2015 PIKE TALLEY

[harleypiker]

The level has come up about 4 feet over a couple weeks ago when you and I fished different days. There is 2 to 4 feet of water around the islands but they are not covered--that takes closer to flood stage or unusually high spring flow to do that as far as I know. I think someone told the BPA that there was no snow last winter and they suddenly decided to bring up the water levels early. Roosevelt stopped lowering to 1250 instead of the earlier planned 1230. The slow filling forward should help egg survival greatly.

[AJ's Dad]

That's good to hear. I'll have to go give them another try

[Fish-N-Fool]

So I had a good evening fishing on Easter Sunday, got to the lake at 4:30 pm and fished till 7:30 it wasn't quite dark, but it was really getting cold. The good part is I had 5 bites total had 4 fish on and landed 3. The fish I lost I think was a pretty big Pike as it stripped drag hard before it went bye bye. It just came unhooked for some reason. The bad part is I had trouble with my camera and it didn't get the video I made of my second fish which was smaller about a 4 lb. pike, but the worst part is I also lost the picture of the giant Large-mouth Bass I got!!! It said the files were corrupt. I was running out of battery and couldn't take any more but I thought I got 1 good shot of it. Sadly it didn't work. I didn't get to weigh it either as my scales are still broke, but I did tape it. It was 20 1/2 " long with a girth of 17" . The fish calculator says that's just a hair under 6 lbs. but it looked bigger to me. The only fish I got on film was this nice pike and about 7 to 8 lbs. The Pike I got on film and the huge Bass both hit on the Johnson Spoon with my own Kick-N-Fool trailer on it. The other smaller Pike hit a Firetiger Husky Jerk-14.
With 2 more on Easter Sunday that brings my Pike total up to 9.

Here is the video of my first pike of the day.
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[Fish-N-Fool]

Slow today with only 3 bites and 1 fish landed. This fish brings me to #10 on the year. She was a nice 32 1/2" fish with a girth of 16" so 11 to 12 pounds I say.

[AJ's Dad]

Looks like you're off to a quick start. Are you unemployed or something? Lol

[Fish-N-Fool]

Looks like you're off to a quick start. Are you unemployed or something? Lol

No but I only work when I want to as I'm semi retired as far as working for other people, and of coarse My fishing lure business is only a job in the fact that the pay is chitty.

[AJ's Dad]

I finally made my first trip to Idaho for pike yesterday. Found main lake temps from 48 to 53-54 degrees. Chains were at 57. Only managed a couple decent bass and I released 2 pike on the day. That brings me to a whopping 3 pike for the year so far. Nothing big. Largest was about 26".

[AJ's Dad]

Well the Fins and Feathers pike tourney went about as usual for me. Once again we found fish but they were small keepers. Pretty scrappy for 23 to 24" fish. I really need to figure out how to find the bigger fish this time of year, or just stop donating my entry fees to the prize pot. LOL
I say we found fish, and we did, however, it was my partner the Packernut that put them in the boat. He caught 17 pike in two days while I, the suposed experienced pike guy, only managed 2 pike and 2 bass for 2 days.
I had plenty of hits but couldn't manage to get hooked up.
Two more gives me 5 for the year.

I did catch a 5lb 4oz largie while trying to catch pike.

[Fish-N-Fool]

Nice! I been putting the hurt on the Largie's as well. Went to the P.O. River last Sunday and I boated 60 with 12 of them over 3 pounds. biggest was just under 5 LB. I'd say at 19 3/4 in. long, Still need to get a new scale

[harleypiker]

Well, yesterday I lived out the glamour of pike fishing posted by AJ's Dad and Farmer in the Mar. 27 Walleye site "Pike at Kettle". While fishing off the Roosevelt shoreline I hook a nice scrapy little 17" walleye. Casting again my pole jolts straight down and a battle begins. Back and forth up and down the shoreline, pulling drag, bring him in and out he goes again. Man, I thought, this is one heck of a walleye! Then I see him off the tip of my 9 foot pole--a beauty. A 3 POUND PIKE!!! My first on Roosevelt pike. I was just talking to him then, asking how he liked it here compared to the P.O. river. "Well, he said, it sure ain't like home but it sure beats dodging all those lousy nets". "I would rather have stayed there, but when its time to get outa dodge, you gotta go". "And I ain't going down to the lower Columbia because I heard they are promoting sea lions by providing them lunch with 40% of the salmon and I don't want to get mixed up in that crowd!!" "When I grow up big like my 40 lb grampa over on the P.O. before they killed him, maybe I'll go down there and find out what those lions taste like!" So I shook him off and he mama are looking for a nice little spot to lay their eggs which should be successful this spring since the water is being held steady at 1250 elevation and soon to rise a little. That brings my 2015 count up to nine. My son caught another 3lb.pike also. I am getting lots of reports of pike being caught and a faithful following of pike fishermen are steadily growing on Roosevelt.

