Cold Front Pond Pike

[Rich]

Missed pike opener due to work, so my opener was yesterday.

 

Loaded up the inflatable and thanked heavens for my LPRCA season pass I bought last week, and headed out in some miserable conditions to try for pike on a pond I have never put the time into getting the boat into. The inflatable made this trek a breeze.

 

Started off with my fav black/orange spinnerbait while Brandon through a bucktail. 8 casts in a 40" class fish hits my spinnerbait, hookset, dangit! My reel is still in winter storage mode, drag loose as hell. Lost the fish.

 

Moving in behind a little island a hammer handle rolls on my bait twice, and before I could spit out that I raised one I look up to see Brandon set hook into a little fish with a big attitude. Barbless hooks saved the day on this one, inhaled the 8" osprey tail, but little effort and it popped out, no blood.

 

 

From there on out, the pike got finicky. We were having ridiculous numbers of short strikes as the wind picked up and the hail came out. After losing a dozen more fish between us, we were losing hope, and determination, quickly. It seemed the final nail in the casket was when Brandon got called in to work. I had an hour left to land anything but OOS bass. Coming round the bend to take the boat out, the sun cleared things up for 20 minutes. I could see that right near our launch, there was a very shallow gravel shoal with about an 8' deep pit in behind it. No sooner than I said "there HAS to be a pike in there" and tossed my white spinnerbait in (changed up long ago), and sure enough I had my fish just in the nick of time. It was no beast, but I am certainly not complaining about that fish.

 

 

Overall, considering it was freezing cold, brutally windy, raining, snowing and at times - pea size hailing on us, I expected a skunk. The day was above all expectations, and one heck of a way to kick off pike season.

[Rod Caster]

Nice start. Like you, I'll miss opener, but I'm sure looking forward to the following weekend!

[woodenboater]

that's a very nice last minute pike there, way to stretch it out till the end. good omen for the rest of the season !

 

btw, hail is one great reason I'd want to get a full console w/standup cover

[Roy]

Good stuff, Rich. You worked for it...it's yours!

[Mike Pike]

Way to persevere through the elements, Rich. Darn nasty day with little to show for your efforts 'til the very end.

 

Makes a catch like that even more satisfying.

[fishnsled]

Good fishing Rich in some crazy conditions.

[davey buoy]

Great determination,that you earned!!!

[Rizzo]

Nicely done! I havent fished in about 6 months so I definitely have the itch

[Rich]

Thanks everyone, did almost the same rigamaroll today. Except two differences, it was warm as heck , and the fish weren't biting. After 4 hrs, sun started to set, got a little guy. Good enough, plenty more days of pike fishing to come.