Huge Pike Ice Fishing Pics!

[Glockwinger]

Well, my good buddy Chris and I ventured out in the bitter cold and wind for some early season ice fishing today (Sunday, November 30). We went to a small lake near Mille Lacs and got set up about 8am on about 9 inches of ice. The crappie bite was pretty good for awhile then just stopped. About a half hour later, a huge red mark appeared on the Vexilar. We thought it was a school of fish, so we started twitching our crappie jigs. I had on a glow teardrop tipped with a euro-larve. Then WHAM! My pole bent over and the line began to sing! I didn't know what I had hooked onto. For the next 10 minutes I fought an unknown adversary in the depths below. Then I got this monster up to the ice and HOLY COW. BIG NORTHERN! It took four more runs after that. Multiple times I got it up to the hole but couldn't turn the head up the hole. Finally I got just the nose inside the 8" hole and went in after it. Pulled out this beautiful 38" Northern. My personal best for both ice fishing and open water. Previous best was 36" in the BWCA. Thanks to Chris for taking the pics. Awesome memory!

Here is the still pic of the catch:

Another outside the shack: