Have never seen a big pike sky?

Was at the dam in gays mills today and had one decent one follow and landed about a 27 incher.

There was a young guy there too using jigs and trying for walleye.

He hooked an enormous pike and it did something I have never seen a pike do…it went airborne about 3 feet and shook its head violently and out popped the jig.

About 10 cast later he had an bigger pike hit right at shore and the jig was spit 20 seconds later/\/

Years ago I was fishing Smallies on the Red Cedar River with a fly rod and poppers. I had a small Northern clip me off and disappear with my popper. This really irked me as that bug was a gift from my wife. Two minutes later, that Pike came up out of the water furiously shaking his head until he threw the bug, which landed right next to the canoe! All I had to do was reach over and picked it up out of the water. I guess he was just giving it back.

Canada years ago I had a large topwater on and a 12-13# t-boned the thing directly from below and went as vertical as you can get 2-3′ in the air. Landed it too. For sure one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Happened 3 times this week. Twice I hooked a ski when I was pitching jigs and plastics for walleyes. The third was with a decent pike. All instantly came out of the water and spit the hook.

I have found the hell raisers are the pike between 32″-38″ give or take a few inches. They are the ones who go absolutely berserk, and often seem to be in 10 places at once, in and out of water, and they have some weight behind them. Once they cross that threshold of 40″ I found they do a heck of a lot more bulldogging, point their nose to the bottom, and don’t want to come up!

I’ve seen it a number of times, particularly when dragging frogs or or baits across pads for bass.

Had one a few years back miss my tube by 3-ft, come approx 4-ft out of the water in a nice arc landing about 5-ft from where he burst out.

Very Cool, best part he missed my lure.

Most of the time if a pike/gator grab a bass bait, its last you’ll ever see it.

I would totally agree with Ben’s assessment that the pike between about 30-38″ are the ones most likely to jump and try and spit the hook. This is especially true fishing in the shallow water that i fish in Canada early in the year. There just isn’t any deep water to head off into, so they go crazy and end up jumping. I lost a upper 40’s muskie last year after hooking it in 2 feet of water and it getting totally airborne twice.

Years ago I was casting the shallows for bass and reeled in some weeds. As I reached over the bow to take the weeds off, a pike came flying out of the water trying to eat the weedy lure which was about two feet above water.

My area for “flying pike” is the Big and Little Yellow Lake/river areas north of Siren, WI. I’ve had pike do some crazy things up there but the one that almost made me fill my pants was what jiggin rake just said! I was helping a buddy get a timber doodle set up with a quad tail when a 26″er came out of the water to nail my lure that was dangling a solid 2′ above the water! It was in my peripheral view so I about crapped when I thought this pike was jumping for my face!!! Big ol’ jumpstart!!! I landed the little bugger and released it unharmed but I’ll never forget that!