Northwest Fishing Reports

Well I hate to say this but the fishing was rather slow up at Last Mountain Lake this trip. 4 years ago I released 157 pike. 2 years ago, 106 pike and this year I only released 58 pike. The quality of the fish was great with a majority of them measuring over 32". My biggest was 41", and 40", with several in the 36-39" range. this brings me to 94 on the year.
Bummer conditions created the lower fish count. They didn't get much snow up there this year, resulting in low water levels. That along with a lot of wind created shallow water with poor water clarity. We and a great time and 58 fish in 5 1/2 days is still good production. I guess I was spoiled the last two trips.

I have to admit I am having a hard time feeling bad for you Mark

I do wish you had a better trip though. I know how it sucks to get stuck with bad weather on a big expedition.

7 more on Saturday brings me to 101. A 35"er was top fish of the day and my biggest this year in the lower 48. You can see my report for the photo. Kind of a pain to add them on the forum.

I fished the north end of Cda with a friend last night after work for a few hours and released 5 small pike. I'm at 106 for the year. Watched a giant follow the bait back to the boat but she was a window shopper. No biter

Getting behind on my posting I have had some great nights fishing here lately. I got 11 pike to-nite including this 41" toad and I got 8 last Sunday as well as 6 more a few days before that. My count is up to 64 now, with 3 fish over 20 lbs.and a bunch over 10. # Pike so far; 64
# of fish over 10 lbs; 10
# of fish over 20 lbs; 3

Went out Pike fishing 2 nites ago. Ended up going by myself and had a ruff nite with all kinds of problems. The only thing that did go right was the fish were biting. In the first 10 mins. I hooked into a really good fish. There was a bunch of people camped near where I was fishing and I didn't want them to see my fish so I motored down the bank a ways, so I could land the beast without any potential dead baiters watching. So I turn in my chair to get the net after moving down the bank and I get my boot stuck on the lures I have in a bucket under my seat. I have had that bucket there for many years and never had any problem with it, till that day of course! LOL. So my net is out of reach and I have a plus 40" pike on one of my Flash-N-Fool Spinnerbaits. Gees, What I fix I'm in! Now I wish I had brought a partner as I could have really used a netboy right here. The only thing I can think to do is put the rod in a rodholder and try to get my foot unstuck from the bucket on the seat. By this time the fish had been on for about 5 minutes or more and seemed pretty tired out. I get the lure unstuck from the bucket, but it's still in my boot and I grab the net and try to net the fish with the rod still in the rodholder. I bungle the net job and get the trailer hook stuck in the rim of the net with the fish outside the net. Needless to say it didn't end well. That fish also trashed my 80 lb fluoro leader. So I didn't get a pixs of that one or the next one as it was small so i didn't bother. The next nice fish I get I see my phone battery is low and I forgot my go pro in the truck. So I don't have anything to take a picture with after I got a few shots in. I ended up with 10 fish to the boat and lost what I think was a giant that broke my snap in half on a run, but I never saw the fish so not sure just how big it was. I know it had my reel singing as it took off on that first run. So I only got pixs of 3 of the fish as my camera on my phone wouldn't work with a very low battery.

That first fish was over 40" and hit the 20 lb. mark. I got 2 others that were 30" and 1that was over 32", all the rest were small between 20 to 28 inches. Still not a bad evening of fishing, I got 3 fish on my Flash-N-Fool spinnerbait, 1 on a Johnson spoon with my Kick-N-Fool trailer, 1 on a Whopper plopper and the rest on a plain spoon. The trip before that I got 7 and 5 the trip before that most all of them on spoons. I got a 13 lber on on each of those trips to bump my fish over 10 pounds to 14. I got out last nite after work for just a few mins. in a friends boat and managed 1 smaller 4 to 5 lb pike. So here are my totals for the year. The fish below were 29 3/4", 32 1/2", and 30 3/4".

