https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1762372847639355612

Probably didn't even taste it

Lost a few trout to pike over the years. When a pike decides to eat something it does it quickly

That must have ruined that perch's day.

Big gators can eat pretty much anything they want.

That's a good one. Most of the ones around here are oversized hammer handles

Just to clarify, that is just an internet picture. I have no idea who that handsome young man with fine taste in clothing is.

Looked like the table next to me at the Golden Corral last night!

It's what pike do.

I've seen a few dead northerns over the years with a fish stuck in their mouth. Bit off more than they could chew I guess.

I've had them latch onto stringers, and more than one walleye/panfish/perch that I was trying to land. As stated above, it's what they do.

Hell of a fish

Several times I have had bigger pike swallow a smaller pike that I had caught and was reeling in.
I have never been able to land a twofer but have tried damn hard.

Water wolf. Basically a freshwater shark.

I used to keep one of these in an aquarium. He ate all kinds of living things, but I mainly fed him goldfish.

A Pike Cichlid:

I had a big one (20 lb +) hit a 2 pound pike that I was pulling up the ice hole in the fish house. There was a heavy pull, then snap. I looked down and it had the smaller fish in it's mouth upside down, belly up. I watched in awe as it slowly swam to the bottom with my fish. One of the coolest fishing experiences of my life.

Looks to me like a dead perch just dropped out of the boat. Never even made any sign of danger approaching

Yep. That's what it looked like to me too.

Smaller pike get washed up on gravel in some of the 50/100 mph winds we get where we guide moose. A trough forms on the end of the lake and a bit of water. When its over if we find a small pike in that trough we catch and release back into the lake.
I have never seen a pike escape. Every last one has been eaten by bigger ones. Granted we have not seen or caught anything over 36 inches but its a small lake and it never gets fished excepting a bit during 25 days in the fall.

If you net a pike that followed a walleye to the boat, that fish has a lot of fight.

I wonder how long it was alive inside the pike, slowly dissolving in stomach fluids. Nature doesn't always play nice.

One of the things I miss about my days in Minnesota. I think the biggest northern I caught was up on Lake of the Woods... about a 45 pound fish. I've seen some caught over in Wisconsin, over by Taylor's Falls, that were in the 60 lb range.

Had some friends, who's toy poodle fell off their boat into the lake, and a 60 pound or so northern, just came up and swallowed the poodle whole. Of course you could imagine how hysterical the wife was.... I think he husband enjoyed that tho.. he never liked that poodle. he was a big dog kind of guy.

Get out of the twin cities, a lot of great folks in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Sort of reminds me of a girlfriend I once had- - - - - - -she had no gag reflex whatsoever!

That's nothing. I want to see a perch eat a pike, now that would be something.



Hopefully huntsman22 will see this and post a pic or two. He has a very unique way of catching pike.

Do you ever get sick of being full of shit or do you believe most of it at this point?

I chase big pike all over the place. Mostly northern Canada just because there is much less pressure the farther you get from roads. Consequently, more bigger fish. The Wisconsin record is about 38 lbs and about 45 in Minnesota. Those fish are less than one in a million! If there were any 60 pounders in Wisconsin, I would have never left!

Well nice but really how dare you catch fish out of a boat that doesn't cost 80 k? Way to go. Mb

MN record is 45 lb 12 oz from 1929 and WI record is 38 lb 0 oz from 1952. We're in the presence of greatness. You can always tell the great ones because they have no interest in registering a record. Either that or he might not have any idea how big a 45 or 60 pounder is or might be.

Please, lets not let facts get in the way here.

Never weighed one. Never heard many that did. It was measure em and turn em back mostly.

50 inches is the goal in AK. In the right places its not hard to hit 50. At least some years ago out in the bush.

What does that say about flavor sprays for bait?

Nothing really. The sprays are to be used as a chum line so to speak. Get the fish attention so they come look

Beat me to it.

Holeee Fuuuuuuck

lol

I've been holding out for a true 20 lb'er to put on the wall. I've caught several 40" pike on Lake of the Woods and haven't cracked that weight yet. Real close but not quite.

My wife caught a 23 lb and an old girlfriend caught a 24 lb on MY Tip Up.

The largest I've seen was 32 lbs and that thing was HUGE.

Seafire is catching 45 and poodle eating 60 lb'ers.

HAHAHA

Man,you can sling the schit with the best of them.

