2013 Pike Tally

[AJ's Dad]

Had my first good ay pike fishing on saturday with 10 pike released and I missed another 7 or 8 fish. I was mainly fishing frogs so that accounts for the missed fish. It amazes me how they can get the entire bait in their mouth and when you put a manly hook set on them it can come out like there's no hook attached to that bait. LOL
Top 3 fish for the day were 27", 28" and 29". Also got 2 nice largemouth one crappie and one slab bluegill but those don't count on this thread. Total for the year was 9 up till now. Saturdays 10 fish day brings me to 19 on the year. If my math is right. I'm catching up a little.

[farmer_aa]

I'm glad someone had a good day on Saturday. I burned a bunch of fuel and fished Cougar Bay, Blue Creek Bay and Wolf Lodge Bay up north. I missed one early on that wasn't big and caught a skinny 17" fish in Wolf Lodge.
6/15/13 - 31). 17" (R)
I tried the south end on Monday night at the end of the hot streak and the shallows were up to 75 degrees and the fish were vacating the area. I did manage a couple, one on a Spook, so that was fun!
6/17/13 - 32). 21" (R) 33). 24.5" (K)
Guess I should have hit the Chains!

[AJ's Dad]

Had a good day pike fishing yesterday but didn't really put the numbers in the boat that I was expecting. I took Mark K along and he schooled me on how to put more fish in the boat. He got 9 and I only got 5. I guess finding 14 pike on the day wasn't too bad. Maybe I just shouldn't have shared that many of them with him.
I also landed and released 3 nice largemouth bass. 2 at a little over 3 lbs and on at 5lb 5 oz. They were a ton of fun to catch, especially the first bass of the day. We were trying topwater baits and 10 minutes in to the day one of those 3lbers hit a Zara Spook,
5 more pike brings my total to 24 on the year. Not off to a stellar start but I believe I will gain momentum in the comming weeks!!

[Lucius]

That is a heck of a largie!!! I got the skunky 2 weekends ago...was the anniversy weekend this past weekend....

[Gone Fishin]

Too bad I don't get on here much anymore. If I had known that you guys were talking pike I could have probably made you jealous a time or two. Buddy, I can't show off many Washington pike these days but Idaho has treated me well. One of these days you'll have to make it back up to these parts to catch some. I took a month and went down to the Gulf of Mexico to fish so I have been slacking on the pike catching this year, I haven't been after them since the Fins and Feathers pike tournament back in April. We had some really good days back in April, luckily for me our best day so far happened to be the first day of the tourney. I'll get out on CDA again in the next week or two and hopefully have something to show you.

[AJ's Dad]

Caught and released 9 more pike today. Top two fish were 30" and 35".
If I could get the dang bass to stop biting, I might catch a few more pike. LOL.
Previous count for me was 24. 9 more today brings me to 33 pike on the year so far.
This 35"er looks a lot like the one i posted back in 2011 with the crooked back and it was caught about a hundred feet from the same spot. I wonder if it's the same fish again. It was 7 1/2 lbs in 2011 and 10lb 12oz today if it's the same fish.

Todays 35"er is my biggest of the year so far. Dang thing had a head like a 20 lber.

[Natebg1]

Hey AJ's Dad!

Those are some really good looking fish, I think if those Pike continue to get to grow they may easily hit the 40 inch class in the near future! Just think what the Chain Lakes and the main lake of CDA would be like when an average Pike is 40+ inches, I bet In Fisherman would make an appearance for sure if they caught wind of that. Congrats on adding 9 more Pike to the Tally! I guess you could say I have a little catching up to do!
I won't lie, I have been invited out for a trip this coming weekend to hit some Steelhead and I am certainly not going to pass up an opportunity like this, I am hoping to finally get that elusive Steelie on the line that I have been working on for the past year and a half. Then after that if things work out I would like to take another trip sometime this month to come over and try my hand at catching Mr. Pike on the Fly!!! As Barry Reynolds would say "Pike hit Fly's with BAD INTENTIONS!" Good Luck and have a happy and safe 4th of July weekend with the Family. Tight Lines

Nate

[farmer_aa]

I went out on Sunday morning, June 30th. We got on the water at 6:30 and did some good for bass early, but the pike in the chain lake we fished were uncooperative, bringing just two small ones to the boat (my buddy caught a 21" and 17" fish). I caught a couple around noon on the main lake. Not sure if the water was too warm already in the Chain lake at 74 degrees by mid morning or if I just wasn't fishing them right. The two I caught in the main lake were over deeper weeds at 67 degrees. Nice work, AJ's Dad! You caught some really nice ones.

34). 25" (R) 35). 24" (R) Boy was the 25 incher a hot fish! It fought like a 10+ pounder.

[AJ's Dad]

As they round the corner and head through July, AJ's Dad takes the lead!!! (Of course down the stretch they come won't be here till October or November)

Released another 7 pike yesterday, bringing my total to 40 for the year. Man, I gotta have one of those big days here soon. Biggest day so far has been 10 fish. Last year on July 4th I released 23 pike. So far I haven't been able to find them all bunched up. Maybe tomorrow will be the day.
Average size was better yesterday with one at 27" two at 28" and one at 29" thrown in with three other fish in the 23" range. Great fighters though. One of those 28"ers thought he was a 15 pounder. I got him on a lighter weight spinning rod and a spoon so the figth was a blast!

