Esox assault

[CG_Fishes]

Yesterday I went out for pike again and absolutely slammed em (by my standards). Not only did I catch my 2nd biggest pike yet (32"), but for the first time I caught more than 1 in a day. To make everything even better the first one I scored was on the magdraft that @BOZ sent me the other day, I can't thank you enough man. The 28 was pretty typical, nothing crazy happened just caught the fish. The 32 is when things got a little wild. I hooked the fish and assumed it was another mid-high 20s, the second I saw her I knew I was wrong. I also knew that I would need a miracle to land her as my 7" magslowl was nowhere to be seen. After about 10 minutes of chasing her around the river with my reel on free-spool, and a jump at the bank, I got her in. In the madness of taking pics and getting measurements my line got caught on my foot and snapped. After releasing the fish I looked for the bait but couldn't find it, 30 minutes later I looked down and saw the bait hanging in my boot, I am glad to still have it. Another thing that made this trip pretty special is that I was 1 of 7 guys fishing a small section of bank and I was the only one catching, maybe I'm starting to figure these guys out, of course the season is ending now. The reason that this post was delayed is that I was also planning on going today, which I did. Unfortunately the river rose 4-5 feet overnight and was honestly unfishable, but like the stubborn dumbass I am, I still fished for 3 hours. No fish but at least I got to get out and I'm extremely pleased with how my season went overall. I guess now I'll bass fish once the lakes open, but I'll be back out for esox again in May!

Edited March 13, 2021 by CG_Fishes

[Jim137a]

Nice work putting those pike on the bank.  
 

The sudden warm spell defrosted a few of my ponds but my favorite river went from 5,000 CFS ( a great flow ) To 18,000 CFS - totally unfishable over night. At least the snow pack is mostly gone.

[CG_Fishes]

Just now, Jim137a said:

Nice work putting those pike on the bank.  
 

The sudden warm spell defrosted a few of my ponds but my favorite river went from 5,000 CFS ( a great flow ) To 18,000 CFS - totally unfishable over night. At least the snow pack is mostly gone.

Thanks man, that's almost exactly what happened to my river. It was at perfect pool for pike yesterday, bummed it rose so much

[Jim137a]

There’s a website from NOAA that will give you predicted flows based on forecasted rain, snow run off etc.  I’ll DM you the link cause I don’t want to blow up your spot.  
 

BTW - you said seven other guys were fishing the river and not catching, do you know what they were throwing?

[CG_Fishes]

5 minutes ago, Jim137a said:

There’s a website from NOAA that will give you predicted flows based on forecasted rain, snow run off etc.  I’ll DM you the link cause I don’t want to blow up your spot.  
 

BTW - you said seven other guys were fishing the river and not catching, do you know what they were throwing?

I've actually been using it, the only problem is that the probe is 15 miles up river so it doesn't show the true rise for this spot. For example, it showed a rise of 2 feet overnight while this spot was up 4-5. It does give me an idea of what to plan for though

And the guys were mainly throwing small 4-5" paddletails, although one guy was throwing a musky beaver around 12" long. I guess that they wanted the midsize offerings, all my fish came in water under 2' just out of the current. I had a pattern until the river blew up...

[Jim137a]

8 minutes ago, CG_Fishes said:

I've actually been using it, the only problem is that the probe is 15 miles up river so it doesn't show the true rise for this spot. For example, it showed a rise of 2 feet overnight while this spot was up 4-5. It does give me an idea of what to plan for though

And the guys were mainly throwing small 4-5" paddletails, although one guy was throwing a musky beaver around 12" long. I guess that they wanted the midsize offerings, all my fish came in water under 2' just out of the current. I had a pattern until the river blew up...

U kind of have to account for the small tributaries as well since your gauge is 15 miles up river.  I use the NOAA site in conjunction with an APP called “ Freestone Outdoors “. It will tell you how much the river is actually rising or falling. It also shows the Historical Average so that gives mr a rough idea at what I’m looking at. 
 

the attached pic shows this river is rising at a 100 CFS per hour - typically not a great sign. 
 

[Mkel83]

11 hours ago, Jim137a said:

Nice work putting those pike on the bank.  
 

The sudden warm spell defrosted a few of my ponds but my favorite river went from 5,000 CFS ( a great flow ) To 18,000 CFS - totally unfishable over night. At least the snow pack is mostly gone.

I checked my favorite spot last night and it was the same. Gonna try to pond hop a bit tomorrow though. Rivers won’t be right for another week or so. 
 

nice catches @CG_Fishes !!

[Jim137a]

12 minutes ago, Mkel83 said:

I checked my favorite spot last night and it was the same. Gonna try to pond hop a bit tomorrow though. Rivers won’t be right for another week or so. 
 

nice catches @CG_Fishes !!

What a kick in the butt - rivers getting blown up and now we get 40 MPH wind gusts the next few days.  Oh well. 

[danthefisherman]

Sounds like a blast...well done!

[FishDr]

Epic end to an epic season.  When do things open up for pike for you again?  Out here in CO it's snowing to beat feet - we are somewhere north of 20" in the last 24 hours, so our pike and bass on the north Front Range are going to get a little bit more "quiet time" before I can start targeting them.

River pike are a lot of fun - there's a river in CO I used to fish for pike that was really good, especially when you could get to the small diversion structures or inlets where they'd stack up.  Unfortunately, they shut down access to about 4 miles of river and that was the end of that spot, at least until I figure out how I can float it in my 'toon without getting a hefty fine or losing my license.

[CG_Fishes]

1 hour ago, FishDr said:

Epic end to an epic season.  When do things open up for pike for you again?  Out here in CO it's snowing to beat feet - we are somewhere north of 20" in the last 24 hours, so our pike and bass on the north Front Range are going to get a little bit more "quiet time" before I can start targeting them.

River pike are a lot of fun - there's a river in CO I used to fish for pike that was really good, especially when you could get to the small diversion structures or inlets where they'd stack up.  Unfortunately, they shut down access to about 4 miles of river and that was the end of that spot, at least until I figure out how I can float it in my 'toon without getting a hefty fine or losing my license.

Thanks man, all esox open the first Saturday of May, the 1st this year, on my rivers. Needless to say I am beyond excited for May 1st, especially since that's when I'm going to start my musky hunt. We got some snow here in NY, about 2", not 20, but it still sucks.