Wab Today

Jwood 456 · #1 03-06-2011, 07:38 PM

So, I headed to Wab today at Fallis. I had about 15 bites, some of the fish felt like freight traines and were screaming 20lb line off of the reel.

Unfortunately, all of the the fish were lost excepet for a hammerhandle which was landed, and I even went through a pack of herring and couldn't land any.

I guess that's what happens when I use a 4/0 single barbless hook.lol

My Fishing partner also caught a few white fish on a small white grub jig tipped with maggots.

It didn't seem like the whitefish were camera shy at all, however the pike were very camera shy. Hmmm must be opposite day.

,

I also met some fellow AO members that were catching lots of nice sized pike. BTW nice to meet you guys.

Everyone else around me was also getting many bites and landing some fish.

Overall, it was a good day IMO.

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mooseknuckle · #2 03-06-2011, 09:18 PM

Was a great day out there today. A quality not quantity sort of day. Our largest was just shy of 13. A fun day all around.

ssyd · #3 03-06-2011, 10:26 PM

Was nice to meet you Justin thanks for the ride back to our car!

I'd say this weekend we landed 16 (9 yesterday, 7 today) and lost at least as many. Curse barbless hooks! The 15 lber yesterday was a great fight on my medium-light Rapala rod with 8 lb braid.

What part of the lake were you on, moose?

mooseknuckle · #4 03-07-2011, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssyd

Was nice to meet you Justin thanks for the ride back to our car!

I'd say this weekend we landed 16 (9 yesterday, 7 today) and lost at least as many. Curse barbless hooks! The 15 lber yesterday was a great fight on my medium-light Rapala rod with 8 lb braid.

What part of the lake were you on, moose?

Nice Pike!! 18-20?

We were at point allison.

pickrel pat · #5 03-07-2011, 10:09 AM

15 hits, 1 fish? were you not keeping tension on the line? dull hooks? or slow hooksets? hmmmmm.....

Jwood 456 · #6 03-07-2011, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssyd

Was nice to meet you Justin thanks for the ride back to our car!

I'd say this weekend we landed 16 (9 yesterday, 7 today) and lost at least as many. Curse barbless hooks! The 15 lber yesterday was a great fight on my medium-light Rapala rod with 8 lb braid.

What part of the lake were you on, moose?

Now that's a true lunker. Good Job ssyd. BTW keep up the good work.

Jwood 456 · #7 03-07-2011, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

15 hits, 1 fish? were you not keeping tension on the line? dull hooks? or slow hooksets? hmmmmm.....

The hooks I was using were sharp. I was using just a single barbless hook. I think the hook was too small for the large herring I was using. I could only put the hook through the very top of the herring. The first big bite I got was when I was dropping the herring down and I was putting the line down with my hands. When the fish hit I didn't wan't to pull too hard or the line would have cut my hands. I was making good progress and got the fish half way up until it got off. I had another bite on my 7ft rod where I had this huge pike to the hole that was screaming line off of my reel, then when the hook hooked the corner of the hole the fish got away. The other bites I had I don't think the pike were swallowing the herring whole. I would wait three or four seconds for the pike to swallow the herring and I would set the hook and the hook would just rip out of the herring. Next time I go pike fishing, I should use a much bigger barbless treble hook when using large herring.

walking buffalo · #8 03-07-2011, 10:44 AM

Anybody using circle hooks when using bait for pike?

Give it a try....

walleyeca · #9 03-07-2011, 12:12 PM

Hey Guys was out aswell to this spot and we had an absolute hoot! We landed around 15 nice big pikeys and got set off probably just as many times! we saw just a ton of fish down on the 10 ich aqua vu!!! from Whites,perch,and pike! We left the FISHLAB on the Trailer and so we sat we up hi as we shot the bullsh%%t and watched out the nice big viewing windows like an air traffic control center! lol "POP" someone in the shack would yell " TIP UP TIP UP"" then down the ramp and runnin like a wild bull to get to the whole and retrive a prize fish!! this is alot of fun Im mostly a WALLEYE guy but this was a good way to spend the day! I want to thank the grey chevy that helped a new friend we invited out to the lake who got stuck near you and you helped pull him over to us!!! KUDOS man KUDOS to you!!! I hope you caught some fish after we gave you that TIP! you were to far to see what was happenin but it did look like you guys moved in a bit!

