Freshwater Jaws

Northern pike are known for their aggressiveness. They will attack anything that looks like food, even if it’s just a stick being jerked through the water. Shiny spinners and spoons as well as stick-baits with silvery, scaly paint jobs work well. Retrieving one of these baits through shallow water can get very exciting as the “log” that you could see from a short distance away, suddenly detaches itself from the lake bottom and swings in the direction of your lure. If it is shallow enough, a wake is created on the surface and grows as the fish rises to the bait. Then comes the explosion as the fish smacks the bait to snatch it and stun it at the same time. If this happens near or at the surface, water flies everywhere and the fish may even rise out of the water before joining you in battle. If you are using a surface plug, you might have it thrown at you by the force of the strike (or you might jerk it away from the fish in the excitement of the moment)—in either case—DUCK! You don’t want that treble hook as a new body piercing.

As a group, we have cracked the 40-inch mark only three times—all on our 2001 trip to Goin 2. While a northern puts up a heck of a fight on medium weight tackle, even a 40-inch fish will tire in about 15 minutes. It only weighs about 18-20 pounds (at least on our cheap spring scales), but it is all muscle. During that fight the fish builds up large amounts of acid in the muscle tissue and may cramp up like a human runner. It’s a heck of a fight and thrill while it lasts. I’ve caught several that measured 39 inches and one of the 40-inchers. At first you think you’ve snagged the bottom or a pile of weeds but then things get crazy. On our first trip, to Goin 1, Joe and his boys were trolling in front of the cabin at twilight. Joseph’s line started to pull off his reel. He called out to stop the motor as he thought his had snagged the bottom. Joe stopped the 9.9 horsepower Mercury when the line started pulling away from the boat instead of the other way round. For nearly 20 minutes, the fish pulled the boat, a 16-foot aluminum craft with motor and three people inside, back and forth over a 30-yard span as I watched from the cabin. Then the line snapped. We’ll never know just how big that fish was but Oliver guesstimates, based upon years of experience, it may have gone up to 50 inches or more. We want a rematch.


David & Pike