2014 Pike tally!

[Mark K]

Hahaha coming from the guy who is planning a trip to Last Mountain Lake. Your practicaly to LOTW at Last Mountain. Pike dont bite before 10am there either! Nor do they bite for Raiders fans!

[AESox]

Well I wish I had more to post but as I am headed out tomorrow I better catch up with what I have. In late July I headed out with farmer_aa and put three pike in the boat, 22", 23", and 22". Since then I have spent three days on the water and not landed a single fish. I had a dink to the side of the boat a week ago but it shook the lure before I could get my hands on it so I am still with out my August pike. Those three bring my tally to 18, fingers crossed for big numbers and big fish tomorrow!

[AJ's Dad]

Don't worry my friend, I'll loan you a frog first thing in the morning and you will have your august pike.

[Lucius]

Pike don't eat before 10am AJs Dad. Not sure where I am numbers wise on the year, but 36" from Lake Of The Woods, Ontario takes big Pike honors so far this year. Got a couple nice Muskie back there too! World Class lake all the way around.

Make sure you post pictures of your pike under big fish thread for 2014.

And at last mountain lake they bite well before 10 am...aggressively and mean...

Don't worry guys...I will catch up....I only have 73 pike to go....damnit!!!!

On another note I had a third keeper.....7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long with a 36 cm head...on August 14th....

[AJ's Dad]

Pike don't eat before 10am AJs Dad. Not sure where I am numbers wise on the year, but 36" from Lake Of The Woods, Ontario takes big Pike honors so far this year. Got a couple nice Muskie back there too! World Class lake all the way around.

Make sure you post pictures of your pike under big fish thread for 2014.

And at last mountain lake they bite well before 10 am...aggressively and mean...

Don't worry guys...I will catch up....I only have 73 pike to go....damnit!!!!

On another note I had a third keeper.....7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long with a 36 cm head...on August 14th....

7lb 11 oz at only 20" long?????? Either you need a new scale or that thing looked like a freaking football!

[Mark K]

Lol, pretty sure he meant a new baby Mark! Congrats Lucius!

[AJ's Dad]

Oh dopy me!! I would love to have seen a photo of a fish with those dimensions!

Congrats from us as well. How about a photo?

[farmer_aa]

Congrats on the third keeper! That was me last year, but it definitely cut into my time on the water in 2013. This year has been better for fishing time. Time to update.

6/29/14 - Caught one, but missed a frustratingly large number of fish on frogs. Most were small, though I saw some decent ones still up shallow.
70. 25"(R)

7/4/14 - Fished an early morning as the water was getting warmer. 71 degrees, and the fish were in weed pockets. The highlight, besides getting my July pike, was catching a 24.5" pike on an 1/8 oz Kastmaster with a 6 lb fluoro leader. What a battle! Mostly a spoon bite today.
71. 22"(R) 72. 24.5"(K) 73. 25.5"(R) 74. 7.7 lb, 31"(R)

7/5/14 - Another morning fishing solo, but tough. Missed just a couple and caught one on a spoon. Deep weeds main lake looking healthy and promising for later in the year.
75. 26"(R)

7/25/14 - Fished with The King. Did get outfished from the back of the boat. I'll admit it. It was painful.
76. 25"(K)

8/21/14 - Fished with The King again. Time for a little payback, even if it wasn't much of a day. We scratched out 3 pike between us, and by we, I mean ME. Baits didn't seem to matter, as all three came on different rigs, but the water was 73 degrees pretty much everywhere and the weeds were great. All fish were skinny, but I got my August pike!
77. 22"(R) 78. 23.5"(R) 79. 28.5"(R)

So there, I'm caught up. A little more harvest to do, but it's slowing down, and I need my September pike. Good luck, all!

[AJ's Dad]

I to had a chance to fish the north end of the main lake with the King on saturday. Unfortunately he got blanked. He stuck one on a spinnerbait only to have it shake off before we could see it. I managed 3 and missed at least another half dozen. One of those was a decent fish about 30". The fish hit a spinnerbait but aparently the bait had gotten wrapped around the leader and shortly after the hookset, the line came back to me with not lure, just the crimped loop. The hookset pulled the dual lock snap apart. All three fish were small but 3 more brings me to 76 for the year. Spinnerbaits and frogs around the outside edges of weedbeds enticed the bites. Main lake temps are coming down. The bite should only get better.

[Lucius]

Oh dopy me!! I would love to have seen a photo of a fish with those dimensions!

Congrats from us as well. How about a photo?

Ok here is a photo of the monster

[Lucius]

And the race for he title looks to be close. Farmer AA 3 ahead of AJ Dad....nice....and who is this King you guys have been referencing?

[farmer_aa]

Haha, "The King" is AESox. Hope you don't mind me revealing your identity, my liege. As far as nicknames go, it's not very creative to call a guy named Arthur "The King." But he was kicking our butts and doing his rightful gloating during deadbait season, while I was trying to just scratch out one March pike, and I think that's where it came from, though I can't take credit for bestowing the title upon him. Plus I'm sure he's heard that one before. "Hail, King Arthur, long live The King!"

[AJ's Dad]

Yep, he looks like a keeper. Just over the legal limit for length. Remember to not hold him vertically for photos.