Some serious fish tales going on!

I did a 3-fer once! Little lake outside of Fairbanks. The innermost one was pretty well dissolved, but still identifiable. Besides which, there were only pike in that lake. Frogs, water bugs, voles, baby ducks, etc were other food sources, but it appeared to me the pike fed on other pike all summer and then f'ked all winter.....

Did several 2-fers on that same lake. My oldest brother said he caught one about 15 lbs out of that same lake (unfished by anyone but us, I think- had to walk a mile or so down game trails to get there), but the biggest - per the 3-fer above- that I ever caught there was maybe 4 lbs. My biggest ever was a 7.5 lb in ND.

Original video is cool, but obviously staged. Perch was dead; early in the video, you could even see the water distortion where it was dropped in. Pike is probably used to getting handouts from the dock.

LOL

Dude, no.

Holy Mary Mother of God....This is now the biggest bullsh'it story on the campfire. LMFAO.

I'd love to hear more about the 60 pound pike you've "seen." Please share more of these with us.

Come on man. This isn't about you throwing a hotdog down a hallway at the tiddy bar. This is about 45-60 pound pike in MN and WI.

I'm still trying to figure out where Taylors Falls, WI is.

C'mon now pard, easy to confuse which side of the St. Croix you are on.

Wonder if thats where all the 60 lbers were pulled out of? Best kept secret in Esox fishing I guess....

40"+? 24lbs? FUGGGGG all that. I'm dink dropping those hammer handles left and right if I can't get them to shake off at the boat. Don't even get excited about em until they hit 30-35lbs...lol.

I’ve caught pike in the interior that had two whitefish in its throat and still hit a pixie.

Just thought the video was cool is all.

You could always pickle 'em! LOL

It is a cool video, IB. I've seen it before.

But posting this thread made my day.


I hate poodles. hahahaha

I wear them pike out. Never keep them unless they swallow hard ... grayling same ... My two best 49" northern ,21" gray.....

I’ve caught several pike 45” and longer, biggest 46.5”, all in Ontario.

Still easily doable off the Yukon.

I was in Wisconsin fishing for walleye when i heard this commotion coming from another boat. I look over and I see this gosh at least 65-70 pike eat this toy poodle. The lady was yelling hysterically for her husband to do something. He just stood there watching it was a sight to see. Later that day I caught 47.5lb walleye.

I kind of figured it was still workable.

🤣🤣🤣

We catch alot of big lingcod around here that grab a rockfish while were reeling them up. Some of the biggest lingcod we catch every year are caught that way.

Bro, I was there albeit on shore hunting epic giant moose in the 138mph wind. Needless to say I had to scope the commotion with my trusty ol' 375H&H and accidentally popped one off and took out the fisherman's Hummingbird XP711. Don't know what stunned the dude more, loss of his wife's dog or the exploding fish finder.

Side note.

After I shot the dude's fish finder I crept back into the forest but not before I noticed the epic pool of poodle's blood wash ashore.

Being the cunning hunter that I am, I knew this would be IDEAL wolf bait. Later that night I went into stealth mode and took out an ENTIRE pack of blood thirsty wolves.

Yeah, it's cool, I was just being a dick earlier. I especially liked the way the person with the camera pulled it out of the water when the pike got close, probably just a gut reaction.

Pard, 47.5lb walleye just aren't as common as they used to be....miss the good ol' days.


Did I ever tell you about the 60 lb stringer of sauger I landed ice fishing last weekend?

That was you?!?! ... small world man.


I happened to get most of it on an old Super 8 from the beach. Watching my kid play in the sand. I was Chief of Police at the time. Big trouble with slough sharks that summer.

Pard, if'n you was here I'd take you the bar and share a couple Roy Rodger's over a couple good hunting stories.

That was exactly what I thought of when I saw the OP’s video. It’s probably unbelievable to some when you tell them that you “caught” a 15+ pound lingcod but it wasn’t even hooked. If we’re fishing rockfish we usually keep a net handy since the ling will let go once it gets to the surface and sees the boat. I’ve seen my fishing partners get the crap scared out of them when they expect to see a “seabass” but instead they see the big toothy bucket mouth ling coming at them. One of my friends almost went over the starboard gunwale while reeling up a rockfish from the port side, it wasn’t a ling that time but a seal that startled him. The seal had a pierced lip with a white curly tail Kalins grub in its upper lip. We saw that same seal several times that summer with the jig in its lip. Later, around late August the seals and sea lions had magically disappeared which was a very welcome reprieve from their constant annoyance. I asked the fish girl at Big Salmon what happened to the pinnipeds and she said that earlier the previous week a pod of Orcas came into the bay and methodically picked off every one of those bastards except 1 single female sea lion…the fish girl said that Neah Bay looked like Omaha Beach when the whales got into them…how I would have loved to see that!

