PIKE: Start of The Season

Hi all!

Thank you again for visiting & reading my blog. It's been a while since the last blog updates, but anyway, I think writing a blog is like running a marathon, not a 100 m sprint.

I started my season just the next day after the ice had left the bank where I keep my boat. There were still some ice slabs floating in the lake, so the water wasn't too warm yet. At least the sun was shining - which is a good thing for fishing in the very early spring. Warming water usually means active fish. 

The start wasn't too good, but I switched to a new spot on the lake, where I had struggled last autumn (not catching a single bite!) Somehow my thoughts started wandering during my drive from the first spot to the second. I just love bright colored lures, especially when everything else in the surroundings are still dead and colorless. 

Colors. LOT OF COLORS! In the background is the new Patriot Pikehound 7' 50-100g rod.

So the new spot wasn't too easy, but I still remembered the rule from last season: "on this lake thou shalt not fish with paddletails!". So I switched to S-curve action lure (Line-Thru Trout 20 cm). The first cast gave me this 102 cm pike. It had some kind of a big wound on its back. I felt sorry for the little critter. Hopefully it will recover from his/her wounds. 

After catching my first pike of the season, I switched to SG Shine Glider 18 cm and started catching again (totaled around 7 pike). I fished the reeds with the new Patriot Pikehound 7' casting rod. I really liked it, as the rod butt section is quite short and really easy to handle while switching hands. Not my choice for pelagic pike fishing, but for casting in the reeds - a really good choice indeed!

What in the world happened to you?! 

Pike: Sometimes Bigger Is Better

Dear readers,

I was fishing for pike last weekend. I wanted to test how paddletail shads work on my lake. Well, I went through several lures and I fished for two hours without any bites. After that I didn't change the spot, but changed the lure type. So I switched to a 20 cm Savage Gear Line-Thru Trout, and on the first cast I had a bite (but lost the fish). A few casts later I got a nice pike of 5,8 kg. It's not always about finding the right color, but the right action. You just can't be blind with one type of a lure, and think this is going to work 365 days a year. In my opinion, you will have more constant fishing with a range of different lure types than having a single lure type with all the color variations. You won't probably have the best color of the day, but you will have less blank days.

Oh yes - the topic of this blog was big lures. I found out that 20 cm lure is too small, so I changed it to a 30 cm Line-Thru Trout. And I started to catch pike with it. Even the small 2-3 kg pike were hitting the lure viciously. A 30 cm lure is just a snack for the big pike.

But hey, I'm just a beginner on pike fishing. Don't believe me :) 

A 20 cm Savage Gear Line-Thru Trout is in all kinds of trouble here!

Pike: Comfortably Fat and Spotted

So, you've never heard of spotted carp (besides some koi). Well there's no koi carp in Finland. This blog entry is again about pike. Fishing lakes, to be precise.

Some might say that my catches are rather modest considering the size of the pike I am catching. I don't actually care, because I am having way too much fun fishing. And that is what I want when I go out of my door.

I was fishing last weekend:

On Saturday I managed to catch some pike (up to 3,5kg) with Savage Gear Hard Eel 25 cm. I then switched to spinnerbait (Da'Bush) and headed up close to the reeds. Some 5-7 smallish pike from there (up to 2,5 kg), and after this I decided to head back for deeper waters. The big pike weren't hanging around the reeds (at least for now on this spot). I browsed through my lure box for something different that I could use on deeper water - and still have a strong swimming action on slower speeds. Luckily I had one 20cm Savage Gear Line-Thru Trout (Albino) in my lure box, so I decided to give it a try. I had two casts which were not producing anything. On the third cast, I had two strikes which I couldn't connect. I was devastated. The fourth cast was empty, but just next to the boat a pike struck the lure viciously! I was thinking that this is just another 3kg pike... wrong. The rod bent quite steeply and I started to think this was not a 3kg pike. After a strong scrap just below my boat I got the fish into the landing net. A nicely formed pike (you could see the belly from above the fish) Nice! The next cast I connected again. The scrap was still quite hard - and I managed to net even a bigger pike than the last one.

A different pike (and heavier) than the one on the picture below. Pike are absolutely magnificient creatures! Treat them with respect.

 

Well... actually you DO look a bit fat!

My trip on Sunday started quite nicely. First cast with the same line-thru trout resulted in 4,5 kg pike and the second cast (bite already on the drop!) got me a fat 5 kg pike. (These were smaller than the ones I had on Saturday, but they are still really nice fish in my standards.) I had some really fantastic pike fishing, changing lures from every now and then - catching totally around 25 pike in 4 hours of fishing. Cannot really complain. I must get some resin to fix all my swimbaits...

Something Else

Dear readers, confessions are hard to make. I had a very tough carping season, with some success, and a lot of blanking. Carrying on my blanking streak to October, I decided it was time for change. It was time for pike fishing.

I know this blog is not about pike fishing, but I sincerely think I wasn't supposed to write about blanking either. So I headed off to a lake to start my serious piking after 10 years of "idontfishforpiketoomanyteeth". I fished from my old boat, and managed to catch a single pike, and I was already happy with that. Some lakes can be notorious for their pike - they are not always easy to catch. The pike fell for Savage Gear Da'Bush Spinnerbait 32g in color FT. 

I was also testing a new 2016 model of Okuma Azores 40S spinning reel. In our waters, it is the perfect pike reel, and according to my testing - it really is. I was fishing with my Patriot Pike Specialist (244cm up to 75g), and casted even 25 cm Hard Eel with it. Of course I had to be gentle with my casting, but it still managed to do the job. Don't still go above the casting limit. I won't be responsible for any breakages. :)

I changed my spot to a deeper area, but I still wanted to fish with the spinnerbait. I let the spinnerbait sink to the bottom, and started to retrieve steadily (with ultra-short stoppages). The first cast brought me a hard fighting 80 cm pike (3,5kg). In total I caught around 8 pike from that small area in a matter of couple of hours.

In the next day, I caught a 101cm (6,2kg) with the same Da'Bush spinnerbait. In total, I caught around 40 pike in 4 days of fishing. Not a bad start for my re-established piking career. I was more than happy, and I have got to admit, pike strikes are addictive. This will not be the end of my carping, but it is the start of my piking.

The pike with the lure still hanging in its mouth.

101cm pike after 12 pikes - it sounds all too easy. But it isn't :)