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Bump for a response from Mepps.

Wow this board is great,thanks for the info guys! Mepps was that you that i saw in that awesome report from Little Vermillion lake where you were part of Team Fury catching all those monster Pike? That report is actually what got me to start looking at the Red Lake area for my trip and it came down to Little Vermillion or Nungesser lake,we ended up going with Anglers Kingdom at Nungesser because they offered the American plan with meals included where as Kevin's brother at LV did not. We are going to be there May 20th-25th so i am hoping to catch the tail end of the big shallow water Pike action while getting a few nice Walleyes as well. What time of year were you guys up there catching all those monsters? Oh and if i am wrong and that was not you please feel free to disregard all of the above

I hear this is a very effective way to catch spring time Pike but i have no idea what is needed to do it right. So if anyone has any pointers on how to rig it up and what to use as the bait i would appreciate it. Also i am trying to put together a tackle box of lures and jigs to take on my trip up to Anglers Kingdom by Red Lake in May and i would love to hear about some Pike and Walleye lures and colors that no good Canadian would be caught fishing without,i figure that there is no better place to ask about Canadian fishing than here. Thanks, Kinbud

Well i am a happy man! I decided to try and take my bait casting setup back to Cabelas and try and exchange it even though i bought it 3 months ago and it is used plus i don't have the receipt. Well much to my surprise they happily took my exchange for full credit and i was able to pick up my new setup today. The Shimanos were very nice but the price was just to high on them so the guy suggested the Cabelas Tournament ZX 3000A series which is basically a Daiwa Excelor 3000 but with an extra ball bearing and a little more metal instead of plastic on the reel. I am very happy with this reel,it is very smooth and seems very solidly built plus the fact that it is a Cabela's brand means i can bring it back at any time for a replacement if something goes wrong with it. I was also able to grab a Cabelas heavy action 7' Fish Eagle II rod which was marked at 80.00 which would of made it a total of 160 with tax but since i was buying a reel and rod together they gave me a combo price and i got both for 116.00 along with a 150 yard spool of red 50# Power Pro for 14 bucks more. So i was out the door fully spooled up and ready to fish for 14 bucks which is not bad at all considering i thought i was going to have to eat the cost of my bait casting setup and then drop another 100 plus dollars on new spinning gear. Thanks again for your help everyone and i hope i can post some good pics of some monster Pike and Walleye caught up at Angler's Kingdom this May.

Well luckily i have a Cabelas 20 minutes up the road from my house so i am going to take all the info from this thread and go take a look at a few different combos later today. I am pretty set on getting a Cabela brand Fish Eagle II rod in a 7' heavy action model,it is a good quality rod at a good price and i already have another Cabela rod at 6'6" MH that i am going to use as my walleye setup. I am not going to buy anything today because i have to wait for my next paycheck but i will report back on my findings.

It looks like that site is out of the cheaper Stradic models and only has the Stradic F1 which in a 4000 series would cost me 149.00(still much cheaper than any other site) but will probably be out of my budget range because of the wasted 140 spent on the bait casting setup(if anyone is interested i will give a phenomenal deal on this never used set up). I guess i will have to take my chances with the Daiwa 3000 which at 79.95 leaves me enough to drop 50 or 60 bucks on a solid rod even though some here seem to have a strong dislike for the Daiwa brand for some reason? While i am at it does anyone have any sites they can recommend for cheap pike lures and heavy test titanium leaders?

Thanks so much for the info guys, i feel like an idiot not being able to get this bait casting thing down,it is good to hear that spinning reels are still used with success for Pike by some here. I have caught plenty of Pike in the 25-30" range with a medium heavy rod and spinning reel set up but i was just not sure that i could step up to the big boys(35"+) and still be able to handle the fish with a spinning reel. So it looks like i will go with either a Shimano 4000 series or the Daiwa 3000 along with some 50 pound Power Pro on a 7' heavy action rod,does this sound like it will work out for me?

I am heading up to Angler's Kingdom at the end of May to do some Pike fishing and i need a good spinning reel that will handle large Pike. I know bait casters are the choice of most serious Pike and Musky fisherman but i just cannot get the hang of using one,i picked up and Abu Garcia C5 mag bait caster and have been tirelessly practicing with it to no avail,i either end up with a birds nest or my cast goes about 3 feet in the wrong direction. I am very good with a spinning setup as i have been using one for 20 years now but i am just worried about not being able to fight the big ones with it. So does anyone have any recommendations for a good beefy spinning reel that will hold up to some large Pike action? I would like to stay under 100$ US for a price range because i now have to buy a heavy action spinning rod to go with the new reel.