St.Joeriversmallie

I had some luck with silver/blue cotton cordell lipless. I plan on throwing them some more this year. I think you should always have rattle traps, spoons, inlines, bass spinners, and jerkbaits for pike. These are some of my favorites.

Rapala SR7 shad rap. 20lb fireline, 30lb steel leader, shimano solstace, BPS extreme MH 7' fishing for pike.

Braved the rain to test out motor repairs. Repairs didnt go to well but decided to use the trolling motor and make a few casts. 3 minutes into casting hooked up with this beast. 30inches and 9lbs. Then i went home. Total time on the water 20 minutes.

Gizzard Shad it is. I'm convinced. But wow. A little over 16 inches is pretty cool.

I think you guys are right. But the only thing i'm not sure about is the dorsal fin. Looks a little different although the fin in mine could be folded or something. Not sure why it would be in the river since they live in saltwater and then run up the river in the spring. thks

ok, caught this trolling on the river today. Any help? 16 inch almost 2lbs

Caught both on strike king bass spinners. And fish in niles stretch above niles dam. Got nice steelie a week ago on mepps 1 1/4 oz musky killer.

12inch eagle claw 30lb wire leaders, so far no failures. But i have not really hooked the monster i have been looking for. Fish weighed 10lbs even.

She was shaking for a couple of minutes after she landed it. The biggest fish she had ever caught before that was about a 17 inch bass, maybe 3lbs or so. So yes, it was quite intense for her and pretty cool for me too.

her is the other fish from that day. 35inch 8lb

Took my wife out on the St. Joe River looking for her first pike. After 3 hours of casting she was getting a little tired of no bites. I kept telling her we were looking for a big fish and be patient. She just wanted any size for her first pike, but we were not getting any bites at all. I decided i needed to change up her lure and did it pay off! It wasnt 5 minutes after i put on a mepps #3 long white with silver blades and i heard the splash, but didnt see the hit. From the sound of it i knew she had a good one. After 4-5 minutes of me coaching her i netted the her first pike. A 36inch 10lb river pike. Not bad for her first pike. Caught on a Cabelas Classic MH 6ft 6in with a shimano slade 4000, 14lb fireline crystal with 30lb leader.

Fished with my 7 year old son for pike. I ended up with 3 bites. A small 26" and 35" and a nice 36incher. The best part was watching my son try to net them. Priceless. Here is a pic of the biggest.

Ok, caught him on the St. Joe River in Niles MI above the niles dam. Caught him in a about 4ft of water along the slack water side along the weedline. I'm using a 7ft M Cabelas tourney trail with a shimano solstace 4000 spooled with 30lb spiderwire stealth with a 12inch 30lb steel leader. Hooked one about the same size last week but wasn't using a leader yet. Lost him in pretty quick. Thanks for all the replies. Hopefully as we get more into the fall i can run into that mid 40incher. I nornally only fish for bass but 2 weeks ago i caught a pike so i figured game on. Before two weeks ago i had only caught on pike ever. To get a hog like this in 2 weeks is pretty cool. Look forward to posting more pics. I get to go 3-4 times a week and the landing is only a few blocks from home so it works out good.

Check out this beast that hit a 3/8oz strike king spinnerbait 10 minutes into the day. Gotta buy a new net as he just went right through it. I had caught one pike ever until 2 weeks ago. Now ive got a nice one in the 30's and the hog today. Wow what a fight. It was quite impressive. My question is how go i go about landing one of these by myself? I was lucky both fish i had a buddy in the boat.

Been targeting pike the last couple of weeks. Finally got my first 30+ northern. A 32" 7lber caught on a strike 1/2oz double bladed spinnerbait in white and silver.

Landed my personal best today. Pretty slow day but stuck with it. 21inch pig on a senko that wrapped around a lilly pad. Had to troll up to it and lucky it was still hooked. The estimator on here said 6.7 lbs. 2 other fish a 14 inch and a 16 inch. Camera phone and by myself so not good pics. But here it is.

Been pretty cold and rainy here in southwest michigan. Got a chance to get out between the rain and the storm coming. Fished Pipestone Lake for 3 hours and had 6 bites and 5 keepers ranging from 14 inches to 16 inches. Heres the biggest one that was a little over 16 inches. Caught him on xrap. Caught one on a bandit 200 and the other three on 4" senko weightless texas rigged. Air temp was 47degrees and water temp was 58-59 down from the mid 60's a week ago. Been a great year so far and just getting started........

Fishing the St. Joe River one day i was drifting down river throwing a bandit. All of a sudden i felt something. I gave it a little pressure and started to reel. Figured out i had someones braid i hooked. Reeled until i got my crankbait and then grabbed the braid and started to pull. Then i realized there was a fish on the other end of the line. I saw it surface about 50 ft away and it looked big. I didnt think trying to pull it in by hand was a good idea so quick thinking i wrapped the braid around my hand and bit my mono off. Then threaded the braid down my guides and hooked it on the clip on the spool. Cranked it a couple times to get wrapped a few around the spool and then reeled in the biggest fish i have ever caught(or should i say reeled in). 30 plus inch catfish that had a tiny 1inch crankbait in its mouth. It must have been snagged on a log pile mid river and i just happened to come along and snag the line. He didnt have much fight in him so i think he may have been snagged for a while. It was crazy. True story i swear.

I live in michigan and on private waters you can basicly do what you want. But once you leave and are on public property like the road then a undersized bass is illegal cause you cant prove it came from private waters. I read on Dnr website a few days ago. As long as you have permision from landowner you can fish for bass with no license all year. Just dont leave private property with small bass or too many panfish. Oh and by the way, bass cant fend off sunfish to begin with and alot of eggs get eaten. Once the female leaves it is just the male. Small sunfish can take out nests easy. I think a CR all year season in michigan is what needs to be done. Everybody fishes for them around here anyway. Ive been out a dozen times this year and half the times i see guys throwing spinnerbiats and jerks all over. Very few DNR officers to enforce these rules. They know it too. Indiana has great bass fishing and they have no regs. Seems to work fine for them.

Yes it was crazy weather. My buddy came from 2 hours away to fish so we figured as long as no lightining were game. Even with rain coats we were soaked. And also i had caught a 4 and 5 the two days prior so we were pumped. Yes turned out to be just rediculous. Fingers a little cold. Feet soaked. My wife called and i told her we 5 minutes from leaving and then we would hook another 4 lber. We just couldnt leave. We kept looking at each other and just laughing. My boat had not seen more than 3 keepers in the boat until Saturday. 12 fish all keepers, half over 4 pounds. Wewwwww. Taking my 13 year old nephew out thursday so hopefully we get a couple nice ones. Here is a pic of my best smallie from last year. 19 inch just shy of 5lb

This one was today with my son. Weighed in at 5-10

and another

Not sure how to post more than one pic so here is some more.

Ive caught 4 5lbers and a bunch of 3s and 4s. My buddy and i fished 30mph gusts and downpoor rain to boat 12 keepers. We each had about 20lbs in the boat in 3hrs and then it cleared up and the bite quit. Then two days later today i got another 5lber.

Thanks. My son and i went out today again and boated 2 keepers. Another 5lb fatty