I was up on Lake Minnitaki in the Sioux Lookout area a couple of weeks ago and I landing what turned out to be a family record breaker. The previous family record northern, held by Eelpoutguy’s dad, measured in at 42 1/2 inches but this one is 45 inches. I was out casting with my 14 year old daughter in a bay that transitions from deep water to shallow water with good cabbage. Within the first 10 minutes of casting my daughter had a big northern take a swipe at her jerk bait and miss. Over the next hour or so I was able to get 4 big pike follows using a bulldog, a shallow depth raider and a 10 inch reef hawg but my instinct told me to throw on the old reliable 8″ walleye pattern Phantom. Within a couple of casts as the lure approach the boat I could see something following it. As it got closer I could tell it was big so I told my daughter to look behind my lure at the monster lurking below it. At this time the Phantom was about 2 feet below the surface, five feet from the boat and in neutral buoyancy so I gave it a little twitch and the pike came up behind it and sucked it in like a vacuum and turned to the left and that is when I set the hook. It did a complete circle and swam right into the net my daughter was holding overboard. There wasn’t much of a fight but what a beauty. I am so glad my daughter was there with me. She is now even more excited about fishing this summer and heading back up to Canada next year.
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