Rizzo

I know me keeping the pike I get won't make much of a difference...but if every angler did it certainly wouldn't hurt (the musky)

Would musky be open there as well starting this week-end? Maybe a later start?

wow that sucks

sounds like a great day. Not excited to hear about the pike you caught though. Although I generally don't eat fish, a Balsam pike never survives me catching it. Luckily my buddy will eat anything

great video! Lots of nice fish

my 3 year old son (who should be in bed) just peered over my shoulder while I was looking at your photos and said "hhheeeyyyyyy that guy is fishing in OUR boat" (and now he's bugging me to scroll back to the picture)

...looks great Rob! Glad you got out and that all went well. A real nice look with your tow vehicle.

oh ya...very excited. Taking a 3 day trip the week after opener. Already counting down the sleeps!

note to self...never swim in that pool

gross...no offense, but gross. Not sure I could even touch one of those

I've actually caught more pike on figure 8's than muskies! I've even had pike wait for me at the side of the boat while I put the lure back in the water and start it moving again...dang silly pike. Long story short...I figure 8 both species (as apparently some other guys here do...and here I thought I was the only one!)

Thanks Ron. I was definitely more tentative than I would have been in my last boat, you don't know how it will respond. A couple of times I accelerated faster than I wanted and other times I bogged down rather than just popping up on the take off.

hey bigmac. In a brand new boat I gotta tell you that was a white knuckle ride heading out from the marina! At times the finder was reading 2.5 feet in the channel! The 90 Yamaha on the back of the boat is super heavy too so when going slow I sit pretty low in the water. I had it trimmed up pretty good but that thing is one BIG engine. Once we got out of the channel everything was ok. We were probably a km away from the xe2 marker though mainly in 8-10 feet

...I can see it now...go to figure 8 a fish and the boat itself will start doing figure 8's. I'm hoping it can be tightened up otherwise I see a lot of trolling in my future

yes cable operated

I've always had a minn kota in the past, and when I pointed it somewhere and put it on cruise you could pretty much leave it alone while you fished, with the occasional tweak of the pedal to stay on course. When I used my new motorguide yesterday it seemed incredibly high maintenance. If I wasn't constantly on the pedal the thing was doing 360's...very inconvenient. I'm assuming there is a way to kind of "lock" the foot pedal in place? If I have to constantly have my foot on the pedal I'm gonna go nuts. Before I go read through the instructions I hoped someone here would have a quick answer like "yes it will lock" or "nope, you're screwed and your new trolling motor will drive you insane requiring your constant attention"

...aaah the one that got away...keeps us all going back! The one you got looks pretty good though (although I think the pose might be giving it a bit of help!)

Bit of an update...finally got the new boat out on the water and all went well. We launched at Marine park and headed out to XE2 in search of pike. Since the motor was new, we broke it in by trolling out there in varying speeds (rather than bombing out there like everyone else!). Good thing we did, first fish to grace the boat was a 25 inch pickerel not too far from the channel that leads to the marina! This was very fitting for me that a pickerel wouold be the first fish caught in the new boat. I have a habit of catching these dang pesky pickerel when I'm after something else. After that surprise visit, the pike were particularly cooperative. We lost count how many slimed us. There are a lot of hammerhandles around that xe2. We caught lots, and saw many other people pull in slimy esox as well. Thanks for the info, we had a good day.

thanks Mac, I found the same map in my search. Basically we are just going to go out and explore, these are the first minutes on the new motor so time to break it in and our first time on st clair so we'll likely just tootle around for a few hours looking around. We heard Mitchells was a good spot for pike so we thought we'd give it a shot. Told my buddy about the perch option and he seems to like that idea

hey good idea! Maybe go after some perch instead...now to find where xe2 is!

Well lets start with any free launches at Mitchell's Bay? Even if not free any place you'd recommend? Taking the new boat out for its maiden voyage in search of pike tomorrow. Any tips would be greatly appreciated as well (ie areas to avoid...I hear there are some sandbars out there).

ya I was kinda shocked by the 49 number too, but I haven't been out yet so did not know what to expect. I guess its 49 somewhere but hopefully warmer at Mitchell's Bay where we're headed

haha good luck with that. I think the boat was getting lower to the ground...the last time I did it my belly seemed to be a lot closer to the hull as I was lying on my back under the boat.

ouch...I'm after pike on Monday hopefully things pick up!

you know Terry