Daceminnow · #10 03-07-2011, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walleyeca

Hey Guys was out aswell to this spot and we had an absolute hoot! We landed around 15 nice big pikeys and got set off probably just as many times! we saw just a ton of fish down on the 10 ich aqua vu!!! from Whites,perch,and pike! We left the FISHLAB on the Trailer and so we sat we up hi as we shot the bullsh%%t and watched out the nice big viewing windows like an air traffic control center! lol "POP" someone in the shack would yell " TIP UP TIP UP"" then down the ramp and runnin like a wild bull to get to the whole and retrive a prize fish!! this is alot of fun Im mostly a WALLEYE guy but this was a good way to spend the day! I want to thank the grey chevy that helped a new friend we invited out to the lake who got stuck near you and you helped pull him over to us!!! KUDOS man KUDOS to you!!! I hope you caught some fish after we gave you that TIP! you were to far to see what was happenin but it did look like you guys moved in a bit!

we like to call that type of fishing "sitting in the press box and calling the plays." in your case you may have to change the word "pressbox" to "luxury suite"!

ssyd · #11 03-07-2011, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walleyeca

Hey Guys was out aswell to this spot and we had an absolute hoot! We landed around 15 nice big pikeys and got set off probably just as many times! we saw just a ton of fish down on the 10 ich aqua vu!!! from Whites,perch,and pike! We left the FISHLAB on the Trailer and so we sat we up hi as we shot the bullsh%%t and watched out the nice big viewing windows like an air traffic control center! lol "POP" someone in the shack would yell " TIP UP TIP UP"" then down the ramp and runnin like a wild bull to get to the whole and retrive a prize fish!! this is alot of fun Im mostly a WALLEYE guy but this was a good way to spend the day! I want to thank the grey chevy that helped a new friend we invited out to the lake who got stuck near you and you helped pull him over to us!!! KUDOS man KUDOS to you!!! I hope you caught some fish after we gave you that TIP! you were to far to see what was happenin but it did look like you guys moved in a bit!

I saw you guys go by with that trailer! I was so jealous! Did you make it yourself or buy it complete?

Tip up fishing is too fun. My tip-up outside was pretty much the only thing hitting all weekend so probably 3/4 of the fish we caught we had to do the bull charge out of the tent for em.

On losing fish... I make kind of a homemade jackfish rig. Tie one 12" wire leader on, hook 2 6" wire leaders to that, big treble on the front, big single on the back. Barbless hooks are always gonna lose fish but I seem to do well with this setup. You also don't want to set the hook immediately with jackfish. That's why the tip-ups work so well for them. I've been told by several people that they'll run with the bait for a bit before they turn around and swallow it. You have let them swallow it first before you set the hook or you'll just yank the bait right out of their mouth. We call it Jamesing it in honour of our overzealous buddy.

Jwood 456 · #12 03-07-2011, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

Anybody using circle hooks when using bait for pike?

Give it a try....

I already tried circle hooks and it seemed to spook them. I hardly got any hits when i was using the circle, then when I switched to the 4/0 j-hooks I was getting alot more hits again. Last year I was using a 2 ounce leadhed and smelt with a single stinger hook and worked awesome some days. However, on some days if the fish are "leadhead shy"(my saying for the days this setup doesn't work very well) I will get a very little amount of bites.

75% of the time I would land the bites, I even caught my personal best pike last year on that setup, I estimated it was around 15lbs.

Yesterday the fish were "leadhead shy" so I only got one hit on that setup and it happened to be the hammerhandle I landed. All of the other bites were on the large herring I was using.

Jwood 456 · #13 03-07-2011, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssyd

I saw you guys go by with that trailer! I was so jealous! Did you make it yourself or buy it complete?

Tip up fishing is too fun. My tip-up outside was pretty much the only thing hitting all weekend so probably 3/4 of the fish we caught we had to do the bull charge out of the tent for em.

On losing fish... I make kind of a homemade jackfish rig. Tie one 12" wire leader on, hook 2 6" wire leaders to that, big treble on the front, big single on the back. Barbless hooks are always gonna lose fish but I seem to do well with this setup. You also don't want to set the hook immediately with jackfish. That's why the tip-ups work so well for them. I've been told by several people that they'll run with the bait for a bit before they turn around and swallow it. You have let them swallow it first before you set the hook or you'll just yank the bait right out of their mouth. We call it Jamesing it in honour of our overzealous buddy.

Thanks for the tips ssyd. I will definitely look into using a dual hook rig.

I will also get over my buck fever and not set that hook too early.lol

WayneChristie · #14 03-07-2011, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

Anybody using circle hooks when using bait for pike?

Give it a try....

I will never use those things again, they have to slide to the corner of a fishes mouth to hook up, and nothing slides through a pikes teeth! I lost a huge pike with those things and will stick to trebles from now on.

walking buffalo · #15 03-07-2011, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayneChristie

I will never use those things again, they have to slide to the corner of a fishes mouth to hook up, and nothing slides through a pikes teeth! I lost a huge pike with those things and will stick to trebles from now on.

Makes complete sense. I'll be happy to learn from your loss.

Hope you get the BIG girl soon...

Kim473 · #16 03-08-2011, 06:11 AM

Your bait may have been a little too large for the way they were bitting that day. Let them run for a bit and then set the hook after they stop for 4 secs.

Alberta Bigbore · #17 03-08-2011, 08:08 AM

Nice looking pike!! Even the small one

Jwood 456 · #18 03-08-2011, 10:11 AM

Thanks guys for the the nice and helpful comments and the hook setting, and rigging tips and suggestions.