Northwest Fishing Reports

Catching 8-11" perch on Curlew Lake last week. 7 inches of ice

Anyone know if there is safe ice (3 inches) on the north end of Hayden Lake?
There was only one inch of ice for 30 feet out from shore and 3 inches thereafter on Killarney last Thursday. Very touchy. Zero pike

Mark, you can save a lot of wear and tear on your arms by just ice fishing for pike.
You buy a can of peas. You drill a hole in the ice. You place a ring of peas around the hole.,
When the big pike comes up to take a pea.....YOU GRAB HIM!

My goodness, Rick, who needs muskies when we could have an equal self-sustaining fishery of monster pike!!!!
Canada can't produce fat pike like that.

Thanks for some clarification on releasing pike in Washington, Fish-N-Fool. The Colville tribe pays a $10 bounty on pike caught in Roosevelt if you put their head and photo in a provided freezer package. I've always wanted to take a pic of me releasing a pike, then put the pic and a 10 dollar bill i...

Mark,
finally got a little tutoring for posting pics with paint and attached my personal best pike mentioned last July. I have muskies up to 27lbs but can't crack the 20lb pike yet.

spent a week in Minnesota couple weeks ago chasing pike and muskies. Alas, the 20s to 40s temps and winds up to 26 MPH every day buried the targets into the weeds and I came up with only 11 pike--best 5lbs x 28 inches-- and zero muskies. So I have a miserly 14 on the year.

thanks for the photo resizing tip, Mark. I forgot to go to page 2 here and am late on thanking you. got to get off to work now but will try that later. have tried some piking around Roosevelt and Kettle River to no avail. Hard to keep ahead of those nets. :scratch: got about 40 walleye but them is e...

Fished chain lakes last weekend. Caught just 3 pike in 3 days but did get a personal best with a nice
15 pounder. It had a deformed bent down tail making it probably 39" straightened out. Pretty slow but
the big guy made it worthwhile. I have a pic but it tells me the file is too large

that's a mighty fine accomplishment, Rick. it's certainly rewarding when one's diligent searching pays off. I'm heading to the chain lakes today for 3 days of
piking. They were amazed by the pics and wanted me to ask you what lake you got those?

My oh my, that's a beauty. Congrats. You know I've fished my favorite fish--pike--for 68 years and not one over 20 lbs yet. The good lord will not take me out
until I achieve that. I may live forever!!

Well, Mark, you are rolling in the pike this spring. I've pulled about 42 walleyes out of Roosevelt so
far but they are food fish; not fun fish. I hope to get to Idaho after the 4th and do some 'reel' fishing.

Fished Hayden Tuesday and got on the 2018 talley with a little 23". Tried Killarney Thurs but its flooded out and almost twice its usual size so nothing. Tried Hayden again in the pm and nothing except a couple bass. Things remain springtime tough. Forget Roosevelt in the Kettle Falls area. The Kett...

thanks for getting us going for 2018, Mark. I've tried pike a couple times bank fishing Roosevelt to no avail. There were 6 settings of gill nets on each the north and south shores of the inlet to the mouth of the Colville River set by.....?. So no luck there. Hopefully that will not affect that pop...

What a great American general with inferior superiors!

Squeezed in a boat day on chainlakes K yesterday before freezeup. Managed a couple of 20's......no, inches; not pounds, darn. Pretty slow. But did get a sharp hit coming into dock. So hard I inadvertently hit thumb bar before I set the hook. line went limp and I thought at first he bit off my steel ...

Good for you. There are some left in the lake after all. I was going to go on the nice Friday weather day but got the stomach flu instead Looks like I am destined for ice fishing after all.

Looks like a pretty small window. I've been glancing at my ice rigging stuff. Often get a real cold snap for 3" of early Dec. ice.

You'd think, especially the bigger ones, would be moving shallower with the cooling water temps. But the opposite seems to be true. I tried deeper 20 foot water also off the breaks to no avail. Maybe they have their seasons mixed up. Throw a calendar in the water next time you are out.

Well, I've been pike..ing and gripping. Only picked up three small ones in Minn. last week. Post cold fronts, post storms, high gale winds. A washout. Tried Mica Bay today. Beautiful cabbage beds where I picked them up years ago but not a bite today. I believe I have forgotten how to fish! [crying]