Hot August Giant Pike - slow start ended as best of their lives.

[kgeary]

Had an interesting time the week of August 5-12 2006

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I was fishing with five friends from Chicago. Fortunately I’ve fished with two of them for a number of years although this was the first time any of them had fished this lake. I say fortunate because we didn’t catch any big pike for the first 3 days.

The weather didn’t help – temps dropped 40 degrees overnight. Temps were in the mid 90s for two weeks and it had been hot all thru July. As a result the water level had dropped almost 2 feet. That combination and perhaps a few other factors resulted in the majority of the Perch moving out of the cabbage beds and forming large schools suspended at about 15-20 feet over the mid lake. When they intersected mid lake humps and points it was great but it was hit a miss.

Throw in a 30 mph NW wind and day one made for some interesting fishing.

I figured we had a chance the first day but it would get very tough for a few days after that. Of course the guys were intent on slinging hardware. I did my best to encourage jigging, and dead bait presentations. Actually Eddy was in my boat the first day and

On his first cast hooked into really heavy fish. After a 20 second battle and it was over with the fish winning decisively. There

were half a dozen near misses on some big pike but by late afternoon the big girls were packing it in. We did a bit of trolling

And Dan picked up a nice 27-inch walleye. His largest by far.

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Day two

Working the drop off points, mid lake humps etc. Nothing but follows and near misses. Did manage a few 30 –36. Switched to jigs and spinner rigs figured might as well enjoy something tugging on the end of our lines. Caught a bunch of walleye.

Day three “GREATEST DAY FISHING IN MY LIFE”

Had Dan in my boat he hadn’t fished with me before. Dan who is a teacher told me he was happy to just catch a few fish. We used simple spinner rigs back trolling over a mid lake hump. After the first 50 fish he was laughing like a kid. “Greatest day of fishing in my life”

Then we switched spots and the fishing got GOOD. I heard Dan telling Ed that evening “we probably caught 200 fish today”.

Day four “WALLEYE UP THE WAZOO”

Half a mile from camp and 15 minutes into the day things were looking good.

Dan’s son Ryan had a 40 incher hit the old reliable Johnson Silver Minnow. This would be his last day of the trip so I was hoping that he would get one. He had to leave early to get back in time to fulfill his army obligations. He was happy; this was the biggest pike of his life

By mid morning we were trolling spinner rigs across a large mid lake hump topping out at 10 feet. Most of the walleye were in 16-20 but some of the bigger 23-25 inchers were up in 12 feet, that encouraged me. A northeast wind made back trolling the drop on the east edge most productive. We caught the bejeezas out of them for a few hours. “There’s walleye up the wazoo in here,” one of the guys said.

I had a walleye hit and immediately it “went heavy”. A big pike had grabbed my walleye. I asked the guys if they wanted me to take the time to land this one. It was a unanimous “sure”. I didn’t know how big it was so I forced it up early. A nice 40 incher came up beside the boat. Normally a pike won’t swallow it when she is within eyesight of the boat and having someone pulling hard on the walleye. We watched this feisty girl turn that walleye headfirst and swallow it in 3 gulps within about 20 seconds. The guys were amazed by it.

Ed and Eddy just kept plugging away all day without pause. I was amazed at how good humored and optimistic they remained.

Day Five

Dead calm and hot.

I don’t need to tell you how that day went.

We had an awesome shore lunch.

Ed and Eddy didn’t slow down a bit.

Day six.

I was starting to feel bad the trip was beginning to look like a flop.

We were catching 100 to 200 fish a day but only had 2 over 40.

Ed told me not to worry “you’re doing your best. Cripes I know you want us to catch fish. All it takes is one 48 to make the trip.”

We went to the northern tip of a large bar on the east side of an island with a south wind pushing down the length of the bar. I told them we have to do the dead bait thing. Ed and Eddy didn’t appear interested. We needed lunch so they grabbed their walleye rigs. I set it out a 10-inch sucker on a quick strike rig. Dragging it about 2 feet off bottom with the thumb bar released and the clicker on. I concentrated on an area of the bar that rose from 12 to 8 feet before dropping north into 18 feet. This area seemed to hold more small walleye. We proceeded to catch lots of small walleye. Ed commented that this was the longest he had ever fished for walleye. The second we caught enough for lunch Ed was casting again.

Along the way I had half a dozen 27-32 inch pike take the sucker.

Ed and Eddy didn’t show much interest. I set out the rig again

Click, click, click. I could see the classic slow and heavy thumps of a big pike crunching the sucker. The fish moved slow but steady in a straight line away from the boat about 20 yards. “We’ll need a bigger boat”

I didn’t touch the rod, said that was a big one and suggested not to set the hook too vigorously. Ed graciously offered his son Eddy first crack at it. Ed later admitted that he didn’t believe it was a big one especially that big. Eddy set the hook kind of casually I’m sure not expecting much weight. He looked puzzled at first then said “Holy ----“ The fish moved slowly at first then with a bit more vigor. For some reason without much effort it came to the surface right by the boat. “That ones over 45” I said not wanting to over estimate it’s size. “Oh my god” said Ed realizing that he could probably have broken his own 48 inch record if he had picked up that rod. Eddy immediately said, “dad let Kevin net it” He was referring to another painful incident from 4 years ago. I’ll have to let them tell you that story. “Net it??” I said “I haven’t had a net in my boat for 34 years”.

