Pike Fishin'

[Hawgstoppah]

First time I ever tried pike on the fly was yesterday. The fishing was apparently "slow" but I found it to be fine. went with cuttbow to a southern AB lake. Got this beauty and 9 others that were smaller. It was a blast. Thanks for dinner cuttbow - he lost the dinner bet - booyah!

 

[beedhead]

Sweet!!...Got to try that sometime...Caught them on the fly before, but was never targeting them...And were far from the size you got there Brian...Awesome man....

 

Cheers...Jeff..

[lorney]

Nice fish. Sounds like you had a good time. Went out with Kyle the other night on a lake we have never fished. Steady action but nothing over the 5 - 7 lb mark. Some acrobatic ones that took to the air. Thanks for sharing storey and pic.

[admin]

Great looking snot rocket! They are a lot of fun to target. 10 in a day is a decent day too. Looks like a good lake for them.

[cuttbow]

First time I ever tried pike on the fly was yesterday. The fishing was apparently "slow" but I found it to be fine. went with cuttbow to a southern AB lake. Got this beauty and 9 others that were smaller. It was a blast. Thanks for dinner cuttbow - he lost the dinner bet - booyah!

 

Lesson learned man keep my secret fly to myself, Wait till ya get a good Day man. Ya it was very slow. Were your fingers still leaking when you got home?Another fly guy hooked on gattors, What can i say. Dinners on you next time seemed to have lost that suitcase full of pike flies.

 

[Hawgstoppah]

seemed to have lost that suitcase full of pike flies.

 

lmfao.. I guess I'll have to go buy some o that material. Maybe in a certain color *grin*

 

[cuttbow]

lmfao.. I guess I'll have to go buy some o that material. Maybe in a certain color *grin*

None left in western canada i bought it all.Hee hee one fly for the season. Look forward to our next trip.

Cuttbow

 

[Guest JayVee]

Wow nice fish! Were you using a 6wt Brian?

[fishfreak]

sweet fish!

[Hawgstoppah]

Yeah it was on my 10ft 6WT by G&L FlyCraft. It's d darn good rod for pike got a ton of backbone and a flexible tip for good loading on the casts. I love this pike thing. i'm addicted already and eagerly awaiting my next trip

[dutchie]

Yeah it was on my 10ft 6WT by G&L FlyCraft. It's d darn good rod for pike got a ton of backbone and a flexible tip for good loading on the casts. I love this pike thing. i'm addicted already and eagerly awaiting my next trip

 

so i see you sucked in another guy to buy you a dinner on '' big fish of the day '' , so i'm not the only one , watch him guys as he's like a poker player waiting to slip in for the kill , i just wish you was with me on friday as you'd still be sulking and have your lip all pucker up , and i'd had you that day & you know it , i think we's even now ,

 

congrats on that pike brian , nice fish , and in the kindest way , i hope he ate your baby finger off

 

[cuttbow]

so i see you sucked in another guy to buy you a dinner on '' big fish of the day '' , so i'm not the only one , watch him guys as he's like a poker player waiting to slip in for the kill , i just wish you was with me on friday as you'd still be sulking and have your lip all pucker up , and i'd had you that day & you know it , i think we's even now ,

 

congrats on that pike brian , nice fish , and in the kindest way , i hope he ate your baby finger off

Dont worry he will be sulking on sat. Bring your own jaw spreaders,bandaids, advil and lucky pike fly(Oops you gave it back to me). Brians a blast to fish with, all the gear he wants is in my daypack.Going for the big hens on sat, might want to upgrade that G&L 6 wt to a 10 wt. FFC will see a post to remember.

 

 

[dryfly]

Way cool Brian...nice effort and great fish.

 

I'll have to try that one day.

 

Cheers!

 

Clive

 

[Hawgstoppah]

all the gear he wants is in my daypack.

 

Going for the big hens on sat, might want to upgrade that G&L 6 wt to a 10 wt.

 

for one... I guess you didn't notice that missing pike line and 4 flies eh? LOL j/k

 

should I cut down a telephone pole to fish with on sat? :D

 

[birchy]

Our trip wasn't worth making a new report about.. so I'll just add on to Hawg's (hopefully that's okay Brian)..

