Our third annual pike clave turned out to be held on a single boat. A few members had to cancel in the week leading up to the event, so Adrian and I went out to try and harass some fish.
Our timing on the water coincided with a few hours before low tide; there's about two feet worth of tidal influence on the CT River as far north as we were, so some pike areas were not quite accessible from the start. We tried a few of my early season striper spots with no dice. We then started our search for pike and began to see them here and there, honest 30" plus fish. But the bigger fish were not interested in what we were casting.
We ended up in a very much out of the way backwater channel and started to catch a mixed bag of fish.....largemouth bass, yellow perch, sunfish, crappie, and yes, even some small pike. This particular area held the most active fish of the day, probably because of water temperature. We tried a few other spots, and although there were some follows and short strikes from bigger pike, we only landed smaller fish.
It was interesting to note that both pike hooked by Adrian were caught on a small clouser that he was using trying to dupe some of the smaller species. And a crappie that he caught was enormous....an honest 12 or 13", and well over a pound in weight. Adrian, don't expect me to be able to call a shot like that again any time soon.
All in all it was a fine day, if not a bit on the cold and windy side. I had a blast fishing with Adrian and very much look forward to the next time we hook up.
Coming next spring....Pike Clave IV.
Oh, and Pete....I'm ready for some bigger pike.
Our timing on the water coincided with a few hours before low tide; there's about two feet worth of tidal influence on the CT River as far north as we were, so some pike areas were not quite accessible from the start. We tried a few of my early season striper spots with no dice. We then started our search for pike and began to see them here and there, honest 30" plus fish. But the bigger fish were not interested in what we were casting.
We ended up in a very much out of the way backwater channel and started to catch a mixed bag of fish.....largemouth bass, yellow perch, sunfish, crappie, and yes, even some small pike. This particular area held the most active fish of the day, probably because of water temperature. We tried a few other spots, and although there were some follows and short strikes from bigger pike, we only landed smaller fish.
It was interesting to note that both pike hooked by Adrian were caught on a small clouser that he was using trying to dupe some of the smaller species. And a crappie that he caught was enormous....an honest 12 or 13", and well over a pound in weight. Adrian, don't expect me to be able to call a shot like that again any time soon.
All in all it was a fine day, if not a bit on the cold and windy side. I had a blast fishing with Adrian and very much look forward to the next time we hook up.
Coming next spring....Pike Clave IV.
Oh, and Pete....I'm ready for some bigger pike.