a few weeks ago, I caught a new PB and slimed up the 203.
a few weeks ago I took a trip to one of my favorite lakes, that I don't get to fish very often. Its the same lake I filmed my Lunkeville episode on, in the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY.
The water was 50-52* when we arrived. The upper lake was turning over, so we went through the channel to the big lake in hopes the big lake wasn't turning over yet...it wasn't. I noticed there was a crazy amount of big bait cruising through shallow weeds, which is pretty rare for this lake to see bait that shallow. So me and my buddy started targeting weed flats that had scattered weeds on them. We end up finding largemouths, but no big ones. I go to a area that I have never fished before, but I know its a big shallow weed flat. There is a deep bank that transitions to the beginning of this flat with big boulders, lay down tree's and weeds on the outside edge. The wind was whipping through this area and it was over cast. My buddy gets a 5lb 8oz largemouth right away...2 cast later, I hook into a giant fish on a lucky craft 1.5 square bill... At first, I didn't know how big the fish was. It was a gentle hit, but I knew it had some weight to it. Thought at first maybe a big bass, until I put my talons down and then she started burning drag and dragging through the weeds. At that moment, I told my buddy I had a pike... Then I got nervous with the talons down that she was going to break my 12lb flouro. I put the talons up so she could drag the boat. My buddy saw her before I did, and was exstatic on her size....Now, the next issue was on how to get her in the boat. I do not carry a net with me that is big enough for a fish like this. My buddy grabs my "bigger net" and I tell him we are going to hafto net her head first, and then flip her in the boat as fast as possible....so she comes up, and Mark gets her head in the net. The second her head gets in the net, I see my square bill come out of her mouth. I drop my rod and grab the net with Mark and flip her up into the boat as fast as possible....with over half her body hanging out of it. The second she gets in the boat, I literally bear hug her to the floor until she calmed down, because I was so scared she would flip back into the lake and this would just be a "fish story" that no one would believe.
She was 45" and just under 22lbs. Beating my prior personal best which was this year as well by 2lbs....but the same length. These fish are simply amazing. I love everything about a Big pike. What a blast to catch.
2 weeks before this trip, I ended up catching a 6lb 6oz largemouth and a 6.0 largemouth back to back on a completely different pattern (deep wood)
here is a quick video clip of the Pike... Also some pictures of my other 45" pike from earlier this year, and the two 6lb largemouths.
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Nice ones!
