My buddy and I decided to hit a West Metro lake for the afternoon and specifically target Pike on tip-ups. We got out to the lake about 11:00 or so, unloaded the wheeler and hooked up the Otter Ice Cabin. We decided to stay away from the crowds and work for our catch. We headed to spot #1 and started popping holes. We found the depth we were looking for, but the weeds below were very scarce. We set up a couple tip-ups just in case and continued popping holes ever 30 feet adjacent to the shoreline. After an hour of popping holes and checking the growth on my buddy’s Aquaview, we decided that this wasn’t the spot. We loaded everything back on the sled and wheeler, and headed for spot #2. As we started popping holes, this spot looked promising. Weeds were still in good shape and we popped a dozen holes from 5 feet of water to 10 feet of water. We set up a couple tip-ups shallow, and a couple deep.
My buddy dropped his aqua view down and saw a pike on screen. I decided to move my shallow tip-up out a little bit. As I got to my tip up, I grabbed by the handle and picked it up. Immediately, the tip-up shot out of my hand. There was a FISH ON. Flag didn’t fly… but there was a fish there. I am not sure if it was chewing on it below the hole or what, but it was hooked. I grabbed for the line and started fighting it. WOW… this thing had some power and was ripping the line out through my gloves. My buddy was popping more holes at the time, so as I hollered at him to grab the gaff… he couldn’t hear a thing. I was on my own. I worked the fish to the top of the hole and could see this beast below. I knew this was a decent one. After a little work, I got the head positioned to pull it through the 8 inch hole. I pulled it up and the thing almost filled the entire 8 inches! No gaff… I pulled so the head was out of the water… and SNAP! I wasn’t sure what happened… but the fish was free. I slipped in the slush lunging for this monster. I was able to grab ahold of it, gloves on and in the hole and pulled it out. My buddy had seen me slip and stopped to see what I was doing… as I pulled out this monster. About a 12-15 pound pike. I can’t say for sure as it maxed out the scale that I had with me. this thing was dang near as round as it was long! The length was not impressive… but this thing must have just gotten back from filling itself at a holiday party!
After I pulled it in and unhooked… I looked back to see what happened. This thing broke the steel leader I had attached to the line! I believe it was a 12 or 15 pound steel leader. Anyway, I was lucky that this didn’t turn into a “fish story”. I didn’t have a camera with me as the wife left it in her purse after holiday get togethers. I did get a bad pic after we got back.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get ANY flags for the day. After a while, we were checking holes and started marking some pannies down below. we pulled a couple tip-ups and switched over to rods. About 20 minutes of work, we managed 5 decent gills about 7-9 inches as well as quite a few smaller ones. We threw back all of the pannies. Just had to do something to keep us warm.
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