PIKE DREAMS

[SkeezerLeo]

Yea im just seeking that minnetonka guide guy PIKE DREAMS, I see that he views this site a bit. Im just wondering what he thinks about the pike fishing out there this year? Im not talking about the when, where, who, why, or how, just if hes catching any? I think that that lake has become a very very poor pike fishery. The skies seem to be on an upswing to say the least but the pike seem nonexsistent.

[DHanson]

I wish that were the case on the lakes that I muskie fish on. It would sure save me money on my plastic/rubber type baits if the pike would leave them alone. To be perfectly honest, and it is my opinion of course, lakes that don't have an over abundance of pike are typically the lakes that produce trophy sized pike. So, not seeing many pike at all is probably a good thing if you are looking for trophy pike. There is a small lake that the DNR has proposed a 40" size limit on pike that I fish and I had never seen a pike on the lake until one day I had one hit, sure enough it was a big fish.

[TheHawgTrough]

We couldn't keep them off earlier in the year. Wasn't uncommon to catch over a dozen out fishing for the ski's. They might just still be deep.

[Wookiee]

Tonka has been great all year for pike along the weed edges. There are plenty of pike with a lot of size in there as well. Hot'n'tots, spinnerbaits, cowgirls, dt's, husky's and x-raps.

[nater]

I made it out there on labor day morning and got a nice 32" on a chart/orange bucktail. Caught a few smaller ones on topwater. Wish the muskies would have hit my topwater like the pike did!

[SkeezerLeo]

2 different dnr officers i spoke to say tonka is at a fifteen year low for northern pike and that there efforts are far less then that of the harvest. they also said the number of pike in the mid to upper 30 in range was very low and none in there carrear have top 20 pounds. Yea i catch pike out there all the time but not like 7 or ten years ago.

[pikedreams]

[font:Georgia]Hi SkeezerLeo, thanks for the post. I agree with you it's not the pike lake it was 10 years ago. It would be easy for me to come on here and say "geez what's the problem, I'm slaying 'em". But that wouldn't be honest and that's not my way. Sure I caught fish same as you but this was a really strange year and it's hard to pinpoint why. So many factors; late ice off, cold wet spring, water slow to warm, NO WEEDS till almost july, a 3rd cosectutive year of select bays being experimentally "poisoned", and an intensive milfoil harvest.

I had a good walleye year and the panfish was great all summer long. But the pike just never fell into a predictable pattern. I may have caught more pike while walleye fishing than pike fishing. Only had a handfull over 30, but not far over. It's always been a personal goal of mine to find a twenty pounder, but as the years pass I'm not so sure there's one there. I may be wrong but I really don't think people are harvesting a lot of big ones at least I don't see it. The answer lies somewhere else. Plenty of time to ponder till next year.

[SkeezerLeo]

Thats cool that u actually answered me, I kinda feel bad for comming on here and calling you out and talkin trash about tonka but got a good response oughta ya, so anyway the pike are definentally hard to pattern out there. Caught three decent pike on saterday on spiner baits in 2 hours and on monday i fished pike for 10 hours without a strike. I guess its day to day, but the fish dont seem to be in any given area just show up here and there. The bigger pike prolly arnt harvested or at least i hope not. with 17,000 acres out there i would like to think theres some 20's in there somewhere but like u say they just dont show up. Me and a group of guys have ice fished Tonka hard now for about 20 years and have gone strictlly catch and release for pike the last 5 or so seasons simply because weve seen the damage done by removing female pike. we never did keep the bigger ones but even most of the ones we consider eaters were full of eggs. all those years we hoped for a 20 pounder but toped out at 16, with a bunch between 10 and 15 and many right around 10, This seems to be the case with everyone i talked to. sure you here about the 20 pounders bein caught and maybe theres been a couple but its just kinda hard to beleave. the thing is its been 3 or 4 years since i caught a 10 pounder out there and the ice fishins been real slow. Im not claimin im the best piker out there so i know it could just be me but it just seems like the lakes goin down hill. Anyways lets hope for better pikin in the future and well see what happens, were all hopin for a great fall and i will still be out there anyway so i might as well stay postive. Thanks.

[pikedreams]

Hey Skeezerleo don't feel bad for calling it the way you see it your just being honest. Tonka is still a great lake and there are tons of pike but the lake has changed or I should say has been changed. Much like it changed in the 80's when the milfoil took over. Everyone just had to relearn and adapt to the new conditions. A few years ago if you had a good healthy weedline in 8 to 14 ft and a hundred yards long you could work that for a couple of hours and toss back twenty pike. Now if you find a spot like that by the time you get back to it it's been trashed out with shredded milfoil floating everywhere and the weeedline is destroyed.

I think the fish have been forced to be more transient and thus tougher to pattern. It's kinda like a pheasent being flushed out of cover and having to go elswhere but they don't return because there cover has been destroyed.