Pike Opener Report

[steverowbotham]

Well another opener has come and gone. I've been working overnights, so I havent been getting to the lake until 830-9am, but its enough time to get it done. Went to Couchiching to avoid Cooks Bay traffic and we were into fish right away. Had a lot of interest in the Swammers, but only one taker, which broke me off on the hookset. My buddy, Kyle, got into them good with the Live Target Smelt jerkbait and he had 3 in the boat in the first 45 mins. Me, I had to work hard for my bites and they werent coming! lol

When the sun got up, we got into a favourite shallow bay of mine. It's really a nothing spot, it is sand bottom in 6-7 feet, but there are random weed clumps here and there where the pike seem to take cover in early season. Long casts are super important as these fish spook very easily in such clear water. Finesse is key in here and one of my go-to baits is a small fluke on a 1/16 oz jighead, I'll snap it sporadically to draw reaction strikes. I landed a nice pike on just the second weed clump. She was a really red fish, pretty beat up from the spawn I guess, but back she went to get some real food into her. After about 10 more clumps and only one OOS largie to show for it, we started making our way back out and I made a long bomb cast to the last clump on the way out. I missed by a fair bit, but it didnt matter as a long dark shadow rushed my bait in seconds and it was on! Turned out to be a 41 inch muskie. Simcoe/Cooch have a closed muskie season year round in an attempt to rehabilitate and grow the dwindling populations, so it was really exciting to see such a quality fish in there! I didnt get a weight or girth as I wanted to get her back quickly. Was a great finish to the day and I hope to see more around in the future. Check out www.MuskiesCanada.ca for more info on the project.

 

[Andrew Grant]

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Edited January 30, 2014 by XxX

[manitoubass2]

Horrible music choice and please, please pull your shorts up!!!!!

 

 

Nice report and great fish! The red tinge on that one is crazy, good shootin'

[steverowbotham]

Horrible music choice and please, please pull your shorts up!!!!!

 

 

Nice report and great fish! The red tinge on that one is crazy, good shootin'

 

LOL

[Musky or Specks]

Yes nice fish there. Must remember to get out pike fishing.

[Gregoire]

Sounds like a great day, and really great news about the musky. I'm hoping that it was a female. It would be really nice to see a musky recovery on those lakes.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Good stuff Steve!!

[BucktownAngler]

was hoping for a pic of the musky

[steverowbotham]

was hoping for a pic of the musky

 

I dont want to ruffle any feathers, and I have a feeling it would

[BucktownAngler]

probably would...always somebody who gets offended.

 

ive never seen a musky to come out of simcoe waters before, im sure many others havent either.

 

i say post it...cant please everyone

[eman]

Beauties!