# Pike so far; 87
# of fish over 10 lbs; 14
# of fish over 20 lbs; 4

2 more on Saturday gets me to 108. I did lose a big fish near the boat that I never got to see and released 3 nice bass. My fishing partner for the day had the days big fish coming in at 39" and 17 1/2 pounds.

Got 2 more since i posted, one fair size at 32" and my first river fish of the year a 28" er, I got while i was fishing a jerkbait for smallies on 12 lb. test fluoro.
The last picture is of a fish I got a week or so ago that was my first Topwater fish in quite a few years that I forgot to show. Got it on a custom Whopper Plopper I painted.

# Pike so far; 89
# of fish over 10 lbs; 15
# of fish over 20 lbs; 4

Looks like you're fishing in a cartoon lake.

Aha, I recognize that cloud in the second picture!!!

I got 6 more pike since my last post. 3 a few days ago when I took the kid out and he got his first ever topwater pike. I also got a pike topwater and we both got a nice smallie on the Whopper ploppers as well. My biggest of the nite was a 10ish lb fish.
I also got 3 more tonite after work. It was a weird bite to nite as The fish were banging lures like crazy the first hour I was there . I got a nice 9 ish pound fish off the shore while waiting for my fishin partner to get there, Then is seemed to shut off like a lite switch and we hardly had any more bites.

# Pike so far; 95
# of fish over 10 lbs; 16
# of fish over 20 lbs; 4

Very slow day for me on Saturday. I picked up 3 pike and a 3 1/2 pound largemouth. I need to get this year going and have a big numbers day.
Those 3 get me up to 111 for the year.

Got out to my pike hole a few days ago with tony and got 4 more fish to put me at 99 on the year Just need 1 more to crack the triple digits. The bit was odd at best , for the first 2 hours it was dead not a hint of a fish, Then finally Tony had a small Pike fallow his spinnerbait but didn't bite. About 5 mins later I hook up on another small one and in the next 30 to 40 minutes we had a lot of hits (about 15) and got about 5 fish to the boat. Then like a light switch it was off again. We fished about another hour and a half with no hits. Then we had a small window where we both caught 1 and had some other hits that was only a few minutes long after that pretty much nothing the rest of the night. What I dont understand is how the fish know when the bite is on and what triggers it? And how they can all stop biting at the same time. Boggles the mind. I got 1 nice pike that was over 10 the rest were small. My camera battery died so i didn't get a picture of it. Tony did but he hasnt sent it to me yet.


# Pike so far; 99
# of fish over 10 lbs; 17
# of fish over 20 lbs; 4

Got my 100th pike of the year last friday, another little guy but still happy to get into triple digits. Only got to fish a little while and had trolling motor issues and had to quit.

Picked up 8 more pike over the weekend fishing in Montana. Brings me to 119 for the year. No big ones. 30" was my biggest fish. Had a nice fish charge in and turn away at the boat, might have gone 12 pounds or so but she wouldn't hit.

spent 3+ days on the chain lakes last week. Got 13 pike up to 25 inches (3.5 lbs). Kinda slow but at least had a little action. Windy Saturday was "best". Buried in deep weeds and not venturing out very far or very often. Dog days of summer!

Got my 5th fish of the year over 20 lbs last nite. A super fat 39 3/4" by 23" monster that hammered a 5 of diamonds Yooooohnson spoon with one of my amazing Kick-N-Fool trailers.
It put up a great battle and I was lucky to net it as It got wrapped up in the trolling motor and I only had a small net with me, as we didn't expect to find any "BIG" fish in that spot this time of year.


# Pike so far; 103
# of fish over 10 lbs; 18
# of fish over 20 lbs; 5

Hey, that's a dandy, Rick, way to go. Getting right close up there with those Tiger Muskies. I hope to get one at Curlew end of month

5 More yesterday has me at 114 on the year. It's tough out there in the warm water. Cooler temps are a few weeks away then they should be a little easier to find. I did see another nice fish yesterday but it was content to u turn at the boat and slip away.

3 more smaller pike on my last trip brings me to 106


# Pike so far; 106
# of fish over 10 lbs; 18
# of fish over 20 lbs; 5