Further North

Poor kid...and her parents must have been frantic while it was going on.

I work fly fishing into my routine a lot. Freshwater fish I've caught so far: Trout (Brook, Brown, Rainbow) Panfish (Tons of fun!) Crappies Smallmouth bass (river fish are the best) Largemouth Bass Northern pike Muskies I don't use the same rigs or flies as I move up in fish size, I have very thing from a 7 ft 3 wt. to a 9 ft 10 wt. depending on what I'm after and the size of the flies I'm using. Matching the equipment to the fish/flies is really the key for me to enjoy it...trying to throw a big, wind resistant bass fly on a rig set up for trout dries is frustrating and tiring. It can be done, but it'll suck...

View off the dock the first night

I'm not anywhere near writing them off - as you say, great products, and a great company. I remain a fan and an advocate... ...I'm just puzzled about the odd way they handled this...or more accurately, the way they didn't handle it.

It is weird. What you say has been exactly my experience and to say I am both puzzled and disappointed by the lack of response is an understatement. A quick response, even, "We don't know, we'll check it out." would have put it to bed...now this wiĺl follow them around for years...and they've got a formerly passionate supporter scratching his head. Bad business choice. I hope nothing has changed at HB. I should follow up to find out.

OK...after a few weeks of deafening silence from HB on three forums, and a nudge from Wayne over on "another bass forum" I installed the just-released (7/5/2017) software version 1.460 on both the Helix 10 and the Helix 12...so far. we're 3 for 3: Started up the whole system 3 times, have been able to see SI on the Helix 10 DI every time. Will do the Basemap install tomorrow night. ...still disappointed in HB. They are usually more responsive than this.

...or Seven Muskies in Seven Days, The Way to a Happy Heart. Wasn't quite a musky a day, I zeroed on Thursday after loosing a mid 30's fish at the boat, but I'd caught two on Wednesday, so I kept my average up. Nothing huge, started with a 37" right away Saturday night, then a 22" on Sunday, then a 30", a 29", a 27" and 9", skipped Thursday per above and finished with a 34". All were fat, healthy fish, only managed the 29" on a fly, but it was one of mine, and my fishing partner caught a 37" on one of my flies too, so that was cool. No, the 9" isn't a typo...and that was with the tail pinched...cutest little toothy fish I've ever seen. Typical Canadian weather: got clobbered by a storm on the way to the island and soaked everything in the boat that wasn't wrapped in plastic, including me and my fishing partner. Sunny, muggy and hot Sunday and Monday, with buckets-o-skeeters at night to match. Temp dropped 20 degrees and rain and wind kicked us around Tuesday and Wednesday...smallies turned off hard, but musky follows came way up. Had 11 fish follow on Tuesday, 9 on Wed. I can live with that... Sunny and warmer on Thursday, which slowed things down, and about the same on Friday, but more follows. At one point on Wednesday we had two muskies taking turns following everything we threw at them for about 45 minutes. We saw a low 30s fish first, got it to follow a 2nd time, then a high 40s mama came out to play. Tried 4 different flies, spoons, inline spinners, top-water plugs and flies (thought my fishing partner was gonna fill his pants when the big girl came up and stared at his musky popper. No love though, moved on to other spots. Another cool thing - we were working a spot where a tree had fallen off a point - musky city to anyone who's fished for them and a mid 30s musky followed a #5 Mepps out to the boat...we worked her on a big orange fly, a red/white Doctor Spoon and red/white fly. No love (went back and caught her Friday, that was my 34") but at one point we lost sight of her and I went to move the boat off the tree further...and she was hanging off the bow, staring at the trolling motor. She actually tilted down and followed a bit when I bumped it to move us. Proof they're not afraid of anything... My best fish of the trip was a 38" pike that looked like it'd just eaten a bag of bunnies. Caught her on my 2nd cast Tuesday morning in a spot we'd had a follow on Sunday. Our most productive pattern was to approach a spot, work it with gear, working up in size to see if we got a follow, then try flies. We might have done better on flies if we hadn't done this...but I'm glad we didn't. Switching back and forth is lot easier on my 55 year old body that either chucking gear or flies for 6 days straight. Mixing it up when stuff starts get sore made a difference. I'm happy to report that Humminbird's SmartStrike works exactly as advertised. Cut out a lot searching through unproductive water once you got on the pattern for the day. Biggest fish for the week was a 49 1/2" monster caught by our one of our cabin mates on Friday afternoon. Weird catch...the fish was feeding on something on the surface and Ron saw her, fired a topwater muskie lure in front of her...and she ate it. Got real exciting after that to hear them tell the story as she wasn't real interested in coming to the boat...she tail-walked on him twice, went under the boat once and tried to head into Sioux Narrows once. I've got no idea how many musky were boated, but it was a bunch - 4 cabins with 2 boats each with two mostly experienced musky guys can put a lotta fish in boats in a week...the most "total inches" by one guy was just shy of 400". Number of follows was nuts. We were the least experienced guys there, and we went 3, 7, 5, 11, 9, 4 and 6. Anyone who has chased these things will get that. Pike were consistent, lots of 30" plus fish, buckets full in the 20s and a few hammer handles. Smallies were a crazy hot bite Sunday and Monday, but shut down hard Tuesday and Wednesday and came back up to decent fishing Thursday and Friday. LOTW is a lot of fun...I'll be back.