C'mon now!! He was there!!

If you weren't carrying hot you would not have shot his hummer.... Fact!

Don’t start that again!

Most would crap them selves if they saw a 50lb lingcod with it's mouth wide open. Looks like it could swallow a basketball.

My Mom and Dad a big built in aquarium when they built their house. We kept lots of different local fish in it. Bass eat the same way. They flare their gills and draw water through pulling what they eat into their mouth. They do strike and gulp as well. But normal feeding they swim up to what they eat and suck it in just like that Pike did.

That perch was dead as a mackerel.

Door knob?

Someone here has a pic very large ling skull preserved.

Might be a hint there. 😉

I've another fish tale. True, not stretched even a bit. I probably wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen it.

I was on the opposite side from our salmon counting camp on Good News River in SW Alaska, 1981, fishing for dinner when on the camp side of river I saw a fish jump out of the water onto a sloping bank 18 inches or so above water surface, flop once or twice, then back into the river.

Repeat twice more.

I figured it was a fish with a tangled line- a couple guided drift boats had come thru a couple hours before, down from Redfish Lake, so I waded over to investigate.

Just in front of the sloped overhang cutbank was a big drowned willow, with a washtub sized opening in the center. Figuring I'd lose my lure (a Krokodile or R&W spoon- I forget which - I jigged it down in the opening, just for the heck of it, and it got taken. No fight to the fish as I easily lead it out to a 6 inch wide, foot long "beach" just above the cut-bank and landed it.

6 1/2 pound hen rainbow - supper for 3 men and some for the Lab!


She had several voles in her stomach, one in her gullet, and another in the upper throat or mouth, with the tail hanging out the corner of her mouth.

Greed can kill you... and being over-stuffed makes one lethargic...

Nearest I could figure from the sign - a vole runway near the crest of the overhanging cutback - she was skylining voles on their trail and leaping ashore to nail them, then flopping her way back into water.

I've posted this here before, and it was published in a letter to some outdoor magazine - Western Outdoors I think.

The editor (Steve?) didn't believe me either.... but that's OK... I saw it.

Hell, you were there!

That’s a pretty awesome story, las. Hadn’t read it before so thanks for sharing again.

That would be a pretty cool thing to witness and a 6 pound blood thirsty wild rainbow would be a great catch. It sounds like the trout in the Good News River could be the Alaska version of the Siberian Taimen?…. I wonder how much DNA they share that is not present in other populations?

Mousing for trout would be atypical fun!👍🏼

las, it's so cool to see stuff like that.

I guess you were the bigger pike.

That’s awesome, a 60 pound Northern! WOW!

This is on par with “hey I wrote the script for Airwolf” or “didja know I pheasant hunted with Lee Van Cleef, he was my neighbor”

🤣🤣

Or “hey I donate shît to kids from my flea market sales”

“Snoop and me be goin to the Compton Swap Meets”

DR Dre be goin thru my music and shît”

Since the trout eat mice/voles in the water all the time I suspect no difference to the trout on the bank. Got lucky the first time and figured it was a gold mine until Las came along.

That's what I think. Looks like he was just taken out of the freezer and tossed in the water. Good camera work though.

Bass will nest close to the bank with their nest being circles in the gravel a couple of feet wide. Of course, the male bass will actively protect the nest from predators and keep it clean.

I read in a golf magazine a ling time ago. A guy was hitting to a green that had a water hazard right up to the edge. He hit it a little fat and watched his ball hit the water a few feet from the bank. Ten seconds or so goes by and all of the sudden his ball popped back up on the bank. When he got up to the ball and looked in the water, there was a nest there with a bass that was about three pounds in it. The ball had landed in the nest and the male bass had picked it up and spit it out of the nest.

I was fishing the headwaters of the Mississippi one time. I was standing on the rocks that you can walk across with the rest of the tourons.

