Pike at last

[seamonkey84]

I haven’t really had the chance to go after pike this year. A couple weeks ago I got on the andro, but only caught SMB. Today, my friend brought me out to target them specifically. We both managed new PBs, and as a plus, I managed to do it with a fly rod 
It was slow fishing, caught a total of 6 fish in about 5 hours. The first three where the ones we were there for.
First fish of the day, my new PB, this 34” beauty. Weighed 8.5 on my scale.


My friend ended up with back to back PBs first a 35”, followed up with a 36”.
If only we could of kept the pattern going, but the rest of the day was just a couple hammer handles and a perch. I can’t wait till fall sets in and the waters cool down.

Lessons from today:
-a large rubber trout net is not large enough for +30” fish
-Having the jaw spreaders is good, but still need to get jaw grippers
-My transom mounted trolling motor’s shaft isn’t long enough for my panoptix unit to work in his boat, unless I face it back behind the boat

[Rugburn]

Nice Gator on the fly rod. Great pic to boot! I'd say that was a good 5 hours spent...

[franklin fisher]

That's a nice one. Congrats.

[ActiveTrapChecker]

Nice fish, and great summary!

[seamonkey84]

That was the short and sweet of it. I left out the newbie moment I had with the fly rod when I caught that fish.
First, this is the soup we were fishing in
Without the floating scum, there was maybe 2.5-3ft of visibility. I was watching my bright orange bunny leech as I stripped it in, and was about to start the figure 8 turn at the boat. When seemingly from out of nowhere, a set of jaws opened up and charged it from below and to the left and nailed it boatside, sending water everywhere. I screamed a bit, threw both of my arms up for the hook set, and instantly wrapped all my loose line around me and the rod . My friend had to come up and untangle me as I’m trying to keep tension on the fish. I couldn’t actually let it run or reel up as the line was wrapped all over the place. The fish went under the boat, and I had to keep from tripping on the line as I had to swing the rod around the bow. At one point I had started to try and strip in some line, and ended up letting go of it, and started pulling line off the reel instead. Good thing my friend still had the bundle of line in his hands, or it would of pulled right into a knot in the guides. I kinda wished we got that all on tape . After getting untangled enough, the fish was ready to be netted as it was fighting around the boat the whole time. Luckily I was using good bite wire and a heavy leader.
I’ve also realized, since I’ve only been an avid angler for 4 years, this was the prob biggest fish I’ve ever caught. I’ve only recently started to weigh my fish, but I don’t think I’ve caught a bass that has topped 8lbs.

[Jim C.]

Great pike and a good story to go with it

[zwiggles]

Sounds like a fun time even with all the chaos!

[MarkNFish]

Nice fish.

[Hell Fish]

Nice work. Congrats on your PBs.

[fish wayniac]

Chi, Congratz on your PB pike. Great recap on the landing that must of been cool to see the leech get inhaled boat side.

[seamonkey84]

Chi, Congratz on your PB pike. Great recap on the landing that must of been cool to see the leech get inhaled boat side.

It was really cool since it was just below the surface, but it also just about scared the crap out of me. I was looking at the fly and watching for movement behind it, did not expect it to be coming from the side. Guess that’s the point of the figure eight turns at the boat lol.

[SHaRPS]

Congrats on the PB Chi.

[Swampking89]

That's what memories are made of!! You're never gonna forget that! Congrats!!