Drifting through "The Narrows" at Pitsford mid afternoon on a strong south westerly wind I spotted a body bobbing up and down in the waves with the obligatory attendant large feeding sea gull out of the corner of my eye.

Usually these sighting combinations turn out to be spawning time bream in the 5lb to 8lb class that have not survived spawning for what ever reason, with a Herring Gull feasting on the carcass. Since this years pin fry are now already well developed it was unlikely to be a bream so I thought I would investigate to see what this carcass actually was. Last year when I checked one of these sightings out the combination turned out to be two birds, a dead partridge and large sea gull.

I was more than a bit surprised this time as it turned out to be an exceptionally large rainbow trout. Out of curiosity I decided to net the fish to both weigh and take a photograph of this beast.

I am reasonably sure that this fish had died fairly recently. It's tail was in good condition indicating that it had mended well during it's time in the lake since being stocked into Pitsford. It did not have any abrasions, lacerations or cuts indicating that it was one of those rarer fish that had not suffered any pike or cormorant damage.

It managed to pull my scales around to exactly 12lb which was a lot more than I guestimated it to be and I was more than a little surprised by this. On returning the carcass to the lake it was not long before it's sea gull shadow returned to continue feeding.

I wonder how many more lumps like this that have survived the stocking and maybe even over wintered, that are still swimming around in Pitsfords depths?