Spring Pike

[jjthom2]

Tying some stuff for pike this spring:

[jjthom2]

[maxwell]

nice looking flies!!!

[PGK]

.

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

yep, they look great but try to keep that hook close to the head. pike try to take the fish head first.

[jjthom2]

Stay away from trailer hooks for pike, they don't work very well! Good looking ties.

I left the main hook on these so the trailer can be easily removed (I added the trailer just because there seemed like the pattern was too long for the single hook). No one ever has short strike issues with 8"-10" flies for pike?

[tgo]

I left the main hook on these so the trailer can be easily removed (I added the trailer just because there seemed like the pattern was too long for the single hook). No one ever has short strike issues with 8"-10" flies for pike?

 

I could be wrong on this, but pike rarely nip the tail they usually go for the head

 

Very nice flies!

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

they do it because of thier food, most have spines on their backs so head first is the only way to go for them.

[PGK]

.

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

good to know, nice incanoo (sp)

[ironfly]

PGK, I thought you were up on the coast. It's pretty well known amongst Northerners that the Dehcho has the best pike fishing. By the time you get up to the Sahtu region, lakers take the lead. Don't get me wrong, both regions have world class fishing for both species (and more), but they edge each other out for those fish.

 

More to the point, I believe in big flies for big pike, and this belief has been reaffirmed many times by the fish. One time, early in my fly fishing experience, I was invited out by a very accomplished pike fly guy. As we were gearing up he asked to see my flies. He laughed at me, teased me, insulted me, and was all around pretty rude about the fact that smallest one was at least 6" long. He offered me a couple wooly buggers and clousers, around size 4, insisting that I would catch more fish on smaller flies, and that the bigger fish wouldn't care. After a couple hours I got tired of hammerhandles and switched to one of my "ridiculous monstrosities". As the day was getting on, I noticed he had been casting to the same spot for quite a while, and kept at it as I finned my way over to him. Here was a guy, who I had on good authority could teach me a lot, working a big, reluctant fish. I figured I'd watch a master in action and pick up a skill or two, but he got frustrated eventually, muttered about changing flies, and told me I might as well try a cast or two while he re-rigged. The look on his face was pretty good as I worked out some line and he saw the big fly whipping back and forth, but his expression became priceless when the water exploded 2 seconds after my fly landed.

 

I couldn't help but rub it in a little, and that guy has never spoken to me again. Good riddance.

 

Oh, and I've never had enough trouble with short strikes to notice. I tye some flies about 9" long on a short-shanked treble, which I had intended to be the rear of component tube flies, but never got around to tying the tubes and tried them anyway, and they worked like gangbusters. I've heard others claim that pike side-swipe a lot, and maybe the food base is the key; if they mostly eat spiny fishes (most lakes around here) they become head strikers, but if soft-rayed fish are the main (or only, like up north) entree, they change tactics.

 

By the way, PGK, you claim pike prefer to not eat spiny fish, but list sticklebacks as a preferred food. Just seems a little contradictory to me.

[PGK]

.

[FraserN]

In Glenmore Reservoir, if the pike are in a dull mood, they will follow the fly and just "nip" at the tail, or turn and swim away. I had to put stinger hooks on y spinner baits to catch them, but I never did it when I fly fished for them. Of course, when they are more aggressively feeding, they will swallow a 3 inch streamer fly down their throat!

[ironfly]

You could take all the fishing in the decho and the sahtu and roll it all up in a ball and marinate it in awesome for a month and it still wouldn't compare to those epic days we have on the delta where you can't fish anymore because if you bend your arm it cramps up from all the fish you've been hauling on.

 

Well, I have also fished the delta. With hyperbole like that, I'm going to have to conclude that you have very limited, if any, experience with the other regions. Or maybe it's like my trip to the Manitoba parklands this fall; supposedly some of the best stillwater fishing in North America, I just was there during a bad week.

 

I will say this, though; there are some world-class lodges on and around Great Slave and Great Bear, but none that I'm aware of in the Mad Trapper neck of the woods.

[PGK]

.

[fish4trout]

You have to know the delta to have success up here. Water levels change daily and you need to know where to go on an almost hourly basis to catch them with the feed bag on.

 

And in the few months you have lived there, you have learned it all. Bravo!

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

all right boys post pics of your largesp pike so we can shut this pissing contest down! id post mine but i think it could fit in the mouths of most of yours.

[PGK]

.

[ironfly]

2 whole years, eh? Wow. You're going to have to stay there for a long time to catch up with my knowledge and experience base, kid. I have ties to Aklavik that go back to when the world was new, if you catch my drift. The comment about a bad week of fishing was to give you the benefit of the doubt.

 

Thanks for confirming my assumptions about your knowledge of the dehcho and sahtu, though. A lake trout trolling meat fishery? Sure, that's all they have to offer, don't bother going there or trying to learn more. Pay no attention to what Duane Radford or Mark Krupa have to say about it.

 

And don't talk to me about land claims, local opposition and expenses, kid. It'll take you years to learn as much about that stuff as I've forgotten. All the same obstacles were in the way on the big lakes, but Plummers, Enodah, and others found a way.

 

You think I seemed pissy? I'd say you're projecting, because you clearly have no idea how rough it can get.

[PGK]

.

[ironfly]

PGK,

 

I think we both started off as well intentioned, just sharing information and knowledge. But we clearly touched nerves, and it escalated. I try to not use the internet as my venting outlet, but slipped up a bit here. It's been a stressful month. For my part, I apologize. I had the same kind of reaction as when someone from Ontario tells me the fishing sucks in Alberta.

 

I didn't do any research on lodges, my comments were based on 20 year old conversations with lodge owners/operators. Anecdotal evidence being what it is, I should've known better.

 

I don't have bookshelves filled with reference material, and I don't have the time for posting a bunch of links, so the name dropping was my way of saying, "you don't have to take my word for it."

 

Even if we do go on butting heads forever, I'd like you to know that I do have some degree of respect for you. Your passion for fisheries is pretty plain, and I have some limited knowledge of the good work you do. We're on the same side, really, and I'll try to remember that in the future.

[bigbowtrout]

Tying some stuff for pike this spring:

 

 

Sweet looking fly

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

junior, its really nice to see posts like that. big ups to you

[PGK]

.

[Wolfie]

..just curious PGK...have you used the same large flies , say 4" up for the 'dollies' as well, thinking that even up there [not been there myself], the dollies would surely show themselves for some of those tasty morsels...