There are still plenty of big pike in sylvan. I fished it heavily until 2018 and we averaged two or three a day like this in the summer.
I “probably” saw more pike in the weed beds ten years ago then recently but I’ve caught more over 15lbs in the past five years then ever before.
The trick is to fish where the fish are and to be honest I never saw anyone else fishing where I did. That picture should be enough to tip you off where that is. Fish the bottom of that drop off where it goes from 6 to 13’ in less then a boat length. It’s loaded with pike and walleye on top of the 2’ weeds that grow on the bottom of that drop off. When I ran out of shiners I used to troll a rapala that ran at 10’ around 3-4 km/h along the bottom of that drop off and it would slay them.