 

Drove down to Newell on Sunday afternoon with the travel trailer. Found a spot that had signs that said "Private Property - USE RESPECT" - so we did. Set up next to a small bay and by the time I got the trailer set up and propane fridge going and what not, CDock had already hooked 3 smallish pike.. landed one.

 

Got rigged up myself and took a little while to figure out that they weren't very aggressive and we needed to strip, long pause, strip, long pause.. I was using the thumb/forefinger > pinky finger strip. Finally after a few times I saw a dark shape a little behind my fly that didn't look natural.. as it got closer I realized it was a pike following.. did a quick "panic" strip and that induced the strike. Managed to land my first pike on the fly.. probably in the ~5 pound range. Pretty small considering what else is in there.

 

CDock hooked a few more but they kept getting off on him.. he figures they were probably biting the tail on the fly..

 

After about 2 hours of fishing the wind picked up really hard and we couldn't cast anymore. CDock brought along his spin gear just in case, and tried throwing a five of diamonds out a few times with no success. Retreated to the trailer and made supper.. beans, bacon, hotdogs, potatoe salad and beer.. good times.

 

The wind kept up all night.. we were "rocked" to sleep in the trailer by the wind actually! Next morning.. still blowing hard, AND cold now too. We decided to pack it in and head home.

 

So... ~5 hours of driving for 1 pike between us!! Very disappointing.. but at least we didn't get skunked. CDock has the pics.. I'll post them when I get the chance.

[acurrie]

A buddy and me set out to Badger on Tuesday for some Pike fishin for the first time. WE got there around 10:00 and fished until 3:00 with not a single follow. The wind was pretty crazy though, it blew about 60-80 km/h until we couldn't cast anymore. I pretty much tried every streamer and Pike fly I had, but it just wasn't meant to be. I still want to giver another go though, I want to feel the reel screaming in my hand! dammit!

 

Drew

[adc]

A buddy and me set out to Badger on Tuesday for some Pike fishin for the first time. WE got there around 10:00 and fished until 3:00 with not a single follow. The wind was pretty crazy though, it blew about 60-80 km/h until we couldn't cast anymore. I pretty much tried every streamer and Pike fly I had, but it just wasn't meant to be. I still want to giver another go though, I want to feel the reel screaming in my hand! dammit!

 

Drew

 

Badger windy??.........I can hardly believe that!!..........Clive and I call it the "Badger Breeze"........Seems to always be there when we are..........

Don't give up..........There are lots of places to find pike right now.......But your thoughts of having a screaming reel even on a good pike are not likely to come true..........They fight hard but seldom do they make blistering runs..........Usually on a good fish they'll run a bit when first hooked and then it's like being hooked on to a 'gator...........Lots of head shakes and a big pike has lots of bulk to push you around.......I remember when I caught my first really big pike (40+ inches) in a pontoon boat and the thoughts that went through my mind when I saw her close to the boat........Thoughts like "what the hell am I gonna do now??"............Have fun!!

[Din]

Nice pike Brian!

 

Drew - When I fished Badger last year it took me a lot to decipher whether or not I was getting hits. Every so often it just felt like the slightest, and I mean barely noticable, hang up on weeds and I just continued retrieving. Then I started to set the hook on those and it produced a pike every time. Keep at it, and good luck!

 

 

A buddy and me set out to Badger on Tuesday for some Pike fishin for the first time. WE got there around 10:00 and fished until 3:00 with not a single follow. The wind was pretty crazy though, it blew about 60-80 km/h until we couldn't cast anymore. I pretty much tried every streamer and Pike fly I had, but it just wasn't meant to be. I still want to giver another go though, I want to feel the reel screaming in my hand! dammit!

 

Drew

[acurrie]

Thanks for the encouragement, haven't given up yet! I'll just keep at her. My biggest question is where to start fishing? We were on the west side where the overflow dam comes in, seemed to be about 20 feet deep with a nice drop off. I think next time I'll try there again and maybe a few other spots... but damn.... that wind was freaking ridiculous.

