Saturday, April 11, 2009

Fishing Stories

I would like to share with you all one of my Northern Pike Fishing stories. This happened a while back and I was not even Pike fishing!

I was at a small lake that is regularly stocked with channel catfish and also has some bluegill and carp in there too. It just a couple casts long and wide and is only about 4 feet deep or so.

Since these fish are near a duck feeding area, the best technique to catch the catfish is normally just bread on a treble hook. Nothing fancy here. Grab a stick or rod holder and cast it out there and wait. We normally get a few bites every hour and the catfish are about 3-8 lbs. It is exciting fishing but nothing really too crazy.

That changed one evening has I saw a huge fish break this kids rod in half. Obviously I was a little skeptical because the biggest catfish I have seen outta there was 9 lbs, which shouldn't break a rod. Anyway, it turns out the rod was like 50 yrs old and probably would have broken on the next bluegill too.

I thought no big deal and kept on fishing. Caught a small catfish and was about ready to move when i was reeling in my bait I noticed something ripple the surface and chase it. I thought it was strange and started to reel in my other line. Same thing happened, and this time something slammed my stupid bread doughball like it was a spinnerbait. Drag starts peeling and I had no idea what happened. Was hoping for a huge carp, but I noticed the fish was not shaped like a carp when we got it close to shore.

Yup, it was a Northern Pike. About 40 inches long. We netted him and returned him to the water after a few pictures. Completely shocked. Someone must have stocked the Pike accidentally when they stocked the catfish. There is no reason for a Northern Pike like that to be there.

The point of this story is that you never know when and what you will catch. The next fish could be a fish of a life time. Always be prepared with the proper fishing tackle and equipment.