Pretty soon, I heard a yelp and some splashing/thrashing around. I looked over and saw an 8 foot female bull shark with what appeared to be a full grown Irish Setter in it's mouth. The lady on the other end of the leash was hysterical and screaming.





Her husband did not give a schidt.

Yeah, they don't get much size to them in skinny water. Seen 15 footers in Pool 9.

This. The Novi has pike to 60" in it. When they swim to your bait they do not make a vee-wake... there are 5 or 6 wakes headed in your direction 😉


*Nowitna*

Those must be Tiger Sharks.

Riley and I were pike fishing Alexander Lake late one summer. It was hot and dusty. We saw a bunch of pike lined up side-by-side along a flat beach. A vole came out of a grass hummock and ran along the beach right in front of the pike. Most of the pike launched a little late before one got it right. They flopped a bit to get back in the water. Then they lined back up.

I do have skull picture from a lingcod, but it was just a 98 pounder. (Well okay, 65)

A Tiger Shark...

Do you fish with seafire?

My father wrote several articles in Alaska Magazine on the Novi back about 50 years. He was friends with Homer Sutton, the FAA chief there. My father bought a 760 from him and ended up having it rebored to 35WAI and restocked it for me as a college graduation gift.

love chasing pike. Just got a friend her first pike

I don't have any 60 lb northerns or 45 lb walleyes. However, One time I was fishing for flathead catfish on the Wisconsin river one night . The clicker goes off and I find a channel cat in the net. It was about 8 lbs. I take off the hook and notice a bird in it's mouth. Another time my brother ad I were fishing in the Quetico canoe area ( Ontario) . He had a decent walleye to the boat and a northern about 30" came in and stole our dinner. Another time, on June 19, 1998. I was again fishing for flatheads when the clicker goes off. I set the hook . I was fishing in brush, so set the drag with a pliers so there was no giving him line.. I could hear line stretching like crazy on my cat rig, an Oceanmaster rod with a Senator 113 real loaded with 80 lb test.. After abut 5 seconds, it became clear this was not just an ordinary cat. I could hardly hold the pole and it was horizontal , just then it lets go and I find out he broke my Eagle Claw 254 N 8/0 hook.. I guess I am just an ordinary fisherman . Also, when I was running a trap line when I was 15 , I got a skunk in the trap and it sprayed me. I smelled real bad , went home and took a shower . I got to school just in time for class. Just then, they all started to gag and told me I smell like a skunk aso they kicked me out of school for the day.. Does that count?

headed back in June. Ontario. Caught 100's of pike over a weeks time. 41" was biggest. What would that weigh?

Things in yellow cats. Buddy caught a 63 pound yellow. When they cleaned it the belly was big. Cut it open. Possum in the belly.

My son and I have caught some toothy Northern N/A fish.

At least 35 sea-lbs.

A length to weight conversion table I have used states a 41 inch pike would weigh 17.71 lbs. I’ve found that to be a little light based on actually weighing on a digital scale, fish I had measured. Your 41 is chunky! That same table states that a 50 would weigh 32.73 lbs. I don’t have any experience with 50 inch pike! I’ve always thought of them as 200 inch whitetails! I’ve never seen either.

]

A couple muskies in there to boot. As for me , I love going for big northerns. My biggest is only 36" . It was caught in Cananda. I have several others in the low 30" . My next haunt for big northerns ore the Mississippi River, and The Bay Of Green Bay.

I have an old picture around here somewhere, (my house is being remodeled, so don't know where) of my grandfather, great-uncle, and dad's cousin with a bobsled load of northern pike. There were at least thirty pike, as long as the width of the bobsled, about 48". The picture was taken sometime prior to February 1920, at Poplar Creek on Minnesota's Northwest Angle, Lake of the Woods.

we caught several that long but that one definitely had more girth than the others.

Seafire has no love affair with the truth.

Thanks Seafire, care to expand?

Nice fish.

Probably some records if you had longer arms.

Have you ever fished the Yukon, Nowitna, or Koyukuk?

It's not a proper 24HCF fishing thread until Sal shows up and busts out a few pics of he and his kid long-arming the shyt out of something.

Here's a striped bass from last season that weighed 34 pounds and change, I seem to recall. I sure would like to see what a poodle eating 60 lb pike looks like...

Amusing thread.

Nice fish Kamo, "if you had longer arms, that'd be a record," LOL. What did you get it on?

long arming ain't lying, it's just exageratin. Kind of an art form.