How are you working them? I tried them like a jerkbait...no love. I think there are some baits/lures that work well in one are and not in another. I really wanted those big Sluggos to work...

Helix 12 CHIRP SI...unfortunately the SI was set to 455 Hz or we would have been able to see which end of the fish was the head. ...and a messed with the GPS Coordinates...it's about 945 miles off... PS: I lied about the miles too.

When I was doing a couple of fly-ins to Canada every year, I tried using those big Sluggo's several times and never got a bite on one. I still have a box of them. Not one of them have any teeth marks on them. My big Rapalas on the other hand, all look like I took a shotgun to them. I had the same experience. ...but here's one for you: Strike King Smokin' Rooster on a 5/0 offset worm hook. I use the Gamakatsu braid hooks or the heavy Mustad version in red Tie in a long (at least 18") hunk of tieable wire leader, then Texas Rig with a 1/4 oz. or 3/8 oz. bullet sinker. Tie the leader directly to the hook. Swap colors until you find out what they like in your water. Ive been successful on Watermelon red flake and Falcon lake craw in clear water; black, junebug and blue in dirty water...YMMV. I've caught hundreds of pike and musky on this rig...but don't skip the tieable leader unless you like donating hooks and baits to the fish gods. They're gonna hit it like they hate it... Here's a 40" musky that ate one.

I'd hang a plastic trailer on them (I used pork rind trailers when I was a kid growing up jut over the WI boarder from you), probably yellow or white...then vary my speed and try different ways to work it back until I got a hit. Weedless is good, work 'em through the weed tops and aggressively along the weed edges.

Couple of thoughts: As several people have mentioned, pike tend to go deep in warmer water, particularly bigger pike. I'd go find deeper water. If the rivers are up and flowing hard, find off current areas and current seams, work those. If you can find those in conjunction with deeper or cooler water, your odds will go up. Pike will eat anything that doesn't eat them forst...but try to figure out what their main food source is in your water. Try various ways to imitate it. Stuff to use...spoons, in-line spinners, spinner baits...pretty much anything that makes noise and/or delivers flash. Let the fish tell you what colors they like...if something's not working, switch baits, size or color...or all three. I suck at this... Vary retrieve speed until you find what works. Try cast & wind, pauses, jerks...whatever works...and if what you're doing isn't working...switch it up. Good luck, and have fun. Not much matches a pike in fresh water for pure savagery on the strike, and while they don't always fight hard and long, that just gets you back on the water for more action sooner.

We don't have chain pickeral here that I am aware of.

