Fishing Forum

Forum has been a little slow lately,, so I figured I post something to stir up some life...

Caught these hogs right at the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Nothing prettier than that. In total we caught bout 30 fish all around this size. Picture "b" is my bro-in-law, who decided to come along for his first time fishing. Well I hooked him up with my favorite topwater Pike lure, and on about his third cast, SLAM!, and he had that hog running on him. His drag was screamin, as was he yelling, "what do I do, what do I do".
Good times. It seems it's always the beginners that seem to catch the biggest fish. I was acutally happier to see him catch it than myself, there's a lot of fun in that too. His was the biggest of the day.

All fish were caught on either a fly rod, or topwater lures. In my opinion, when fishing freshwater with a spinning rod, nothing quite compares to topwater action. Especially for Northerns, which are so aggressive. At times you would see their wake behind them as they came shooting out from 15 feet away and launch completely out of the water after your lure. Great fun, and a little scary when they strike like that only 12 feet from where you're standing.

Enjoy the pics!
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don't know if I'd call em hawgs, but they're definitely some very nice pike! especially if they were caught on a flyrod!

it's just my opinion mind you, when it comes to pike I consider a fish over 25 pounds as a hawg...and over 35 pounds would be a serious pig.
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what flies were you using? what kind of leader did you use?

some nice fish by the way.

Regarding flies, the bigger the better. My favorite is this big mouse fly that I have. Probably bout 4 inches long. Seems like the bigger the fly, and the more action it has, the better. THey will slam it.
As far as leader, you can buy thicker leaders, I got mine online, and then for tippet, there is a plastic coated steel wire, that you run through your hook, and then twist it back on itself, and melt it with a lighter, while squishing it with your hands, slightly, and it cools and bonds together. In my experience, you HAVE to use a steel leader. I've talked to some that don't, but I'm pretty sure they're not catching big pike. SOmetimes it's not too bad, but other times they will swallow ANYTHING.

For example, this past summer, just for kicks my brother tied on a HUGE 12-inch rubber trout to his spinning rod, weighed bout 2 pounds. First cast he caught a big northern that had swallowed the whole thing. We took it off after that. I don't like to use treble hooks with them, cause they're so agressive, the treble hooks do way too much damage to the fish.
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