As an avid angler, it is rare to go out and see something that genuinely surprises me.  Every day of fishing has highs and lows, but after around 100 days a year on the water chasing multi species adventures, the highs never seem as high.  Don't get me wrong, fish get my adrenaline pumping.  The day that changes, is the day I quit fishing, and I forecast a long fishing future.  I just fail to gain the overwhelming excitement that I used to.  Luckily, it doesnt take much to change that.  Yesterday was that day.  Over the past week and a half, I have been lucky enough to spend time on 4 different bodies of water targeting water wolves, big gators.  So yesterday, I got off work around 8am and decided to rock over to one of the better lakes I had launched on previously.  Armed with a devastating lineup of Imperium soft plastics, we went to work.  Initially we started off deep with no sniffs.  So we moved shallow.  We saw some fish but they were very inactive and unwilling to play.  Made another move to a mid range spot.  Fairly shallow water with some really deep water nearby.  We found the honey hole.  Tons of fish around, almost all good size and these fish wanted to play a little more.  They werent super aggressive, and we did have to finesse them, but they were willing.  Ace's fished on ballheads and weightless did most of the damage, and when the going was tough, I switched to a fat 4 inch grub that Imperium will be bringing out in the near future.  That twister tail fired them up when nothing else would.  In the end, I landed my biggest pike to date.  I wanted her back in the water after photos, and didnt get a measurement or weight, but I know she was big.  She also showed me her lunch and why she got so big! Check out the video to get a true perspective on her size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations on the PB. Do you have an estimate of the weight?

That is a big gator pike! Funny that it ate that laker and then went for that little grub after that.

Awesome fish man!

What an awesome catch !

Big congrats, and continued success to you.

 

Fish

very nice! Congrats

Wow, nice northern.  Looks over 36".  Got to be at least 14 lbs. 

Wow, nice northern.  Looks over 36".  Got to be at least 14 lbs. 

Yeah I agree, I'd say it was scratching the 40" mark.

I hate estimating because pictures never do justice.  Watch the video to get a real idea of the size.  I put 7 fish in the boat over 40 inches last week.  This fish I figure was around 42 inches.  But the girth is what made it so special and you cant see the girth in the pics, but the video shows it.  Fish had to have been 20+ lbs.

This fish below, I weighed last week at 17lbs 2oz and my new PB that I'm guessing on, dwarfed it, just on girth alone.


 

I often refer to the New York length-weight charts. An average 42" would weigh 15-2. It sounds like yours was above average girth so you can add something to that 15-2, but I wouldn't know how much.