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Sunday May 23 Pike Report

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 10:24 am
by Spezza_Fan
Hi Gang,
This is my first of many reports I hope to have this year. Sunday morning I headed up to one my favorite lakes up near Ladysmith, QC to fish for some Pike. My aunt used to have a cottage on this lake up to last year so I got to fish it whenever I wanted but she sold it so that luxury is now gone. However, my brother's friend has a cottage on there and when he told me the next time he'd go up he'd give me a call and that just happened to be this weekend. He's not a big fisherman and he's never caught a Pike in that lake before so I know he's never really fished it. Anyways, I got up a 7am picked my brother and his buddy up, stopped at Timmy's and then we where on our way. We fish our Pike with dead minnows. This is the only way I've ever fished them. Close to our lake, there are many creeks that run across the roads so before going out to fish, we went to catch a dozen minnows. 15 minutes later we had our quota and we were on our way. We set our lines and I'm ready for my first dip in 2010. Crazy sun all day with scorching heat didn't help the fishing what so ever. After 2 hours of Pike fishing we did not get a single bite. It may have been 10am when we finally got to our spot but still nothing. We decided to fish are way back to the cottage for some pike and maybe some bass. Well we caught 2 OOS Smallies just a little under 3 pounds each. We released them right away knowing they we're OOS. Went back in for some lunch and the guys wanted to go tubbing. 4 hours later and a couple of sun burns later, they were pooped and I was ready to go back for some Pike. 30 minutes into our evening fish, my brother says "I may have a bite. No wait it's just weeds". 10 seconds later "BANG! No it's a fish!!!". He's using my lite bass rod with 4 pound test on it but a 12" leader on it. This fish ran that drag wild for a good 10 minutes and I finally saw this beast come up. Another couple of little runs and this fish was tired out. I net him and here are the picture.

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My brother is 6'3" so you can see from this picture that the fish is kind of long as it goes from his shoulder to his knee. However, he was about 8"-10" wide. One hell of a fish.

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After little debate, I told my brother to release the fish. My dad wanted some fillets but this fish deserved to live to be another fisherman's story.

After that monster we decided to call it a day. It was prime time for fishing but they wanted to head in and I was just happy with the fish that I didn't mind heading back home. All in all it was a great day. I'm still surprised we only got one bite. We have never been skunked in that lake in my life. I've caught many 10lbs+ fish in that lake and there are many more. I just hope that the other people who fish the lake don't keep them everytime they catch one.

Until next time...

Big D

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 10:29 am
by bl8ant
Great fish and an even better decision to release it. Perch are tasty :lol:

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 10:38 am
by Spezza_Fan
bl8ant wrote:Great fish and an even better decision to release it. Perch are tasty :lol:
Thanks man! I've never fished with perch. I fish with shinners or suckers. You can see the size of them in the one where my brother is holding the fish straight up.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 11:37 am
by Fishing 24/7
congrats buddy!

that pike is beautifull.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 11:56 am
by almontefisher
Yeah nice pike but very nice boat. Looks in good shape for the style it is.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 12:29 pm
by Spezza_Fan
almontefisher wrote:Yeah nice pike but very nice boat. Looks in good shape for the style it is.
I don't know what kind of boat it is. It's a 4-seater speed boat with a 50hp on it. Not the ideal boat for fishing but it got us to where we wanted to go.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 12:34 pm
by fatluke
Nice looking gator for sure.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 1:49 pm
by lapointeric
Spezza_Fan wrote:
bl8ant wrote:Great fish and an even better decision to release it. Perch are tasty :lol:
Thanks man! I've never fished with perch. I fish with shinners or suckers. You can see the size of them in the one where my brother is holding the fish straight up.

I think he means, you release the big fish, and eat the perch. :-)

I'm curious, did you catch a whole bunch of minnows, then fish with them dead? Interesting strategy... I try to keep them alive as long as possible, even spent money on a portable bubbler.

Great report, chunky looking Pike! Well done!

E

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 2:01 pm
by Spezza_Fan
lapointeric wrote: I think he means, you release the big fish, and eat the perch. :-)

I'm curious, did you catch a whole bunch of minnows, then fish with them dead? Interesting strategy... I try to keep them alive as long as possible, even spent money on a portable bubbler.

Great report, chunky looking Pike! Well done!

E
E, I've never had perch but I hear they are awesome. The reason I fish with them dead is because in QC we can't fish with live bait so we usually freeze them and fish with them once they are thawed out. We caught a couple of half pound suckers that were WAY too big to start casting. It's a little early in the season for minnow fishing. Late June early July is money. Anything between 4-6" is perfect.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 7:59 pm
by baz fish
Nice pike man :) .

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 8:17 pm
by bruce
nice pike man!good on ya for lettinit swim! and he knows the quebec regs! but .... but .....spezza fan?sorry had to ...

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 10:06 am
by Spezza_Fan
bruce wrote:nice pike man!good on ya for lettinit swim! and he knows the quebec regs! but .... but .....spezza fan?sorry had to ...
Hahaha!!! It's stuck with me forever.

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 10:06 am
by Spezza_Fan
baz fish wrote:Nice pike man :) .
Thanks man. It was one hell of a fight.

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 10:22 am
by bl8ant
Yes I mean release the pike and eat the perch :D

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 8:17 pm
by GR8-Scott
Way-2-go...awesome pike!