[jksnijders]

Found a spot that had signs that said "Private Property - USE RESPECT" - so we did. Set up next to a small bay and by the time I got the trailer set up and propane fridge going and what not, CDock had already hooked 3 smallish pike.. landed one.

 

 

 

 

A sign like this? (with heavy emphasis on the lower left corner....) And the wind stops next to never in most of the spots I go as well.

[jksnijders]

Speaking of wind, this old gal would have been a personal best, taped near 45", but the F$%^@G wind buried a 2/0 hook in my forearm so I gave up casting streamers. Switched to a spoon to try and carry on against the wind, next cast, bam. She had a scarred up right eye you can plainly see in the pic, and I was alone, so this garbage pic is all I got. But, since it came on a spinning rod, to me, it doesn't really count. An old pic, from a place a ways away.

[acurrie]

that thing is HUGE!

[cuttbow]

Thanks for the encouragement, haven't given up yet! I'll just keep at her. My biggest question is where to start fishing? We were on the west side where the overflow dam comes in, seemed to be about 20 feet deep with a nice drop off. I think next time I'll try there again and maybe a few other spots... but damn.... that wind was freaking ridiculous.

Do some research on the web for flyfishn gattors. And dont give up. Been playing the gattor game for over 15 years and im just starting to put 1+1 together to equal 2. As for the line burning runs,AL has it pegged even a 25 pounder is like a bulldog. Lots of weight to push around but i have never seen a gattor come close to my backing. Dont expect to feel a tug all the time when the hit. I watch my line and hit on any movement of the line not the fly. Sometimes youll just get a slack feeling when they hit. PS dont take your fly out of the water till its dam near at your tip. Most of the time they will follow then hit as you are taking the fly to surface to recast.And most importantly have fun.

 

[dryfly]

I guess we are off topic .. sorry Brian... but this thread has a following so I thought I'd throw in some thoughts having been pikin' with flies since 1990. Made a few mistakes along the way, but like cuttbow have figured out a few things.

 

This is a bit shameless but what the hell? I started pike web pages a few years ago and they are a bit out of date....but you newbies might find some useful info about pike and tackle HERE The "pike fillet" page is broken. Not sure what that is about. Hummm..

 

cuttbow makes some good points as does adc.

 

Pike are a to o' fun and fortunately close to home for us southern folk. There is a small lake ten minutes N of my house and it is full of small pike but they love "dry flies." And that is another whole story. Pike in dries is unreal. Anyway ...

 

cuttbow said something about "hits." When they are wired they indeed "slam" flies. But there are times (especially in summer and late fall even) when they "chew" on flies and the take can be hard to detect ... but if it is half calm you can see the line "chatter" ... then you give 'em a bassmasters' hook set. The "slack line" hit is caused when a pike (usually small) takes run at the fly from behind and keeps moving toward you when it hits. The line goes slack and you think "WTF?" Hit it!

 

I think the MOST important thing when starting pike fishing is BE PREPARED! Assuming you will be releasing most pike landed, you need to have the proper gear to handle it and get the hook out with no harm to the fish. If you are lucky it will be lip hooked. Easy peasy. But if the hooked is deeper you MUST have a pair of jaw spreaders and a pair of long nosed pliers..I prefer a pair of 10-inch curved forceps. Have the pliers and jaw spreaders tethered to your craft or waders and they should be readily accessible. I've seen guys haul pike up on land, rummage around in the truck for pliers...and well you get the picture. Be prepared for fast hook removal and release.

 

cuttbow sez the water is warm for the annual spring pike frenzy. Hope so. We are going to investigate tomorrow.

 

MUST HAVE GEAR That surgical hose is handy on spreaders...pike teeth catch in the soft rubber and the rubber also protects the pike jaw if the spreader has sharp points ... the sidecutters are hardly a "must" item.

 

One of those "Now WTF?" moments.

 

[Hawgstoppah]

Yes all good points. Always bring backup nail clippers / line cutters, etc too (if using berkley pike line that cuttbow uses) becuase sometimes an inexperienced Piker' will get a bit too aggressive with the first set of nail clippers

 

Yea, reminds me I gotta dig up all that stuff (spreader, long shank hook remover, etc) from my dusty old tackle box that aint seen a day on the water since ... well... probably since 1998..