My daughter caught a Northern once that took a perch she had hooked. Once the Northern was netted we realized it wasn't hooked, just wouldn't let go. They are serious.

That's a fatty...probably 23-25 pounds. Beauty fish.

Sure wish Shefire would come back and defend his honor, I'm sure it was an honest mistake.


...also need to know what the secret 60lb lure is...better not be a sucker rig, fuckin' cheaters anyway.

Extraordinarily large or otherwise impressive catches speak for themselves and need no exaggeration or manipulation of images. In fact, I think the shameless long-arming sort of cheapens an otherwise fantastic catch. Big fish and pretty fish just don't need it. Not to mention that it'd be a very neat trick trying to hold some caliber fish with locked elbows...

LMAO! I was thinking the same thing.

They’ve sure got the long-arming down to an “art form”. 🤪

Just to be clear, I never claimed mine was 60 pounds! I never weighed it but I did measure it at 46 1/2 inches. I measured the girth too but I don't remember it off the top of my head. It was by FAR my biggest snot rocket that I estimated at 32 pounds or so. I need to find this secret honey hole that is lousy with 45-60 pounders.

Yup to many times to count ...lol ... buddy would holler log log log.. so I slow the boat down a little ...but..
the log would swim away. ! Btw....i got minto for a back yard, summer for last we were having a hard time ...not.. catching pike 36/42 ... Sad chit once again as not enough little guys coming along ..so fishing them is going to fall on its face for awhile again.

There'd be a lot more of them big Pike around of people would put them back ...
just lifting them up by the gills like that breaks their back from their own weight... they don't know their weight they're neutrally buoyant,.... Along with them guys pulling them through the ice in the winter... 0° with a little breeze freezes her eyes they're all wet and soggy you got them up there taking pictures look at me look at me.... they don't fare too well.... this took the hook WAY in ...

Fish are like peoples that way .

Manny folks would eat a steak dinner, with some dessert and coffee afterward and still take one of those mints from the jar at the counter on the way out.

Had a friend in a bass tournament I was fishing in down in SoCal many years ago take the prize for the day with a 12lb largemouth. Fishing near a bridge with a 3" or so ShadRap. The bass ended up having a 2.5lb catfish in its gullet, partially digesting on the head end in the gut.

Growing up, the older skandahooveeans, and krauts would shame you just about to death if they heard you had tried to spear a 20+ pounder. "Leave the big ones alone damnit!". It's funny what you remember. Northerns were rarely in danger with my spear skillset.

IME&O that chart would be wildly off on pike. They vary so much.

Mousing for rainbows locally is a big thing. Lots of variety in fly patterns...

For the really big pike, use a reflective highway sign with a big circle hook bolted to it.

are you saying instead of a mouse imitation fly then I should be using a musk ox calf imitation?

some of us don't chunk iron for fishing, just feathers and schiedt.

I would tend to agree with you. The table was published by InFisherman, I think they said it was accurate to the 90 percentile. I think it’s as accurate as something like it can be. The biggest factor to me, is the time of year the fish is caught. If it was caught through the ice or in early spring it’s probably going to be skinny. The same fish caught late in the summer is bound to be much heavier. The picture above shows a fish I caught in mid August. It was right at 25 lbs, even though it was 43 inches even.

Agreed! Nice fish.

Looks like someone is in LOVE!

42", 22 lbs.

Caught during a walleye tournament, biggest northern of the day, $800.

I have got 5 that size, most thru the ice. Can't seem to jump to the next level. Some day maybe.

In my days as a fish biologist, we studied formula.

even since, I have used the following for fusiform fishes: those that are long and slender:


20 inches is one pound, and a pound an inch for most inches after that.

42 inches is 22 pounds
45 inches is 25 pounds.

30 inces is 10 pounds...

it works for salmon, trout, pike, walleye, but its GENERALIZED from data.
exceptions are heavier fish up to spawn, lower weights after spawn.

not so accurate with ocean fish..

They catch some monsters in Scandinavia and Europe.


https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3xCuoHrPK-/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

This would depend if it's male or female. The late ice/early spring females are going to be girthy and heavy with eggs.

Interesting stripes on it's back.

That’s interesting…thanks for pointing it out. I’ve never caught any fat ones through the ice and by the time I’ve been able to catch them after ice out, it’s already post spawn. I guess you have to get them at just the right time.

