First Ever Northern Pike!!

[joshholmes]

i was fishing for bass on my lake yesterday with a medium action rod, a spinning reel and 30 lb. powerpro braid. I went fishless for about an hour which surprised me because i caught over a limit of bass just the day before. I tied on my favorite crankbait (a .5 ounce chrome blue backed rat-l-trap) and started fishing deep water because of a recent cold front. i remember after my 4th cast i felt a snag. i assumed it was a log since it wasnt letting me pull it out. then my line just shot off. instinctively i set the hook even though i still didnt think it was a fish. then nothing, i kept pulling have no idea why it wouldnt move when it started fighting again. my drag was set at 15lbs. the drag just let out line like crazy. i was so afraid of my rod snapping because i had never faught anything so large on it. after about a 5 minute fight(i wasn't trying to muscle it since i though my rod would snap if i did) i saw a big green flash by my dock. my first thought was a state record bass, since new yorks record is 11 lbs, 4 ounces but i knew my lake well enough to know it couldnt be. as i brought it up close i realized it was a pike. to say i panicked was an understatement. after trying to find a way to land it with out my net, which was 15 feet away on shore, i had no choice but let it have line so i could grab my net. when i finally landed it i was scared half to death. thank god i had pliers because i didnt even feel safe using them to take the hook out. i took its measurements, 30.5 inches and a little over 11 lbs. i finally let her go with a new respect for this fish. The great thing was that pike had been extinct for over 15 years in my lake. last year i caught a baby pike in my minnow trap. no one had stocked them so after some thinking we realized it came in after a huge flood that flooded a stream. the stream came from a larger river which had many pike. it was to shallow for pike to pass through before. this was the first one over 8 inches caught in 16 years!!! what a day!!!

[clayton86]

Congrats I love pike fishing there a close runner up for my fav after bass there a blast to catch. Where about in new york are you that pike are extinct I catch em everywhere here in wny

[joshholmes]

its just this one small lake called snyders lake. there was a lot of overfishing for the pike there and the sunfish and perch were dying because of a disease in the water killing them off. It's in the capital region. in its history without the pike there is usually an inbalance in bass and sunfish but the past 2 years it has been much better because the pike and pickerel are coming back.

[Hamby]

A decent pike is always nice, but i can honestly say i'm always disappointed to find out it's a pike. I always want it to be a huge bass, or a musky of any size. They put up a great fight, but it can be so easy to catch them early in the year that i just get tired of it. A PITA in my smaller boat too. Most pike don't even come out of the water with me unless they are really nice. Probably anything around 35" and up.

I didn't hit the correct time last year, but the previous year i was at the cottage for 2 weeks in may and early june when the pike were going nuts. I could go out and catch more pike on an inline spinner over weeds in 3-4 FOW than i could small bass on anything. GREAT time to get the people less enthusiastic about fishing out on the boat though. Nothing easier than aggressively chucking, winding, and ripping a spinnerbait. The pike basically hook themselves.

[Triton21]

I am moving North soon and am lookig forward to catching my first Pike.

Kelley

[RoLo]

Josh, I believe you're now hooked

In a bass forum I should say this in hush tones,

but I enjoy targeting gator pike more than targeting sow bass. .

I'm not talking about the snot-rockets found in every weedy bay

but the big Gators that make the drag of a spinning reel squeal

like no bass can. Needless to say, when you're actually targeting gator pike,

you'll be using wire leader (titanium), so cut-offs will not be an issue.

Roger

[Bluebasser86]

Pike are a lot of fun as long as you aren't throwing and expensive bait when they hit! They are a PITA if you get into them while you're walleye fishing also. I've never seen a more aggressive fish when they decide they're going to eat a bait though.

[slonezp]

Pike are a lot of fun as long as you aren't throwing and expensive bait when they hit! They are a PITA if you get into them while you're walleye fishing also. I've never seen a more aggressive fish when they decide they're going to eat a bait though.

...or any bass bait for that matter. They destroy everything. IMO they along with musky are a nusiance fish, unless of course they are HUGE. We catch pike and musky quite a bit, when we don't want them. My son caught his very first musky last year during a bass tourney and was PO'd. About a week later he says "Dad, I got my first musky!"

[BassThumb]

Congrats!

I have a love/hate relationship with Northern Pike. They're a blast to catch, but they've cost me hundred and hundreds of dollars worth of lures.