My previous posts were all titled "20 lb Wabamun Pike Hunt". I've decided to do a bit of goal setting, forget about the tiny 20 lbers, and shoot for a 30 lb pike next year.
How did I do this fall?
The open water Wab season was cut short due to our very cold weather in later October. So other than the odd ice fishing jaunt, I have to wait for open water and the season opening in May. In about 5 or 6 visits to Wabamun from Sept. 15 to about Oct. 21, we landed a couple of 15 lb pike, lots of 10-12 lb pike, and had our 20 lb pike right beside the boat. Then it shook the jig just before being netted. But tons of fun and I learned a lot about pike and their habits, especially the bigger ones.
This winter I've ordered a number of "how to catch giant pike" books from our friends in England of all places. They seem masters of "giant pike fishing" and if they can catch them in that small highly populated island, I'm going to listen to what they say... Basically the method for the big ones is to use "dead bait". Not that you can't catch a huge pike on lures...we do all the time over here...but the big ones are more consistently caught on "dead bait" either on the bottom, floating just off the bottom, or in some cases under a bobber or float, and in some cases on casting with dead bait.
The basic idea of these British trophy pike anglers is that a large pike and a small pike are virtually two different species of fish. The smaller pike smash savagely at anything moving and are easy to catch on lures. The big 20 lb plus pike are very different. Think "channel catfish". Most of their feeding is by smell and they eat dead and dying fish off the bottom of lakes. They of course will still attack a lure if they are in the mood...but mainly they prefer to casually sniff the water, hone in on a dead or dying whitefish on the bottom for example, and scoop it up for dinner.
Smelly "ocean fish" are the preferred bait as they contain a lot of oil. So they use mackeral, herring, and smelts. Like over here, they recommend fishing a drop off just on the side of a larger shallow feeding area. For example, fish the 15 ft. level on a drop off right off a shallow 4-6 ft. weedy area, preferably on the "wavy side".
So armed with my new "British Trophy Pike Fishing" methods, I figure that 30 lber is just a formality this coming year for me
And don't worry, I will post the photo. By the way the biggest pike I have heard coming from Wabamun from a person I can trust is 31 lbs. But everyone feels that there are numbers of 30 and even 40 lb fish in the lake, especially since it has been catch and release only the last several years.
If you have any ideas as to what has worked for you on the "over 20 lb pike" at Wab or elsewhere, feel free to share...