[AJ's Dad]

Yesterday started off real slow but then I found just the right chain lake and just the right baits to put a few fish in the boat. Finished the day wit 12 more pike bringing me to 88 for the year. Lots of small ones. Most were in around 8 feet of water in the weeds of course. Biggest fish was 28 1/2" and had a couple of 25'ers.
Started in the main lake and found nothing. Great weed beds and water temps around 68 degrees. Started fishing at around 6:30 am but I didn't boat a fish until 12:30, and the next one didn't come till 2:30, but at about 4pm in the right lake they got real hungry. A few came on frogs but a majority liked the blue and chartruese spinnerbait.
OK Kendall, I'll buy the 10am theory this time, but please take note of the "RAIDERS" hat.
Proof positive that Pike do bite for Raider fans.

[farmer_aa]

I got out solo on Sunday morning. The 10:00 am theory was mostly in place. I missed two good hits and lost another that was in the 6-7 lb range. Then from 9:30 to 10:30 I caught 6 all on one weed edge I don't fish much, and probably at least a dozen distinct pike were within 50 yards of each other. Funny how they stack up sometimes. Beginning water temps at 66 degrees to the south, probably 68 when I quit at 11:00 am. I fished for about another half-hour with 3 kids, and with two of them throwing fits I caught a 28.5 incher, much thicker than the fish from two weeks back. I think they're starting to feed. Spoons were the main key on the outside edge of weeds that were mostly coontail. If I would have put in a full day, I might not have lost the lead! Good job out there, Mark!!!
80. 23" (R) 81. 21" (R) 82. 21" (R) 83. 27" (R) 84. 21" (R) 85. 23" (R) 86. 28.5" (R)

[AJ's Dad]

"If I would have put in a full day, I might not have lost the lead! Good job out there, Mark!!!"

That's what you get for only fishing part of the day!! Keep your eyes peeled for my tail lights as I pull away into the sunset! LOL
I'm planning to fish on Saturday. Hopefully they will be biting and I can increase my lead. You should have thrown some frogs at them. LOL
Hopefully we can get together and fish again before too long.

[farmer_aa]

I did throw a few frogs. Always! I'll put this post up since I fished yesterday and might as well remain in the lead for 1 day. I did tell The King to make sure and throw in on you at every opportunity today, tangle lines, etc... As for yesterday, a cool morning followed a freezing night, surface temps started at 63 and ended at 66. Slightly warmer in the main lake than the southern shallows and crystal clear there. I ended up with four more and one decent one that came from the main lake. Yes, we'll definitely have to fish together some this fall, Mark!
87. 26" (R) 88. 22" (R) 89. 30", 7.5 lbs (R) 90. 25" (R)

[AJ's Dad]

The King and I had a great day fishing the chains yesterday.
We fished one of my favorite chain lakes and never had to leave to find more fish. We did however have to leave to retrieve the King's mid day meal. Oh ya, and his smokes. I would have shared my lunch with him but he said he might not be too pleasent to be around if he didn't have his smokes. So, after a 2 or 3 hours of fishing we headed back to the boat launch (about a 10 minute run) and gathered his things.
I started the day catching some small pike and it looked as though Arthur was going to show the world that you can lead the King to the water, but you can't make him catch pike. LOL
I built a substantial lead on him. I believe at one point he was behind by 11 or 12 fish. However at the end of the day he put on a charge and caught 4 or 5 fish in a very short time and ended the day with 12 pike. Most of the fish were small but hungry and as always, fun to catch. My biggest fish of the day was a 28 1/2"er and his was what we called a 25"er. While going for the tape measure the fish started thrashing and Arthur directed it over the side of the boat to splash and dart away. I decided to finally fish a section of the lake that I had never fished before in 25 years of going there. Wow, have I been missing out. We pulled into that section and got a fish on 2 casts and we ended the day catching about half of our fish there. Shortly after releasing the first fish in that area, I had a 30"+ pike (my laser eye tape measure put it at about 34") nail a spinnerbait close to the boat. I got a good hookset on it and it stripped out some line then, "Boink" the hook came out and the biggest fish of the day was gone. Go figure. The fish were mostly in 4 to 8 feet of water. Water temps were 60-65 degrees. We ended the day catching them on everything we threw at them except spoons. No spoon fish, what's that all about. They hit spinnerbaits, X raps, husky jerks, soft plastic savage gear (big and small), and frogs.
Total pike for the day was Arthur 12, Mark 18.
18 more pike brings me to 106 on the year. It looks like things are shaping up nicely for this fall. I'm looking forward to getting back on the main lake in a couple of weeks. The wife and I are headed to the Grand Canyon on thursday so I'll be out of the water for a while.
Species were, 30 pike, 3 large mouth bass, and one nice crappie about 11 or 12" (caught on a #14 husky jerk). All fish were released.
At this point last year I only had 75 pike released. That puts me 31 fish ahead of last year. Come on Fall pike! I'm hoping for 200 this year.
PS. Just an FYI to the guy that says pike don't bite before 10am. We had about 6 fish in the boat by 10am and the first one came before 7:30.

[AJ's Dad]

Fished the main lake at Cda yesterday and a couple of the chains. Got most pike in the main lake. The weeds there look amazing and put out some decent fish. No monsters yet but I did get 8 more pike on the day with the 2 biggest being 30"-7 1/2 pounds and 32"- 9lbs.
8 more on the day gives me 114 for the year so far.

[AJ's Dad]

4 more pike today puts me at 118 for the year so far. Had a great day catching and netting a pike well over 40" and exceeding 20 pounds. Unfortunately while I was unhooking it, it managed to flop, break one hook, straighten another and swim away without getting a photo. We did however get video of me catching the fish. Got 2 others that were 30 and 31" and one dink. 7 minutes after my big one, Mark K landed and we photoed his nice 39" 15lb 11ozer. Great day today. Nice quality fish an outstanding October weather.