We were greeted at the end of the road near the bait-shop by these two weirdos.... Still have no idea what this is about.
We were out for an hour and half without so much as a sign of a fish. When we were just starting to think about moving, a flag went up. I hauled out there and pulled in smaller pike. NOT SKUNKED!
I was resetting the tipper and had just dropped the sucker into the water when bells went off just in front of me. This fish took a good run and had a little more backbone, but still did not break the 30 mark. What I did get out of the fish was a little jewelry. A small ice jig was buried in the mouth. A quick extraction and release and the fish swam away much happier.
I turned around and headed back to the sled after resetting the tipper and I looked back to see it tripped again. Another smallish pike but much better than staring at idle flags. Shortly before we really did call it a morning, Adam caught one of the nicer ones of the weekend but still just at 28 inches.
We called it a morning and as I had iced a few pike, I conceded that we could head back to Cottonwood and let the yahoos catch their damn walleyes. We stopped by the house for a quick bite of lunch with the Mrs., and then we blasted back out. It surprised me to see what one day had done to the condition of the access area. It was getting much squishier but we still got on the ice. Paul was just short of dry heaving as he was far more worried about getting back out. The ice on the lake was still far better than what we had fished on Indian this morning, but the access was starting to get troublesome. The saving grace is the access is so shallow there wasn't going to be much of a problem other than wet boots. Nevertheless, we got on the lake and there was a group of guys near where we had fished the day before, so we were forced to move farther down the line. I was more inclined to do that in the first place so it worked out for the better. I dropped in all of my tippers and Adam and Paul took little time to pull in some walleyes. Paul even managed to catch another hog of a perch. The guys that were tipper fishing about where we were yesterday, watched as we pulled in numerous walleyes. They finally got fed up with the lack of action and packed up for another spot on the lake.
As we hole hopped around we were closing in on our three man waldo limit. Yesterday took us three hours to accomplish that goal. We iced nine in under an hour. It's really hard to convince Paul to throw back the smaller ones, but his argument is valid; they are all about the same size.
I had only iced one small pike on my tipper by the time we hit that nine walleye mark. I caught another walleye on my jaw-jacker and had just reset it when a tipper went up behind me. By the time I got to it the small pike had swallowed the hook. As I was trying to extract that hook Adam yells at me to look behind me. ladybug was up just behind me. I drop the small pike, which at this point I knew we were keeping, and go to grab the tipper. I get about 4 feet from it and the spinner on top starts screaming. I grab the tipper and set the line into a railroad tie.
I knew the second I set the line this was a monster pike. After the first run I look up and tell Adam this is probably my 40. I was calm and collected at this point without a hiccup of panic (why can't I have that kind of composure for whitetails????).
When I saw her in the bottom of the hole after the first run I knew I had to play it cool. After the second big run, which almost spooled out my tip up line, I got her to the hole again to see that she was t-boned in the hole. My first hook was buried in the corner of her mouth, and the second hooked right behind her gill plate. Without a gaff I knew going in was my only option. I handed Adam the line and rolled up my sleeve as far as I could which was still not going to be far enough. I grabbed the line and felt my way down. My first grab I managed to grab the hook in her mouth and she took off on another run. I played her back up and buried my arm in the icy water again. Up to my shoulder, I was able to slip my hand under her gills. I slowly pivoted her under water so she would come up mouth first. When I felt her bottom lip slip past the bottom of the ice I started to pull her up. At that point I had Adam and Paul right at the hole with me. As I lifted her out I couldn't get her all the way out without standing up. I put her on the ice and gawked at the GIANT! I pulled out my tape measure and Adam and Paul assisted. 40 and change.
I let out my Superman war cry.
Everyone on the lake that day heard it.
As I unhooked my homemade quick-strike rig, I notices she had a mouthful of jewelry. A large bass hook in the corner of her mouth with part of a steel leader still attached, and a newer tingler minnow spoon on the tip of her bottom lip. She was a warrior beast indeed!
Paul proceed to take better photos than I could have asked for.
As the events started to really sink in I would go into giggling fits. Paul wanted to finish off the limit of walleyes so we could get off of the deteriorating ice. It took a little under an hour to complete the grand slam weekend. We had our second limit of walleyes on the weekend and a booner pike. I told Paul I wanted a group photo with the three of us together. After packing up all of our gear I set the cameras on to of the sled and we took our time with great photos in unbelievably good lighting.
I continued to giggle on the walk out. As predicted it was starting to get goopy at the access. Thankfully it is so shallow in there that all we had to worry about was some mud. We made short order of the pack-out and we headed back home. I of course showed her off to the Mrs. whom I know loves me after informing her of this taxidermy bill. While Paul cleaned the walleyes, Adam and I carefully wrapped her up and placed her in the freezer. The only way I could get the fish into the freezer what diagonally. I enjoyed a wonderful celebratory cigar on this 60 degree day. I have fished cooler days in June than what we had ice fished today.
I have fished hard for this beast. I have read articles, and upgraded gear, and read more articles, and put time on the ice. The stress of trying to shoot a booner buck marred hunting for me back in Iowa. I needed something else. My drive for big manifested itself by chasing giant pike. Even back in Iowa I loved pike fishing. It was one of my favorite things about fishing up at my Uncle Rick's when I was kid. When I figured out there were big pike up here in South Dakota, that was it. Adam and Paul still got to catch their walleyes, but I fished giant bait while they did their thing. It has paid off many times but I told myself it had to be a beast before it went on my wall.
This; this is a beast.
Stay Tuned
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