First pike trip

Getting around to putting up a few pics from the first pike trip of the year which was April 3.  Headed out with a few good friends of mine, John and Paul, who both just love to fish.  All of us have caught a few pike before but none of us really know what we are doing so we went out in search of pike on a hunch and a few rumors in a lake were we know people did well catching them through the ice this past winter.  We decided to fish some of the shallow coves adjacent to where these pike were caught hoping they were up spawning or at least enjoying some warmer water.  Leading up to the trip we had a few pretty cold, rainy, windy days.  We tried to find the warmest water in the lake but without much sun to heat up the surface and shallow water the lake was a pretty consistent 45 degrees no matter where we went.  We started out in a shallow bay that averaged about 4' deep with some of last years reeds still poking above the surface.  The trolling motor on John's boat which has fought us in the past decided to have another bad day so we mostly motored up wind and drifted across the bay.  John picked up a nice smallmouth that we were a little surprised to see up in the old weedbeds this time of year but no pike so far.  We decided to follow a channel that lead out of the bay we were fishing.

I don't remember so much blue sky that day but I guess the sun poked through every once in a while.  It sure made a difference when it did.  The conditions were a little challenging without the sun and with a good steady breeze and the clouds spitting at us occasionally.  We all didn't care a bit and were just happy to be flinging some feathers around.

The first pike of the day showed itself by slashing at my fly as it came up to the boat.   Not a huge pike but respectable by my standards.  At the same time John was in the middle of his retrieve and as his fly came through the same area the pike struck again but was only hooked for a brief moment before going free.  Even though we both blew the opportunity we took seeing the pike as a good sign that we were on to something.  Not too far down the bank from where we had our first action to my surprise I was on to something.  After a brief tug of war I brought a pretty solid Larry to the boat.

Not the species we were after but I'll take it.  We continued on up the channel without seeing much about as far as we wanted to go before the current really started to pick up.  I made a cast and after a few strips of my fly I felt a bump.  I didn't hook anything but I was pretty suspicious that I had a strike.   I picked up my line and fired another cast out to the same spot and this time hooked up.  I wish it were the 20# pike I had swimming in my imagination but it ended up only being an average pickerel sized pike instead.

John picked one up about twice that size on the next cast.  A lot of the pike up here have some really nice yellow markings which make them quite pretty. I'm not sure if that is common or not.  That was it for the day; 2 pike in 2 casts brought to the boat, a couple bass, a few near misses and a hell of a good time on the water.  The catching wasn't so great but the fishing sure was.