Pike on the Fly!

Going to start this one out earlier this summer..... Ben said he had a little surprise for me and that he was on the way over to the casa. Had no clue what he had planned but was totally blown away when he showed up in my driveway with a Pontoon boat!!! Wha!!! Ben found a killer deal online and was tired of me talking about getting a Pontoon so he decided to do something about it. Really one of the coolest things someone has ever done for me. Ben is a good fishing buddy
and friend and I'm happy to have him in my life.

We've had some fun on the Pontoons this summer. So much so that I haven't really felt like spending more time than I had to on the computer so I skipped a bunch of trips on the blog here. It was a fun summer all in all and we had some good times for sure.

Back to the Pike - We had heard that the pike bite was heating up at Spinney. I've always wanted to target pike at Spinney and now that Ben and I were armed with the pontoons we had no excuse not to get after it!


The night before I started thinking about Pike flies. I had a few articulated flies I've used for trout but I wanted something truly nasty. I decided to take stock of the fly tying materials and I had ample chartreuse marabou and rabbit strips so chartreuse it was! And what the hell, why stop at two segments for an articulated fly. Why not four? Maybe I'll get lucky and get a good corner mouth hook on the last trailer and my line wouldn't get cut up in the mangle. Good friend told us that steel leaders would cut your takes in half so we went with 20lb flouro. Fly turned out plenty nasty and wasn't too tough to cast. It was easiest to just toss it 20 feet or so and then let line out while trolling.

It took an hour or so to figure out what sort of action would trigger a take. I got my first take by VERY slowly kicking to troll the fly. I started pulling about two feet of line in and letting it go quickly in order to create a diving action during the troll. I had only done this for about 5 minutes when I got my first grab. I wasn't too confident at all about what I was doing so I wasn't really expecting a hit but it came and I froze! Totally different type of fishing and I am definitely a newb.

I missed the hit but I knew I was doing at least something right so I stuck with it. Ben was getting some action by fishing a similar action only he was lifting the fly with the rod. I don't think it really matters but that day they did seem to key in on a sinking fly after a quick dart.I do think the fly shouldn't be too heavy. It should sink but it should sink as a fly and the head shouldn't dive down. This creates a very smooth look in the water and to me it looks like a ton of easy calories.

After another half hour or so I thought I felt a small bump and started tightening up the line and BAM!! These takes do not feel like a snag. I thought it was a pike due to the take but I wasn't sure for the first 30 seconds or so until he took a run right at me and almost went under the pontoon. Pike for sure! Awesome! I can't believe this amalgamation of marabou, rabbit fur, cactus chenille, and rubber legs actually worked! What an awesome feeling when a plan comes together.

Not the biggest pike in the pond but I sure was proud of it. Really a fun fish to catch. I'll be back out before the end of October for sure. I think the same pattern in more natural colors will do well.