So I finally managed to tick off a 40" Pike, and did it twice in one day, on two separate lakes where I had zero expectations!
I had a friend visiting from back home this weekend. They are in Canada for work and decided they wanted to see a familiar face.
Anyway it was all very short notice and I wanted to at least give them a small taste of the Canadian rockies. Being only a weekend trip I didn't want to go too far and with pricing and availability of accommodation inside the rockies right now I had to look outside the parks in the foothills. I found a place that was well situated with a nice provincial campsite within an hour or so of some nice places to visit in the Mountains. I noticed some small lakes in the campsite area and upon researching I realized that 3 of the lakes in the vicinity allowed powerboats and had Pike in them. So of course, the boat had to come along! This was not a dedicated fishing trip by any means and I didn't have high hopes for amazing fishing or monsters based on the little research I'd done but couldn't hurt to give it a try.
My friend is certainly no avid angler but they were interested to see some Canadian lake fishing anyway so I decided we'd fish short morning and evening sessions and do some exploring of the mountains the rest of the time.
The first morning we headed out early to the Lake I was most interested in about 15 minutes from our camp site. Launched the boat on a beautiful misty morning and had the whole lake to ourselves. I immediately noticed this lake was much colder than the usual lakes I am fishing this time of year, so decided to head north and look for shallow bays where the fish would be warming up in the sun. Strangely enough I couldn't find any decent weed beds in this lake but found a shallow sandy/muddy flat to the north with a steep drop off and it didn't take long to get a medium size pike in the boat. Worked the area a bit more and then hooked into something with some more weight behind it. Fish started off very lazy so I had no idea on size but when it came closer to the boat and decided to start jumping I saw a huge head come out the water and knew I had a special fish on. Landed this beauty Pike in crystal clear water which made the 40" mark! I was super stoked! I've been fishing for big Pike a lot this season and beginning to plan big trips out north to try and get a 40" + but I ended up getting it in a small lake where I least expected it. That's why I love fishing! Needless to say, my trip was already made.
Caught one or two smaller fish after this and then the bite went off completely so we went off for a day seeing the sights in the mountains.
So roll around to the same evening. We were pretty keen to hit the same lake again but decided why not try the lake right next to the campsite, we could always try lake #1 again the following morning. Headed out onto the very weird little lake with crazy underwater structure and sand banks everywhere. Definitely an outboard killer if you're not paying attention. This lake was even colder than the first and also crystal clear. Once again with it being cold and the wind direction being from the south I decided to head to the shallows on the northern end. I tried a few promising spots without success so decided to troll along a steep drop-off with submerged weeds. At this stage absolutely nothing had happened for at least an hour or two so I was beginning to think I was right about lake #1 being the better option. So when a rod started bending and twitching I first assumed it was dragging some weeds. Picked it up and immediately realized I either had a huge mess of weeds on the line, or a solid fish. When the weeds started swimming to the left I confirmed the second option
. The fish then decided to perform some aerial acrobatics and I was dumbstruck, this looked like another huge fish, bigger than the one from the morning!
Got the fish landed and measured and it came in at 40.25" and was clearly a chunkier specimen than the one from the morning. I couldn't believe it, broke my PB and 40" mark twice in one day! On lakes I would likely never have decided to go to if it wasn't for my friend visiting. Epic.
Excuse the blood on this one, it was hooked well, there was no damage to the gills that I could see but just appeared to bleed a little from somewhere. I had this fish back in the water super fast and made sure she swam off strongly. I definitely don't want a fish like that dying on me.
We caught some more smaller fish and two 36" size fish between that evening and the following morning but it had already been a great success. Certainly aren't huge numbers in those lakes but some quality fish around for sure. What a fantastic weekend in such a beautiful area, I will definitely be heading back.
One day, two lakes, two 40 inch Pike.
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