So I was fishing Lake Champlain with my kid near Ticonderoga on Saturday on a rather windy day. The plan was to go around the bend by Fort Ticonderoga to block some of the wind out, which it did somewhat effectively. I ended up sitting on a spot where the weeds didn't look too bad and threw out my squarebill and caught this guy.

 

Not quite 40", but still the best pike I've got to date. Didn't get much else the rest of the day. Turns out that first cast was a perfect cast right along where the water gets shallower and the weeds get higher, where I wouldn't pickup 2lbs of weeds as soon as the crank hit the water. I was essentially unable to cast in that opening again due to getting blown around and being unable to use my pedals due to all the weeds. I probably should have hit the Mt Independence side a little earlier which is all rocks and no weeds, but I still got my PB pike!

 

 

Nice pike.

Congrats

A-Jay

Big pike are sure fun to catch. They can pull on you as hard as you can pull back on them, something the north country bass normally can’t. I had a 32” lock me up on my frog setup last week. 

16 minutes ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

Big pike are sure fun to catch. They can pull on you as hard as you can pull back on them, something the north country bass normally can’t. I had a 32” lock me up on my frog setup last week. 

Yup! I got it near my boat and got my net ready but missed snagging him in my net mainly since my net is more sized for bass. Then it went under my kayak and I thought I'd lose it.

 

I caught a 36" pike some years back, but it wasn't nearly this fat and didn't put up much of a fight.

Speaking of nearly 40" pike, I'd caught several 40"+ pike in Canada, but my fishing partner had never landed one. One afternoon, he hooked one that looked like it might be 40", but it was only 39". In the photo, it looks like even a wiggling 39-incher was too much for him!

 

Great job on the new PB!