hungryforpike

Funny you mentioned the paddle tails on the way home this was what we were talking about getting to try and get deep while doing so weedless. Looks like another trip to Sail..

Sounds like i may need some heavier spinners..thanks guys.

Greetings all, so today i had a full day on the water with a few buddies up at Lake Dalrymple. I normally fish bass at my cottage in Haliburton, so when i go to Dalrymple we always want to pull pike. I have been to the lake a couple times this year... literally as pike and bass opened and had some good spots nailed down..largely in part to some good feedback on this board. Today was supposed to be all about pulling pike again, in the past this season I have had great luck pulling some good sized pike from this lake. This weekend, as happens so often; the lake had totally changed. The water was way down, previous hot spots were out of the water and could not be fished and the pike (with all this heat) were simply not in the shallows(of course). So we were fishing deeper water, weed beds in 8-12ft of water, which for Dalrymple is pretty deep. Managed to yank a few small pike, but very little action on the pike side of things overall. Now, understanding of course that nothing is absolute and every lake is different, I am curious to know what everyone is using/likes to use to target pike sitting in deep water for these sorts of conditions? Or what the consensus is on the best means of finding where these guys go when the water is so hot. The highly recommended "husky jerk" lures we brought were a total bust today, deep and shallow. As usual, thanks everyone.. HFP

Bought a St Croix Premier as the "stop gap" rod from Sail for this weekend. Man is this thing nice. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy better than the Abu Veritas..no comparison. Was 12hours on the water today at lake dalrymple with it, effortless. Great day.. landed a 6lb( 5.72lbs actually) large mouth that fought it's ass off..was so tangled in the weeds..still got him. Also, got several pike. Rod was very impressive..so sensitive and casts much further even though they were the same length and action. Can not wait for the Spiel set up considering it will be even better..

Rest assured guys, I will drop a bunch of feedback and pics once I get it.

Well gentlemen... looks like I have worked something out. Had a good talk with Spiel and I am having a rod built. In the mean time I am going to grab a nice St. Croix either Avid or Premier to carry me over until then. All the support was greatly appreicated.

PM Sent.

The more I hear and read, the more St Croix or possibly a custom rod sounds like the way to go. That point earlier about how each company was built was a good one.. as for the budget for the rod, I have no issue spending the full $200 or more even if what I am getting is top quality. Before this break of the veritas, I had never broken a rod ever.. so would like to have something that will last even 3-5 years. Who knew buying a rod could get so complicated.?

Who is Spiel?? a rod builder?

it is funny you both mention the ugly stick.. that has been the rod i was using up until I upgraded, thing is indestructible it seems...had it for years and only in the early days it was often mistreated. However, after you use a nice rod, impossible to go back..way to heavy and just not sensitive at all. Not to say I will ever throw it away.

there is the lesson.. should be shopping at Sail I guess. you had the same rods and they both broke I assume?

have a read online.. they seem to be snapping an awful lot also. Abu gets no more of my money.

I am starting to lean heavily toward St Croix in general.. no real reports online of rod failures.

there is a warranty for the rod I broke, but not through bass pro, they only honor 30 days for direct exchange. I had to take a picture, scan my receipt and mail into abu directly. They are going to send me another one. But i expect it will perform the same based on all the guys breaking them.. which means I can not trust it.

is a spin casting setup.

greetings everyone.. here is my rotten story. Big group of people up at the cottage this weekend, out fishing with the guys with my nearly brand new(2 months old) Abu Garcia Veritas mated to my brand new pfluger patriarch, running 20lb suffix braided line. I am dragging a popper over the surface, give it a pop and boom.. rod snaps into 3 piece less than 2 ft from the end of the rod. So I do a little googling, and it turns out..hundreds of people are breaking the veritas, and the rod a level above it the verdict. My buddy just bought a rapala shift that I was considering and I am reading these are breaking like crazy too??? what the hell? In all my years of fishing with cheap gear..I have never broken a rod, the year I upgrade..issues. That being said.. I will never go back to that heavy unpleasant cheap gear, I would really like a higher end rod. So, my questions becomes.. who makes a higher end, quality rod in the $100-$200 range that is going to be super sensitive like the Veritas which I loved, but super durable at the same time? And it has to be 2 pc, I fish everything with one setup. Mainly pike and bass. Thanks guys, HFP

This all sounds very reassuring, will spend time in the shallows as oppposed to deep water then and see what we can come up with. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate. HFP

All great information guys keep it coming, had not considered the water being low.. good call, will keep a close watch.

Hello all, small group of us are eager to break in some new gear and are heading to Lake Dalrymple this weekend and are looking for some pike. First time I have ever fished this lake, we are going "guide free", we are fishing from a boat..and I have no clue where to start looking. I have a map of the lake..so please drop me some intel!! Thanks guy, HFP

excellent info guys..thanks. Part 2 of that questions is where do you all recommend nearest to durham to find pike??

I recently started fishing pike and understand that as the water got hotter the pike retreat to deeper water during the summer..now that we are seeing cooler temperatures will the pike become more active again? Shallows? Deep water? I normally fish up north, any place "durham-ish" that offers good pike fishing?? Thanks all...