2014 Pike tally!

[Lucius]

Congrats guys....I was enjoying my Denver Broncos and you guys were enjoying the pike......I would rather enjoy the pike than watch tv to be honest. Also guys do forget to put your biggest pike up on the biggest pike of 2014 thread.....nobody has been posting to that. I wanted that to be a library of your biggest fish to date for the year and not just an end of year thing. Any way congrats again!!!!!

[AJ's Dad]

4 more pike today gives me 122 for the year. Finally ahd a multi big fish day with a 31" 7lb 9oz, 33" 10lb 7 oz, and a 38 1/2" 15lb 13ozer. It should only get better from here on for a while as the water cools!!!!
Get up here and catch some pike Lucious!!

[Lucius]

Less that two weeks and counting!!!! And I'm bringing the PIKE rig!!! Nice fish mark.... And and did I tell you guys I plan to catch up when I'm up there....I'm only down 122 pike....

[AJ's Dad]

9 more pike yesterday brings my total to 131 for the year. I only need 8 more to tie last years total output.
Had a great day yesterday with 5 of my 9 pike going 30" or bigger. No monsters made it to the boat but I did have 4 REAL BIG fish roll on the biat that didn't hook up.
I'm saving those for you next weekend Mr. Hartman.

[Lucius]

It's on like donkey kong...I will have to bring you a Broncos hat too!!!

[AJ's Dad]

Nothing I would rather wipe fish slime on than a Broncos hat!! Bring it!!

[AJ's Dad]

I'll be fishing with "Lucious" in a few hours. He has lots of ground to make up if he's going to win the 2014 pike talley. Unless of course you don't think 131 fish is a lot of ground.
I think I'll let him get a few this trip.

[farmer_aa]

Oct5.14 Pike 7.5 lbs web.jpg (186.1 KiB) Viewed 5309 times

It's always tough to have a good numbers day, out-fishing "The King," Mark and Mark put together, only to get a text message from the Marks that they've put a 20+ pounder and a near 16 pounder in the boat, which could eat any of my fish caught to that point.
Oh well, good job guys. It was a nice day with water in the 63-65 degree range, slightly clouded in the south end, with main lake very clear. Fish came on spoons, frogs, and deep swim baits for me. Lots of aggressive fish, with some bigger follows and many missed strikes and a very active day on the water.
91. 25" (R) 92. 22" (R) 93. 26" (R) 94. 25" (R) 95. 23" (R) 96. 20" (R) 97. 25.5" (R) 98. 25.5" (R) 99. 30", 7.5 lbs (R, Pic)

[farmer_aa]

26.5 in for web.jpg (197.98 KiB) Viewed 5307 times

I got one more quick trip to report earlier this week. Just a few hours on the water and then to pull the boat for some maintenance. Water temps were in the near 60 degree range. I missed several and had a follow from a good fish, but only brought one to hand. Triple digits, though! The first time I've managed that in a year, so I shouldn't complain too much about Mark stretching the lead!
100. 26.5" (R)

[AJ's Dad]

Aaron,
Congrats on getting to the century mark in the pike talley! We are going to have to hook up again this year.
Well, I will do this in two posts, one for Friday and one for saturday. I fished with Lucious (Buddy Hartman) and his friend Scott, both are from southern Idaho.
I got Friday off to a good start by landing and releasing a nice 6lb largemouth bass. He was hanging out in one of my new favorite pike spots. After that fish I released a dink pike about 24". We moved down the lake and the fun really started. We fished all day catching pike on spoons, frogs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and swimbaits. We got a total of 26 pike and the one largemouth. I added 19 pike to my total bringing me to a nice round 150 for the year. We had lots of fish in the 5-6lb range with the biggest being my 34" 10 pounder. Lucious had 5 and Scott got 2. Those 2 fish were Scott's first pike ever.
Water temps were for the ost part 54-56 degrees all day long. Fish were once again on the outside of the weed edges. Had a couple of monsters follow to the boat and lost one real nice fish on the Big Hammer swimbait. Once again as you can see in the photo I found on of those pale looking like. His color didn't slow down his ability to fight though.

