Today's outing

[salmotrutta]

Was in the mood for some live bait fishing today, so I went to a pool that always produces shiners and chubs, in hopes of taking them for some pike fishing. Only managed 2 rainbows there, so decided I'd just use hardware.

I went with one of my favourite spoons today, a cheap Lucky Strike spoon, on which I always replace the treble and add a ring to the top. It's a light spoon with a nice wobble if retrieved slowly. With the colder temps, I figured the fish may be somewhat lethargic and the slower action of this spoon could help me catch more fish today.

Within just a few minutes, I hooked into a beauty pike. Somewhere around 4-5lbs, it fought really hard and had a nice girth to it. It looked very healthy, and took off with such a splash that my shoes and pants got a nice little soaking.

Second fish of the day was a bass. Nice surprise, as I haven't got any recently.

As I was leaving, I peered into the water and noticed an enormous pike. It was very close to where I was standing, so I jigged my spoon in front of it. After a few jigs, it sped off. Oh well, it was great just seeing this monster.

I saw schools of smaller fish swimming around today, I'm not sure if they were smelts or perch or whatever else, but it was good to see them in the late fall.

 

[dockmuskie]

awesome, great catches. That bass picture is really cool I don't think I have ever seen one with that angle and lure still in mouth. Makes it more interesting than the standard bass mugshots.

 

[FishingNoob]

Nice shots. Seems like no one else can get the bass or pike to co-operate other then you! Well done!

 

[grubman]

Great catches as always. Bass on that spoon, that's cool.

 

[CanadianAngler87]

Nice fish man glad to see some cold weather Bass and Pike.

 

[AaronKrick]

Nice fish. Great pics too.

 

[Brian]

Nice catches Salmo...

 

[christotheashto]

nice fish, always nice to see some warmer water species this late in the season.
pike looks closer to 2 lbs though, definitely nowhere near 4-5

 

[dockmuskie]

nice fish, always nice to see some warmer water species this late in the season.
pike looks closer to 2 lbs though, definitely nowhere near 4-5

the camera always subtracts 3 pounds.. one of my personal fishing philosophies

 

[salmotrutta]

the camera always subtracts 3 pounds.. one of my personal fishing philosophies

You're correct dockmuskie.

I just measured, it's 5lbs.

Click here for length/weight chart for pike: http://www.duenorthoutposts.com/content/FYI/Length-Weight_Chart/

Those bars are 17cm long, as measured from the vertical zipper on my jacket. This pike is just shy of 68 cm, and 68 cm is 26.8 inches.

That's not factoring in that it was very fat due to the time of year, and more girthy than the average pike, which likely pushes it over 6lbs.

I got a 6lber this summer, and everyone was saying "2 lbs max" after I landed it. So I weighed it. It was only 26" long, and weighed a little over 6lb. The pike is about 3/4 of the way down this report:
Click Here for July 29th 2012 Report

Here's a pic of the 6lber from the summer if you're too lazy to click the report

Seeing as the 6lber from the summer ended up dead because it slipped off my scale, I just had someone take a quick pic for me yesterday and back she went, no length or weight measurement needed because I catch enough of these to be able to get a fairly good estimate now.

 

[AaronKrick]

Another nice fish! :grin: