Pike Night

NumenOn the Water

Date: 10-20-2016

Body of Water: Reeds Lake

Boat: Numenon

With: Alone

Target: Pike

Time: 4 PM - 7 PM

Conditions: Overcast and about 60 degrees F; northerly winds to 15 mph; water temperatures between 62 and 63 F; pre-turnover

Reeds Lake on an uninviting and blustery Fall weekday afternoon; just right for pike!

It wasn't an especially appealing day; but my work was done, the dog was walked, and the fish were calling.  Plus, I had missed out on fishing the previous (glorious) day; and I knew that sometimes the best bites were on the less-than-perfect days.  By 4 PM, I was on the water.  I was joined by only a few bass boats for a quiet, pleasant and productive afternoon.

My quarry was pike; and, as always, the largest pike available in the system.

Previous trips had located pike in 18 feet of water or so, and they seemed to be eating shad-style cranks.  I had a good starting point!  I ran to the lake's east end and set up my spread as I trolled along the break-line along the lake's southern shore. 

The pike have recently ignored minnow baits while preferring shad-style baits.  The Flick'r Shad (top) has always been a good producer; the Spro DD (middle) has been a good casting bait and came alive this day when trolled 110 feet behind the boat.  Meanwhile, my only Rapala Trolls-to 15 (bottom) has been on fire this season!

The Flick'r Shad was presented off a board.  This was my shallowest bait, and presented no threat to grabbing bottom or weeds.  I just let it swim until it caught something.

The Spro (and many other cranks) was presented on a flat line directly behind the boat.  This facilitated reading the rod tip for snags or bites, as well as changing lead lengths or lures.

Meanwhile, I hand-held this combo, generally running the bait three colors (75 feet) back, where it ran 13 to 14 feet down.  This bait on braided line provides plenty of feel and got hit at least six times in this short outing.

About 15 minutes into the session, as I peeled out to deeper water to turn around, having just passed a prominent shoreline point worth another pass, the TT15 got walloped in about 30 feet of water.  I carefully played and landed a fat 32-incher.  She was unceremoniously dumped into the live well, though, because a similarly rotund 31-incher ate the Flick'r Shad off the board (100 feet back and so running about 12 feet down) in about 24 feet of water before I could unhook her.  I tossed this second fish into the well, too, because I wanted to get my lines back into the water ASAP; and, there was still a chance that pike-hungry friend KS would be joining me at some point.

Both of these fish were near thick aggregations of bait (crappies?  'gills? perch?) off this prominent point.  I circled through here a couple more times (and again, later in the day) based on the quality of the fish encountered and the presence of this bait.  I missed a very nice, solid strike on my hand-held rig (my only known miss of the day), but as I expanded my search area (again, around known structures, but concentrating now on 20-25 feet of water), the bites began to pile up.

I ended either 10-for-11, or possibly 11-for-12 (I lost definitive count), and while all lines got hit and produced fish, the hand-held TT15 was by far the most prolific bait.  It caught 5 or 6 fish (and accounted for the miss, too.)  The Spro did well, too, catching a few, but not until I let it swim 110 feet behind the boat.  That adjustment (from 90 feet back) did something for the fish!

All but two of the fish were solid "keepers" (over 24 inches long), with the two over 30, a couple around 27 or 28 inches, and all fat with fall gorging.  The Fall Feed Bag is On! 

63 inches of pike in the well.  Both were released, very healthy, after a quick but ineffective photo session.

There was definitely a correlation between feeding pike and the presence of visible (sonar) bait.  I also did better in 21 to 24 feet of water, although recognize that the biggest fish or two of the day came from deeper water immediately adjacent to such conditions.  Also unlike previous outings, the pike were feeding up to a large extent, because the most productive lures were running between 13 and 15 feet down, or so.  Lures rooting the bottom did virtually nothing this day.

What do I have to say about this?

This was a pretty good session, that could have only been improved by sharing it with someone.  KS never showed up.

Actually, it could have improved with a slight turn of events at about 6:50 PM.  The light was fading, and I knew my time was up; but I couldn't quit!  I was in the vicinity of the first two (biggest) fish, and I had to troll my baits one last time through this structure- and bait-filled area!  Sure enough, on cue, the flat-lined Spro DD got hammered!  I slid the boat into neutral to fight this last fish, and as I wound down on the fish, I wondered if I'd lost it.  There was very little resistance beyond what I would expect from the bait itself.  Ten or 15 feet from the boat, a visible flash announced the presence of a small, spinning pike on my lure.  Then, six or eight feet from the boat, an enormous pike materialized behind this ill-behaved youngster.  As fast as she appeared, she dissolved. 

She was clearly the largest pike I've encountered on this lake.  In fact, I think she dwarfs my best catches here.  She's The One.  And now, she has revealed herself (if only a tiny bit and temporarily.)  I'll be back out there this weekend!

Beautiful pike; bad picture.