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Pike are the most stuburn fish! I've caught pike that have been hit by boat props attacked by larger fish, still have lures in there mouth, ripped up gills. If you take your time releasing them ( sounds like you put in the effort) then they can and will survive. A pike with a busted lip will have no trouble surviving! She should be happy she caught such a large fish this time of year! Just good to hear that she let it swim away and it didn't end up on the table. 34 inches is a great beading size pike so the fact that it swam away is great! hope to see it's spawn in 5 or so years.

I own all three reels in question and in my opinion the JM signature is in the same price range but not in quality. As for the shimano or Abu I would say it has to do with the type of fishing you do the most I have the STX on my flipping stick because the drag can be tightened down to somewhere around 28 lbs and it helps when pulling the big ones out of the slop. The curado I have on a casting rod since it's hard to beat how far it casts and how smooth it is. If I had to purchase only one then I would go curado it's just so smooth and a better all around reel. Also take a trip to lebaron and see what there prices are like there usually a quite a bit cheaper then bps. Eaither way you are jumping right into a high end reel good for you! You won't regret buying quality. Hope that helps. Frank

I have an extra heavy carrot stick and have It spooled with 50 lbs power pro and if the hook slips out of the plastic and catches some tough weeds I can point the rod tip down and pull and instead of breaking i just get pulled into it. The stuff is amazing! And believe me you need it to flip reeds and anyone who thought they can do it without the proper rod and line has always came home disappointed!

The key is the rod and the person holding it. If you have a rod that takes alot of the force of the fish pulling then you can get away with much lighter line I use 20 lbs braid on my spinning outfits and 40lbs on my baitcasters because you need to keep the diameter of line in the 10lbs range to have your reel work properly and not backlash as often. You can't beat the superlines that we have available to use today.

I can't stand italo he talks in a monotone and when he explains things I feel like he is talking to a slow person. Dave mercer may be a character but he is very knowledge and explains every thing he's doin and not only that the format of his show is the best because it's not filmed in multiple days and then edited into a half hour, it's like they say one day on the water and if he is having a rough day then that's what you see. WFN is a great network it has many shows that you can learn a few things from and some that are just to see people catching nice fish!!! Another great resource for learning things is Ontario Out Of Doors magazine because it deals only with things that affect us in Ontario. I've learned many new things since subscribing to it.