Pike and musky occupy the same place on the food chain. ...since pike eat a ton of hatchling muskies every spring and big pike are both more rare and harder to catch than muskies a pretty good argument can be made for them being higher on the food chain and trophy list.

I'd drop largemouth (and do) in a heartbeat if any of my priority species are biting. My priority list looks something like this: Pike Smallies Musky Largemouth Trout Walleyes Trolling for anything Pike/Muskies being what they are, and the availability of good largemouth lakes nearby means I wind up fishing for them a lot more...but every lake and/or new spot gets a cast or three for toothy fish before I throw bass lures if there is event he slightest chance I'll get a hit.

I target pike and chase musky when offered the opportunity. Just got back from a week in Canada landed dozens of pike (including the big green girl below) and I can confirm that pike and musky are not leader shy. I don't use commercially tied leaders (I think they are too expensive and I'm not wild about crimped vs. tied...but that's me. Someone will be along to say they have caught 12.4 million pike with commercial crimped leaders, and that's fine). What I do is tie in either the Surflon material AJ linked to above, or Tyger Leader tieable leader material to the main line (I use braid, almost always 50# and up) with either an FG knot or an Alberto knot. I use wire rated anywhere from 25# to 50#, but mostly use the Tyger 30# material. I tie my leaders anywhere from 12" - 18" long because I don't have to worry about getting the end through the guides. With the FG in particular, I can run the knot inside pretty small guides with no issues. In the "business end" I either tie direct to a hook if I'm fishing plastics, to a snap via a loop knot if I'm fishing crank baits or to a swivel with a snap for in-line spinners and spoons. The Tyger Leader is very kink resistant, but it can take a beating from repeated smacking against rocks, or sometimes a really big fish can tear up the coating....check it regularly and you shouldn't have an issue...when it gets beat up...cut off the end and re-tie the business end until the leader is too short. I haven't used the Surflon as much, but it has been very similar in performance with perhaps a tendency to kink a little sooner than the Tyger Leader Amazon carries both Surflon and Tyger Leader. Don't go overboard on wire leader weights...you don't need it unless you are into some huge fish. On the fluorocarbon leaders...they also work well as reported above...but go heavier in line weight (I'd never use anything less than 30# and a good case can be made for 50# and up depending on the fish. They won't kink as brought up above, but they will get beat up on rocks and other tough structure. Check them often - you don't want to lose a 30"+ fish to a nicked leader. Just run your fingers down the leader, if you feel nicks, cut it off and re-tie. I also ties these direct to the main line with FG or Alberto knots (Here I lean towards the FG because of the fluoro line diameter.). One last thought on the fluoro leaders: Use real leader material, not regular fluorocarbon line - the leader material is tougher and designed for that use - it holds up a lot better.

Nice fish, Blake!

I saw two thoughts on "why" recently. Both make sense, could be either, neither or both... ...and...

How about 20 lb. musky? ...when that big girl comes outta the water it makes an 8 lb bass look like...well...dinner... Same here. Learned to cast a fly lefty too. I suck at it, compared to right handed casting...but there's time when I want the angle.

Absolutely. They'll stunt the bass eventually too. Amateur resource management is often mistaken about what is best for the resource...

These'll work too:

Yep.

That's what it has to boil down to and why there's no one "right answer" that fits everyone.

Understatement of the decade. Three things give me the heebie-jeebies: The biggest of those three is swimming snakes. That's sourced in seeing cottonmouths swim at our boat in Arkansas when I was a little guy. Snakes on dry land are no big deal at all...put 'em in the water...hair on the back of my neck stands at attention...

I like them better than single console and full windshields...but you may find you feel differently. I've already talked about why I don't care for full windshields...but they do a great job of blocking the wind in bad weather. Hard to argue with that...but I fish more than ride around in the boat...so not important to me. Single console boats open up the floor a bit, but if you take someone else along, they're gonna eat a lot of bugs...or get really cold and/or wet in adverse conditions. ...best thing to do is figure out what you like.