[AJ's Dad]

As for Saturday,
It looks like I used up my luck on friday. I only managed 2 pike today. I got them in the first 10 minutes of the day, then missed several more fish throughout the day.
2 pike today puts me at 152.
Highlight of the day was Scott's (the Rookie) big slob pike. I have been catching fish on bright colored spinnerbaits but I thought it would be interesting to see if Black would work today so I handed him a 1/2 oz black and blue spinnerbait. All he did was proceed to stick a 41 1/2" porker that weighed in at 20lbs 1oz. My fish were small so here's a photo of Scotts monster. Needless to say he was more than a little over joyed. Pretty cool to see a guy catch his first 2 pike yesterday then land a monster like this one the next day.

[farmer_aa]

Man, what a toad! Nice work out there, guys. Glad that the Big Hammer has done some good too. I like those. One more weekend of Haunted Palouse and I'll be back on the water for my favorite month. Although it looks like October has been the real killer month this year for big fish. Congrats to Scott! It's hard to comprehend how special that fish is when it's one-third of the pike you've caught go over 20 lbs. But it's a mark I'm still shooting for, and am more than a little jealous!

[Lucius]

Yeah and to think at lunch time on Friday I was within 1 fish of Mark, before he turned on the afterburners and left me in the dust. I caught 5 on the 24 and 3 more on the 25th with a bonus 3.5 largie....So my total and final on the year (unless I will the lottery) is 8 pike. A far cry from where I was last year and still 144 back from Mark, but it was damn good to get in the fall air of and catch some pike!!! I have attached a horizontal hold of Scotts fish that really shows the belly and also one of mine. And a hats off to Scott for being a rookie at pike fishing and never catching a pike and hanging with some serious pike anglers for a 2 day pike geek out session. That not very easy for the un-expecting, but he was paid well for his efforts as you can all see.

Oh and Marks boat sure does a good job of ruining 40 mph as fast on the water.....with 775 pounds of men on the boat and all of the gear, going 61 mph was very impressive....definitely blows your hair back and after going that fast, 40 mph felt like 10 mph!!! Thanks for taking us out Mark, it definitely was an awesome trip.

[AJ's Dad]

When this year is over I will tke my righful place as AJ's Dad The "Pike Whisperer"

[AESox]

Well i don't know why it took me so long to update my Pike tally... probably because I was hoping to get a big pike picture along with some better numbers... OH WELL! Last month i was on the water with AJ's Dad and, after plenty of stubbornness and reluctance to catch fish, ended up nearly doubling my YTD fish in one day adding 12 (largest around 24-25") to my 18 to be at 30 for the year. It is getting late in the season and the pictures of hefty pike has got my twitching with excitement... Fingers crossed for a good season ender!

[AJ's Dad]

Finally talked my brother in to going pike fishing again yesterday. Aparently the weather was too inclimate to golf, so we headed to Cda lake. The first fish of the day was the biggest and he caught it. A nice fat 28"er weighing in at 7lbs. He ended the day with 9 pike and I got 14 bringing my total for the year to 166.
Now the question is-------------- Can I make it to 200 for the year. I'm not sure how long the weather will hold out but fall fishing has been great so far this season, with lots of fish and quite a few big ones.

[AJ's Dad]

Squeezed in another trip to Cda today with the packernut. Weather looked great in Spokane so we headed out a little later than normal. Lots more boats out today than yesterday. I added 8 more to my yearly total bring the count to 174. Looks like the 200 mark may elude me though. I managed to lose my balance when I was reaching to grab this hunch back 33"er out of the net. A wave hit us and almost tossed me out of the boat. When I thrashed around loking for footing, I inadvertantly stomped on the pedal to the trolling motor and broke the steering cable. We'll see how long it takes to get a new one and get it installed. Most fish were caught on the x raps today. Lots of those 5-7 pound fish out there right now.

[Lucius]

Your like a race horse speeding away!!!! You'll make 200...your only 26 fish away...that's like 1 good outing right...if my memory serves me correctly didn't you catch 31 the 2nd day in December?

[AJ's Dad]

That 31 fish day was on Nov 9th. Looks like it's going to take aweek to get the steering cable for the trolling motor. We'll see if the 200 mark can be reached. Not sure how many more trips I'll get in this year.

[farmer_aa]

11.8.14 Pike 28.5.web.jpg (118.16 KiB) Viewed 5071 times

AJ's Dad, The King and I fished a full day on November 8th, 2014. The fishing was decent, but not fast, with lots of competition for fishing spots. I managed to boat 4 more fish, mostly on Big Hammers on deep bites along outside weed edges.
101. 28" (R) 102. 23.5" (R) 103. 26" (K) 104. 26.5" (K)