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Piker Pictures #1

2K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  Quentin 
#1 ·
Just came back from a week of Pike fishing with my Buddy Jean.
Here are some of the pics of the "Thrills of the Pike"
 
#11 ·
Rods & Flies

I use 2 rods, both 9 wt. 7 wt is the back up in case of breakage..
Sage 9100 RPL for the dry line, the 10 ft lenght helps get the large fly and WF belly out faster since I retrieve the fly right up to the boat, leaving a 6 ft. leader and fly to dangle for a bit. Many pike will grab it right ther and sneak up from under the boat. It is a blast when they do so but dangerous to break a rod tip.
Orvis Trident TL tip flex for the Teeny mini sink tip line.
Flies mostly feather patterns on the dry line and mostly Yak hair or Rabbit fur or Icelandic sheep hair on the sink tip. ALL BARBLESS
9Wt because I can fight the fish faster and get to release them faster, better chance of survival. The big ones, 15 lbs.+ need to be revived for several minutes to make sure they get their gills going again and more so if the hook set was inside their mouth. Only lost one fish due to hook set, it must have hit the brain because that fish hit and then there was no fight and the hook was inside on the roof of the mouth. Made for a great tasting treat.
All the flies from the swap were used and all caught fish. Many are now totally destroyed, hardest hit was the giant black feather one with a red/orange marabou throat, next was the red & white with barbell eyes, third were the Dahlberg diver types on a dry line with a hard jerky motion.
Thank's to the archive, I was able to replicate the patterns.
Pike season for me is all but over now with the water temp getting to the hight 60's the big guys move to deeper water and are more difficult to target with a fly.
Next is trout and I have to wait for run-off to ease up, probably another 10 days or so and until then, I'll keep thinking about the strippers and blues I am NOT hooking up with other than VIRTUALLY on the board.
 
#12 ·
Re: Rods & Flies

FrenchCreek said:
I use 2 rods, both 9 wt. 7 wt is the back up in case of breakage..

Pike season for me is all but over now with the water temp getting to the hight 60's the big guys move to deeper water and are more difficult to target with a fly.
Thanks Pete. Guess I'll stick with the 9 wt even though the big ones are few and far between around here.

Do you have pike in the rivers in your area? It seems like the pike fishing in the river near my house actually gets better in the heat of the summer.

Q
 
#13 ·
Hi Quentin,
There are pike in the lower Bow, some 200 miles or more downstream from Calgary, so I'm told. I only fish pike in lakes since the lakes are closer. Pike in rivers can be found further north in large basins/watersheds but mostly we find them in lakes. IF they were in our local rivers, they would surely eat all of our trophy trout. I like it that way, trout in the Bow and Pike in the lakes.
PS lakes is a somewaht of a misnomer, many of these are man made irrigation reservoirs which have been stocked with pike & walley. Most cold water natural lakes hold trout rather than pike, there are a few exceptions of course, such as the much larger lakes which also hold pike AKA Slew Sharks or Jackfish around here. I do remember fishing for pike when I was a kid in the Ottawa river and the St-Lawrence system. I guess those warmer waters are more favourable for them. Rivers around here are mostly fed from the cold melt of the rockies, maybe pike prefer warmer climes..
 
#14 ·
Pete -- After I pushed "submit" I realized that you probably don't have the slow, warm water rivers like the one where I catch pike in my area. I don't think they like the faster flowing water too much. I've read that smaller pike tend to tolerate the warm water much better than larger pike, and that when pike reach a certain size they relocate to colder water. I've also read that (in my area, at least) the larger pike seem to go on a bit of a feeding binge in August even though the water is warm. This seems to agree with the pattern that I see here. Most (maybe all?) of the really big pike caught in my area have been taken through the ice. I recall reading about only one 20# class fish that was caught in open water. BTW, the "big" ones that we catch are more like your "30%" category!

Q
 
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