Northwest Fishing Reports

3 for me. 1 30" two weeks ago and two on Tuesday.

I'm off to a slow sart but I have been out once and have 2 to my credit.

Got out to the chain lakes today for some more pike. Plenty warm temps but pretty windy making things a little more difficult. Not a stellar day by any means but two of us finished the day with 8 pike and one small largemouth bass. Jerk baits were the ticket for these fish ranging from 28" down to, well lets just say a little smaller than that. But, a fish is a fish. 4 of the 8 were mine bringing my total to 6 on the year. I believe that gives me the lead. For now. Correct, Mr. Hartman??

Was going to start a new thread but thought I would just add to this one.

Went to the Chain Lakes, fished only one of them. Boat launch was packed like it was Memorial day weekend, unreal for a Monday. On the water by noon. Fishing was real slow for a few hours. Couple of bass on a swimbait, one small pike on an X-Rap. Around 3 the fishing went insane till 6ish. Changed out the swimbait for a secrete bait that just slays fish. Ended up with 14 Pike, 3 just over 10lbs, 10.8,10.3,10.13 and a few in the 8lb class, others were 3lbers or so. It was awesome watching them just crash the bait. One even blew up out of the water to get my bait. Caught several bass as well, one went 6.4lbs. The rest were in the 2.5-3lb class. All were caught on the same bait. Sorry no pics as the wife left the camera in her car from Bloomsday. Got an awesome sun burn as well, guess I missed a spot this morning .

AJ's Dad wrote:Got out to the chain lakes today for some more pike. Plenty warm temps but pretty windy making things a little more difficult. Not a stellar day by any means but two of us finished the day with 8 pike and one small largemouth bass. Jerk baits were the ticket for these fish ranging from 28" down to, well lets just say a little smaller than that. But, a fish is a fish. 4 of the 8 were mine bringing my total to 6 on the year. I believe that gives me the lead. For now. Correct, Mr. Hartman??

Ey Ey Mr. Mills. I knew this day was coming. I am headed out tomorrow, so we will see how things pan out. 4 will be hard to come by to take the lead

Hard to come by????? 4 is a slow day. Just take a look at Abombs comment. He got 14.! Now that's a good day. I'll have to figure out what his secret bait is. If a fish blew it up out of the water, it must be running close to the surface.

Abomb, I like your commenting style. I don't mind sharing baits and telling folks what I have caught fish on but I have stopped pinpointing exactly what chain lake I find the fish in. I did that 2 years ago and 2 days later when I went back, there were "6" boats in my sweet spot. Giving the name of the lake and leaving too much easily findable stuff in the background gave it away. I fished in cave this last trip but the water there was muddy and no weeds there yet. No fish thee either. LOL

Happy Fishing

AJ's Dad wrote:Hard to come by????? 4 is a slow day. Just take a look at Abombs comment. He got 14.! Now that's a good day. I'll have to figure out what his secret bait is. If a fish blew it up out of the water, it must be running close to the surface.

Abomb, I like your commenting style. I don't mind sharing baits and telling folks what I have caught fish on but I have stopped pinpointing exactly what chain lake I find the fish in. I did that 2 years ago and 2 days later when I went back, there were "6" boats in my sweet spot. Giving the name of the lake and leaving too much easily findable stuff in the background gave it away. I fished in cave this last trip but the water there was muddy and no weeds there yet. No fish thee either. LOL

Happy Fishing

Ah my friend you haven't fished for Colorado Pike. The best day I ever had for pike in Colorado was 4 or 5 fish. Trout on the other had is a different story. Nate can attest to the difficult pike conditions here in Colorado. I guess it doesn't help when you have 5 million people and no real big water to fish. The biggest water in Colorado is 8500 acres. Any who, enough of the excuses. I only managed 2 yesterday, but one was on my very first cast of the day. Threw out he swimbait in front of some cattails. As I started reeling in I noticed off in the distance a pike was crusing the cattails. The second it sensed my swimbait it slowly turned around and then swam like a bat out of hell after my swimbait. Must have covered 15-20 feet to smack my lure, but it was awesome. The next pike came about 250+ casts after the first one. That gives me 5 on the year...one behind you AJ's Dad.......Next week will be a different story though. And if it comes down to it I will have to hit up the secret weapon.....
The secret weapon lake:

http://www.nefga.org/forum/showthread.p ... -3-Sun-5-5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Let me know the informal rules for the tally if I might post as well! What is a reasonable minimum length for a qualifying fish? Similar to tournaments at 18" or so? I tend to just eyeball measure any fish under about 21" or so, and it seems rather arbitrary, but they don't seem to fill out much usually until at least 22" or 23" I seem to find.

There are no rules. This is just a friendly count for the year. We were joking about outfishing each other and decided to keep a count. A fish is a fish weather it's 6" or 50" if you ask me. We are just counting pike.

AJ's Dad wrote:There are no rules. This is just a friendly count for the year. We were joking about outfishing each other and decided to keep a count. A fish is a fish weather it's 6" or 50" if you ask me. We are just counting pike.

Ah....I say there is only one rule....all pike over 28 inches must be released unless it accidentally dies. Since we that decided to have a friend competition are avid pike anglers and pike conservationist, we like to see healthy pike populations and trophy fisheries. Oh and obviously you have to comply with local regs from the state/country you are participating in. Obviously this is on the honor system and like AJ Dad said any pike counts. I am definitely looking forward the what the smallest pike on the year will be.

