when capturing the moments of catching and releasing the trophy, which now might outmatch its own length in the table of our tournament, when someone else or maybe the same angler will catch and release it.

Ramons writes, “A mother – 1m 2 cm. Tools – AGAT jerk rod, Abu Garcia spinning reel (simplest), but lure – handmade. Photos came out a bit low-quality because of the excitement. The mother respectably fought back – 10 min with the heavy jerk rod, several times swam under the boat and into grasses. Finally she was caught, photographed and released back in the same place.”

The judges of “Release the Mother!” competition adjudge this as the first application for gold.

In August, an application from LVM Lake Kaņieris with a 108 cm long fish was received, but judges justly decided, that, when handling the fish, the Honorary Fisherman’s (HF) recommendations for a careful releasing were not used. Fishermen have to understand that the large pikes are quite strong, but at the same time they are very fragile water animals – the less pike is held outside its natural environment and temperature, the better!

Can anyone catch and release even larger pike with more care? Go to our lakes, because the real pike season is only coming! Good luck!