She put up what I can only describe as a moderate fight. 4 or 5 decent runs and she was by the boat. She was barely hooked in the corner of the mouth but I could see it was catching part of the bone- shouldn’t be a problem. Still I’m always a bit nervous when I’m hand landing the fish of a lifetime for one of my guests. Plus I’ve been hearing Eddy get razzed for the past four years. And of course there was that camera incident. At any rate a couple seconds later Eddy was holding the fish of his dreams.

We snapped some quick pics and back in the water she went. She hadn’t touched the bottom of the boat or had a net remove the slime off her body and she is definitely still swimming for another to enjoy. Although I have a theory about really big pike getting caught more than once – but that is another subject.

“This is the best day of my life,” said Eddy. I’ve heard a lot of good remarks over the years but Ed came up with one of the best.

“I’m shaking, I feel like I’m 16 years old again”.

It was getting near time to prepare shore lunch and I was really wishing that we brought sandwiches that day. You can never be sure but I felt confident that wasn’t the only big pike on the prowl right then. Many days’ big fish will get active for only short periods of time and this was the guys last day.

I didn’t want them to go hungry especially if I was wrong. Many times I’ll have guests drop me off then go fishing for 45 minutes while I fillet and cook the fish, fries, onion rings etc. Today I had everyone help and in less than an hour 5 well fed anglers were back at it.

However I didn’t return to the same spot, not even a similar spot. I went directly to a cabbage bed on a 5-foot shelf that came sharply out of 24 feet of water. The wind had been blowing in there all morning. I knew Ed and Eddy would be happy throwing some big stuff- out came the Suicks. “Try the old Johnson Silver Minnow”. Neither of them dove for the box but Ed put one on. The third cast and the entire body of a 48-inch plus pike cleared the water about 25 feet from the boat. It had its mouth closed and from the motion of Ed’s rod she had that Silver Minnow in her mouth. As the fish turned Ed involuntarily yelled, “Did you see that” and snugged up on,____ nothing. It took a few seconds before we realized what had happened. The fish had the line up past the leader and cut it as she turned. “That would have made some nice video,” I said thinking back to my old TV show days. “Book ends” said Ed “ Bigger I said” not wanting to rub salt just stating a fact. “I got___” said Eddy with a strange look of shock and terror on his face. “Oh my god it’s huge” “Set the hook” I said about a tenth of a second too late. Eddy swears it was much bigger than 48 and it hadn’t been long since he had something to compare it to. I’m not sure if it was the same fish Ed lost seconds earlier but I didn’t see an extra spoon in her mouth. I’ve boated 3 or 4000 big pike and have rarely seen a truly large pike grab a second lure especially if she still had a previous lure in her mouth.

At any rate that exchange had all of us buzzing for about 20 minutes.“Wasn’t that beautiful, did you see it?” “ Yeah I saw it” “good thing you did or I wouldn’t have believed it” “wouldn’t that have been something two biggest pike in 25 years both in one day?” “Probably 3 biggest pike” “ I told you one day could make the whole trip” “Mines made” “mine too”. “It’s been fun” “ it’s only 2 pm”

Ed and Eddy worked that weed edge for the next hour with not a swirl.We had missed the best of it. Ed was working the quick strike rig now. He set it up while I continued to slide slowly back and forth across the face while Eddy alternated between Suicks, spinners, spoons etc

It didn’t take long before a nice fat 36-inch darling frolicked for our viewing enjoyment. Soon after that another one picked up the bait. Ed had the hang of this now and set the hook. “Whoa” is all he said. After a terrific fight a beautiful thick fat 43-inch healthy female specimen of the species lay next to the boat. After several photos she was off again. Hand shakes all around.

I have a feeling Ed and Eddy will be showing a lot more interest in Dead bait fishing in the future. Wait until I take them sight fishing.

Dead baiting isn’t my favorite method of fishing but every technique has its time and place. In my opinion anglers need to use all their arsenal of information garnered from time on the water. Tennessee Guy will verify that each situation calls for a different approach.

Remember the first rule of fishing “Go where the fish are”

[ozzie]

Wow!!!!! Did you get a measurment on the Huge Pike or pics and back in the water.....What do you estimate it weighed....Thanks for sharing...Awesome!!!!

[FISHINGFARMER]

kgeary:

Thanks so much for the great story on your trip. Those are days you fellows can remember and re-tell for a lifetime. Those are some nice pikes.

Farmer

[Toby]

Woooow!!!! That looks like a 35 lb pike. Unbeleivable story. Great job!!!

[marine_man]

Great story & pictures!

Welcome to FM!

marine_man