Like I said....its on like Donkey Kong!!!!

Well then, if it's the smallest you are interested in, I have boated a whopping 11"er this year. (But only one) I normally catch the big ones. LOL
Maybe we could interject one more friendly rule. If you remove a tag from a tagged fish, before you release it, you get to count it as two fish. Oh wait. That would be encouraging breaking the law. ( I think). Never mind that rule.

How about this for a rule. If you catch a pike, and before you release it, the pike regurgitates a West Slope Freaking Cutthroat Trout, you get to count it as 5 fish.

Oh man, I'm starting to sound like I did when they waged war on the POR. I don't want to go there.

Woops, too late.

AJ's Dad wrote:Well then, if it's the smallest you are interested in, I have boated a whopping 11"er this year. (But only one) I normally catch the big ones. LOL
Maybe we could interject one more friendly rule. If you remove a tag from a tagged fish, before you release it, you get to count it as two fish. Oh wait. That would be encouraging breaking the law. ( I think). Never mind that rule.

How about this for a rule. If you catch a pike, and before you release it, the pike regurgitates a West Slope Freaking Cutthroat Trout, you get to count it as 5 fish.

Oh man, I'm starting to sound like I did when they waged war on the POR. I don't want to go there.

Woops, too late.

Do you have a picture of the 11 incher you animal?

11 inch fish are not normally something I take photos of. The guy with me that day, got one that was about 9".

If it's small pike photos that trip your trigger, here's one I caught in the chain lakes back in 2009. This fish was actually just a little shorter than the husky jerk I caught him on. About 4 1/2" I think. You gotta have mad skills to catch em this small.

I think those are all fair rules. I love the 4 1/2 incher. That's remarkable! How's this; I'll abide by the 28" maximum limit for keepers. Sounds fair. I'd rather keep those 24-27" fish anyways. I'm much faster with the knife on those, and they're absolutely plentiful. My smallest was about 16" so far. I'll work on bringing the size down!

So, now for totals...

5/7/13:
1). 31", 9lb 13 oz (K=Kept)
2). 16" (R=Released)
3). 18" R
4). 17" R

5/8/13:
5). 19.5" R
6). 21.5" R
7). 18" R
8). 20" R
9). 23.5" R

Hope to hit the water a little this evening and tomorrow afternoon. Good fishing!

farmer_aa wrote:I think those are all fair rules. I love the 4 1/2 incher. That's remarkable! How's this; I'll abide by the 28" maximum limit for keepers. Sounds fair. I'd rather keep those 24-27" fish anyways. I'm much faster with the knife on those, and they're absolutely plentiful. My smallest was about 16" so far. I'll work on bringing the size down!

So, now for totals...

5/7/13:
1). 31", 9lb 13 oz (K=Kept)
2). 16" (R=Released)
3). 18" R
4). 17" R

5/8/13:
5). 19.5" R
6). 21.5" R
7). 18" R
8). 20" R
9). 23.5" R

Hope to hit the water a little this evening and tomorrow afternoon. Good fishing!

You cheater....I want you tested for Steroids!!!! Great to see you getting after it this year. What (not exact) body of water you fishing primarily? And do you have any pictures?

Easy there Budward.
You can't expect a guy to pinpoint his hot spots now can you??
I would guess he's fishing somewhere ein Idaho.

AJ's Dad wrote:Easy there Budward.
You can't expect a guy to pinpoint his hot spots now can you??
I would guess he's fishing somewhere ein Idaho.

Not pin-point, just general area.....or pm me the area...or stay off the performance enhancing drugs!!!!

Haha, yes, SeTec Astronomy (too many secrets). South end of Coeur d' Alene. In this case, down in the swamp, as the North Enders call my area. Yesterday I fished shallow and near shore for sight fishing pike that were sunning. I might as well open up the discussion for boated fish vs. quick release. Two of the five fish I'm counting were "quick released" at boatside after I had grabbed the leader. Really I would prefer this for most smaller pike to a surgical procedure involving jaw spreaders and pliers, but the measurements aren't official. So call them legit for the tally or don't.

5/11/13
10). >22" (Quick Release)
11). 24" R
12). 23" R
13). 19.5" R
14). >22" (Quick Release)

5/12/13
15). 20" R

And just to prove I can catch dinks with the best of them, here's a picture of a fish from last year (I'm going to say 6-7" range).
I would say that ABomb is kicking butt in weight totals! That sounds like an excellent day on the water!
Good luck everyone. Oh, and I have a pic from yesterday in my report.
-Aaron

I don't think lengths are necessary, unless we want to brag about the big ones. Numbers would be fine. As for quick releases, I would also say if you didn't touch the fish, you didn't catch it. Unless your fishing partner was tardy with the net that is. If the net man blows it, I say it counts. We're getting too many rules here. LOL

Scoring update.

It looks like the Farmer has taken a commanding early season lead with 15 pike. However, as soon as my boat gets out of the shop, and I get some sod layed this weekend, or I can get in someone elses boat, I will be right on top of him. Then when he has to climb back on his tractor and go to work, I believe we will see him fade into the sunset. LOL

There is a dark horse waiting out there who is eager to join the chase. Mr Mark K. is awaiting the arrival of a new baby boy that is now officially over due by 2 or 3 days. He currently has 4 pike to his credit and that keeps him in the hunt. I predict he will be seeing limited action though once his new arrival gets here. Therefore he shouldn't be much of a factor in this season long talley. JMO

Happy fishing