MAIN LAKE.jpg (203.19 KiB) Viewed 10965 times

[AJ's Dad]

4 more yesterday on the main lake at Cda, brings me to 44 on the year. Nothing big but did miss a couple of nice ones. Spent the whole time fishing the north end of the lake.

[farmer_aa]

Those fish are all looking healthy. Knock 'em dead for me while I'm off the water for the next couple of months. I'm going to have some serious catch-up to do come this fall. I may not be Mr. October, but Mr. November possibly!

[AJ's Dad]

Saturday I added 6 more pike to my total for the year. Got them on spinner baits, x raps and frogs. Nothing big this time again. Missed one that looked a little over 30" right at the boat at the end of the day. Only fished from 5am till about 12:30 pm so it wasn't a bad day.
Those 6 bring me to 50 for the year. Still looking for that break out day with big numbers and some bigger fish.
Come on Buddy, get out there and fish a little!

[AJ's Dad]

Got out again on tuesday and released another 8 pike. Biggest was one at 27", 2 at 28" and one at 29".
Those 8 bring me to 58 on the year. Still looking for that 15 to 20 fish day.

[AJ's Dad]

Only managed 3 small pike on saturday. Here's a tip for you. If you hear there's big bass tourney going on at Cda lake, STAY HOME.
I had to battle for a spot all day with every bass boat from here to tim buck too. I'm guessing their weigh in was at about 4:30 because they all dissapeared at about 4 to 4:15. I got 2 of the 3 pike after that time.
Boating edicate seems to be nearly non existant on Cda Lake on a hot day. I watched as 6 boats were fishing a small area near Harrison. 6 boats in a group about the size of a football field and some Moron in a BIG pleasure boat thought he had to run right through the middle of them. That guy needed his butt kicked. The lake is about 2 miles wide at that point and he thought he had to drive through those boats. Where were the sheriffs jetskis when that happened?

3 more pike brings my total to 61 on the year.

[farmer_aa]

Nice work out there. I'm guessing that was the Panhandle Bass guy's Coeur d' Alene Classic. Yeah, too many boats those days. I hope mine is still floating; I haven't seen it for a month. It appears that the baby should arrive on Thursday as scheduled, leading me right into harvest and no fishing for pike until September. I have a LOT of catching up to do this fall. Catch a few more for me!

[AJ's Dad]

Did everyone quit pike fishing???????

For some crazy reason, I fished the POR with Mark K. on August 3rd. We just wanted to see if there were any left. I managed one skinny little 13 or 14 inch pike. We did however find a mother load of nice small mouth bass and ended the day with abot 30 of those per guy. Great fighters.
I fished Cda and a couple of chain lakes this saturday with the wife. It seems water temps ranging from 75 to 80 degrees have the fish taking some time off from biting. I did manage to release 5 pike on the day. The biggest fish of the day was a 30+ inch fatty that jumped about 10 feet from the boat and grraciously tossed my spinnerbait back to me. 10 minutes later I missed another decent fish but it was time to leave.
So, with a total of 6 pike in my last 3 trips, I'm sitting at 67 fish released for the year to this point.
Last count for farmer_aa looks like 35 fish. I better get moving or when he finishes harvest he will make a real run at me.
Hopefully this slow season will pick up when things cool down a little. Funny how we wait all winter for warm weather fishing, then we can't wait for things to cool down.

[Anglinarcher]

I have not done it in years, but I use to locate underwater humps in CDA close to where the Pike were during the early summer and jig or cast with deep swimbaits to 20', even 25' of water. I use to do quite well this time of year, but..... it is not so easy. LOL

[Natebg1]

Hey Anglinarcher,

Anytime you ever want to get out and go fish for Pike, Muskie, Walleye, or any fish for that matter give me a shout! I am sure you have plenty of GREAT Stories and techniques that you could teach a young buck like myself. I especially would like to learn some of your Fly Fishing techniques. PM me sometime and I will give you my phone number and we can plan it out. Being that you too are a Mid-West guy I am sure we could talk fishing, football, and many other things. Sounds like we also need to get you onboard for joining the Pike Tally, I am currently standing at 1 for the year, of course that was because I have only been able to fish where Pike are once this year, which is killing me! That's OK, because Fall is right around the corner and that is my favorite time of year to fish for them! Tight Lines and let me know if you want to meet up sometime.

Nate

[farmer_aa]

So I'm starting to tie up some loose ends here so I can try to get back on the water within the next few weeks. Harvest... I'll probably run out of dry lentils to cut tomorrow. Baby... landed a 7 lb. 11 oz 20.5 incher on July 25th. He's a keeper! And I ordered a new rod tonight, 7'11" St. Croix to replace an old worn out Bass Pro rod on the deck. AJ's Dad is looking to upgrade the below deck storage in his boat to accommodate longer rods, I'm guessing? Right on! We'll have to hit the water this fall. Good luck, and I've got some serious catching up to do in the tally!

[AJ's Dad]

Aaron,
Congrats on the new arrival!! Sounds like a new fishing partner in a few short years.
I'm not looking to lengthen the rod lockers. My 7'ers fit nicely in my boat now that I modified the locker a little. I just want to move on to a newer and bigger boat, if one will fit into the garage alright. I have my eye on one. Now I just need to sell mine and get the ball rolling. I love my boat, it's just that the sound of something newer and bigger has me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
Let's hook up and catch a few when you get done making a living for a while.