June 29th started like many other days of guided fishing, an early breakfast followed by a boat ride to the fishing destination of the day. I strung up my fly rod and began fishing for pike. On the second cast I landed a small fish, followed by a couple in the 10-14 lb range. The morning proceeded in this way with lots of small pike and a few larger fish, including a ten pounder that turned my 4 piece rod into a 9 piece rod on the hookset. Around noon I hooked into and landed a 20 lb pike, and after the release we continued working the one shoreline. We came to an underwater point, and right away I saw two small pike and began casting to them but then redirected my cast to a larger fish around 10 or 12 lbs. My streamer was slowly sinking and I was about to begin stripping in when my guide yelled “There’s a bigger fish! Recast farther and to the right!” I heaved to get 30 feet of fly line and 7 inches of streamer out of the water, made one false cast, and then landed the fly. I let it sink for about three seconds, began stripping, and saw the trophy move in and take my fly. After 15 incredibly intense minutes of the fish running, rolling, and head shaking, I landed the biggest pike of my life – all 50 inches of it!
The day was incredible, I landed 56 pike, probably 20 of them were 3 feet long or more. I don’t know when I’ll experience a day of pike fishing like that again, but I do know it won’t be long before I try.
Dustin Styner
June 2011