[AJ's Dad]

NIce to hear you found some pike in the river. I have mixed emotions about it. I have minimal concerns about the pike doing damage to the salmonoid fishery in Roosevelt. I am no fisheries expert and my opinion is that pike will have little to no effect on trout and salmon in Roosevelt or anywhere in the Columbia system, however, that's just an opinion and you know what they say about opinions.
On the other hand, I get all warm and fuzzy when I think about a pike fishery getting established in Washington. It would be nice to have a choice as to where I can catch the fish of "my choice", and not have it dictated to me by the WDFW and whoever else thinks they can get their hands in the big money pots that can and most likely will doll out the big bucks to eradicate them from the columbia.
And now, a moment of silence for the pike fishery in the Pend Orielle River.

[Fish-N-Fool]

So I had a first out Pike fishing at a small local lake the other day. I was throwing a 7" hard swimbait and chatting to my fishing partner for the day and not really watching where my bait was. All of a sudden the water exploded and I feel a jerk on my line. What I had on the end of my line was an Osprey flying away with my bait!!! We fought over it for a bit, but I won after a struggle and it dropped my bait. I did manage to also land 1 small pike so, now my yearly total is 11 Pike and 1 Osprey.

[AJ's Dad]

You can obviously count the pike, but you'll have to start your own osprey talley thread.
By the way have you checked the regs to see what the limit on osprey is? I'm guessing they're a catch and release only critter. Maybe there's no limit since you were using artificial bait.
I wonder if they are native to the waters you have been fishing. Maybe they're considered invasive and a threat to the west slope freaking cutthroat trout. I'll bet we can solicit the BPA for a few million bucks to eradicate them.
Lets hire Jason Conner to look in to that for us.

[Mark K]

Haha, definitely get Connor involved! He could be a "National Osprey Expert" with 5 minutes of research! He did it Pike you know!

[Lucius]

Well it took me a little while, but I was finally able to get out and do some pike fishing. I was lucky enough to fish 1 day at Devils Lake in North Dakota. It took a very long while as we didn't catch our first pike until 3 pm, but once we caught our first is just kind of took off from there. We put 20 in the boat. I was lucky enough to get 15 and my buddy was able to get 5. It was so nice to be on the water and get some action.....2 week until CDA and 3 until Last Mountain....I am hoping to have a stellar pike year Here's to a good start with 15 on the year

Biggest was a couple of 30 inchers

[harleypiker]

way to go, Buddy. I frequently went by Devil's Lake when it was a 'pond' while traveling to college NW of there at Bottineau. That would be unique fishing around barns and farm machinery now. Good to see the pike are doing well. All I see on TV for Devil's Lake is usually walleye and perch.

[Fish-N-Fool]

Got some nice Bass while Pike fishing tonite at my favorite N. Idaho lake.



With the biggest at 6.6 lbs. Poor picture but it really was a toad.


But the real story is I think I'm cursed, I was just about to call it a nite as I hadn't had a bite lately. When I heard a huge splash and I looked it that direction and saw the water still spraying in the air. I saw no Osprey fly off so I knew it was a fish and a big one. I motored across the lake over to about the spot I saw the fish jump. I made about 5 casts with my 7" Firetiger swimbait with no action so I changed it up a bit and started using more like a jerkbait then a swimbait and on the 3 cast working the area I saw the splash I felt a tick at first and then the rod loaded up and I had hooked into it. About 35 feet away a Monster Emerged . It came up and did a tail walk with almost all of it's huge body out of the water. It was a Monster Pike and although I didn't see it all I'd say it was 45" to 48" long and about 28 to 32 lbs. It went back down and bull dogged into the weeds for a bit, then it shot out like a bullet as the boat got close and it snapped my 30 lb. braid above the leader like it was butter. Yet again I have lost another monster pike as I have so many times before I have had on well over a dozen pike over 25lbs and for one reason or another I have lost them all.

This one was a case of I had my drag set to tight as I didn't think anything in there could snap my 30lb braid , I was wrong!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I really wish I had my hat cam on and running, that video would have been epic!

[AJ's Dad]

AAHHHHH yes, the one that got away. Keep reliving the experience and it will get bigger by the day. I know that's what happens to me. LOL

[AJ's Dad]

Had a decent day for pike yesterday with the packernut. I managed 4 more pike to bring me to 9 on the year.

[Lucius]

Come on now. What were the specs on those fish?