02-02-2014, 12:43 AM
After a pleasant surprise invite from PIKEMAN99 to join up with him this morning at 7:30, my buddy and I altered our plan of attack on the pernicious pike. All I can say is wow. PIKEMAN is THE definition of a sportman. I have never met a nicer, more knowledgable, and just plain fun to be around guy. Thanks for everything, we really appreciated it.
Oh yeah, the fish. sorry, back on track.
After a fun ride in (mind you, I never have done a ton of ice fishing, so atv's on top of a lake with those pressure ridges certainly raised the blood pressure a little on this po'boy), we got the poles in the water. I was using chub on a medium treble with 1/4 oz of lead and a 20lbs steel 12" leader 4lbs mono filament for the rods.
We kicked around for a little bit, and wyoguy showed up (again, one of the nicest guys I have had the pleasure to fish with). Had a nice visit from the Fins'n'Feathers (great guys) and while they were chatting with PIKEMAN, about 11 am, I noticed my rod start to bounce. I ran over to my hole, picked up the rod, and set (tried) the hook. The line starts screaming out, and sure enough, gone. I reeled in, still had my bait, so I dropped it down again. Not 4 mins later, my pole goes bouncing again. Same story, the fish was taking line, I tried to set the hook, and gone. As I reeled in again, PIKEMAN pointed out that my bait was too big and was covering up my trebles. I trimmed it down, dropped it again, and the game was on. The wardens left (clearly laughing at the infantile efforts of this baby ice fisher), and wouldn't you know it? My rod goes flying towards the hole. BAM! I set the hook (successfully this time) and the game was on! What a fun fight! I had caught 18-25" pike here in the summer before, and the fight of this fish seemed the same. After nearly 10 minutes, I saw a tail pass under the hole. This wasn't no scrawny hammerhandle pike! One more dive and I was finally able to wrestle this gal into the hole, where wyoguy expertly grabbed her and threw her onto the ice. Thanks again for that!
She ended up being 32" and some change (depending on the tail and who was measuring anywhere from 31-34" was noted) and 10.5 lbs on the scale!!! 16" girth on this gal!!! I have never caught anything close to this big in UT (except for carp, but gamefish are something different).
We got an invite from some buddies of PIKEMAN for lunch, and man was it good! Who can say no to a nice ribeye smothered with mushrooms and onions while fishing? Class acts on the lake right there.
I cannot thank PIKEMAN99 and wyoguy enough! PIKEMAN99 hooked a REAL nice fish that he graciously decided to release (to preserve that top end biodiversity you know[
] ) before we got a chance to see it, but I will let him fill you in later. My buddy lost 2 good bites, but had a great time nonetheless. We left the hard deck about 2:40 and PIKEMAN and wyoguy were still out there, I hope things picked up for them! I need to pay some attention to the Mrs. right now, but I will get some pics up later.
Tight lines.
[signature]
Oh yeah, the fish. sorry, back on track.
After a fun ride in (mind you, I never have done a ton of ice fishing, so atv's on top of a lake with those pressure ridges certainly raised the blood pressure a little on this po'boy), we got the poles in the water. I was using chub on a medium treble with 1/4 oz of lead and a 20lbs steel 12" leader 4lbs mono filament for the rods.
We kicked around for a little bit, and wyoguy showed up (again, one of the nicest guys I have had the pleasure to fish with). Had a nice visit from the Fins'n'Feathers (great guys) and while they were chatting with PIKEMAN, about 11 am, I noticed my rod start to bounce. I ran over to my hole, picked up the rod, and set (tried) the hook. The line starts screaming out, and sure enough, gone. I reeled in, still had my bait, so I dropped it down again. Not 4 mins later, my pole goes bouncing again. Same story, the fish was taking line, I tried to set the hook, and gone. As I reeled in again, PIKEMAN pointed out that my bait was too big and was covering up my trebles. I trimmed it down, dropped it again, and the game was on. The wardens left (clearly laughing at the infantile efforts of this baby ice fisher), and wouldn't you know it? My rod goes flying towards the hole. BAM! I set the hook (successfully this time) and the game was on! What a fun fight! I had caught 18-25" pike here in the summer before, and the fight of this fish seemed the same. After nearly 10 minutes, I saw a tail pass under the hole. This wasn't no scrawny hammerhandle pike! One more dive and I was finally able to wrestle this gal into the hole, where wyoguy expertly grabbed her and threw her onto the ice. Thanks again for that!
She ended up being 32" and some change (depending on the tail and who was measuring anywhere from 31-34" was noted) and 10.5 lbs on the scale!!! 16" girth on this gal!!! I have never caught anything close to this big in UT (except for carp, but gamefish are something different).
We got an invite from some buddies of PIKEMAN for lunch, and man was it good! Who can say no to a nice ribeye smothered with mushrooms and onions while fishing? Class acts on the lake right there.
I cannot thank PIKEMAN99 and wyoguy enough! PIKEMAN99 hooked a REAL nice fish that he graciously decided to release (to preserve that top end biodiversity you know[
] ) before we got a chance to see it, but I will let him fill you in later. My buddy lost 2 good bites, but had a great time nonetheless. We left the hard deck about 2:40 and PIKEMAN and wyoguy were still out there, I hope things picked up for them! I need to pay some attention to the Mrs. right now, but I will get some pics up later.Tight lines.
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