Yep, now through mid April or so is when you can catch some monster females up on Lake of the Woods. They are moving into the flats before going up river to spawn.

What makes it so fun is, every time a flag goes up on a tip up, you don't what you'll have on the other end.

They also catch some monsters I'm the Baltic Sea, which has relatively low salinity.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1762372847639355612

That is a Pike's idea of Pike Porn, their Deep Throat version.

Was it even a Perch? To me it looked like one of those minnows coarse anglers fish for over in Europe. A Roach or a Rudd.

I've caught more s. H itt on accident than most of you clowns have caught on purpose.
Just keeping it real...🤣🤣🤣

I'm sorry.
I just hate when people get off their square.

A picture of a picture I found that I had. It’s not a pike but could eat the poodle in question. Nice fish K.G. And some nice pike.

Big baits and patience boys. Caught this 49 pounder on a yellow housecat dead drifted under a volleyball.

If you say so.

My fishing pictures pale in comparison to my dik pics.🤣

Dayom......

Wow! What is the approximate weight for that?

An acquaintance told me that in the early '80s the boat he worked on was tied up at a fish plant at Kodiak; while the boss was inside conducting business they lowered a net below the gurry chute. When pulled up they had a halibut that weighed roughly 500 pounds.

I suppose it's worth noting we were enjoying a few beers when he told me this.

Some of them have an odd genetic if you will. This is the second longest I’ve had a client boat, beyond the 50” mark.
This fish was a mid September catch and as seen I don’t think it will ever get great girth.

Osky

This one was 324 lbs and the first was bigger. WAG was about 360 lbs

Again, WOW! That angler doesn't need to buy lotto tickets, this is much better bragging rights.

I'm still LMAO about the 60 pound Poodle....that's going to be tuff to beat!

LOL

Ya but both of these Alaska pike could swallow the poodle whole. We weighed the second one between two scales and I wish we were smart enough too have tied the first one mouth to tail and weighed it on one scale as the scale winch wouldn’t go high enough to get it off the deck so we removed the scales. The book weight was just over 400 lbs which we know is bs hence the WAG. I’m 5’11 1/2 for reference and no photo trickery.

Whoops I didn’t post the picture of it. Vertical.

There ya go

Being a halibut fisherman, I never understood why some people need to kill giant Hen Halibut and kill their abilities to produce the millions of eggs they do.

Hopefully, that is a thing of the past.

I hated to kill a big one but if you couldn’t talk a customer into releasing it and I cut it loose I would have been fired on the spot.

Big head but as you said, it lacks girth. There is a penis joke hidden in there somewhere.

I've never caught a fish over 18".

That pisses me off too....90% of the big ones are females, aka egg barges. Not to mention they taste like [bleep]

AK just so you know all of the halibut I keep for myself were between 40 and 60 pounds. I didn’t even like fishing for the damn things. As far as I’m concerned they’re the catfish of the sea and I would rather eat a black sea bass or lingcod any day. It went with the job.

On one charter, I caught a 70 and a 109.

Noticable difference in quality. I'll take 2 50's over one 100 any day. Won't kick a 100 overboard tho. .

As to that 60 lb pike, I bet it could chew a chunk off a 2,000 # moose.....

40” to 50” halibut are the best eating.

Smaller fish don’t have the yield.

Bigger fish are wormy.





P

You're smart. same thing with Ling cod, I never keep anything over 15 pounds.

Dayum! That’s a huge one.

I once caught an 8 1/2 LB large mouth bass. Went to take the hook out, and I could see a crappie tail that had not been fully swallowed.

I took the hook out and released the fish. So you would have to subtract the crappie weight off, the fish weight to be accurate.

All halibut have worms. Commercial processing includes candling.

My preference is the biggest. Cold smoked, big chunks, sliced thin is almost like ham.

There is zero problem in the halibut population with recruitment (spawning) all of the studies prove they are prolific as can be. At the smaller sizes they do okay.

Far bigger issues include arrowtooth flounder competition for food. Arrowtooth are the the biggest biomass in the Gulf of Alaska and virtually unused commercially. They have an enzyme in the meat which turns the fish to mush when heated. After much money spent on research they found a way to make surimi with it. Problem is it competes with the front half of pollock in that market. Filleting machines take the back half of the pollock to make fish sticks and the fronts go into a huge pot to cook into a protein paste...

Temperature cycles in the Gulf are linked to population swings. Look up "Decadal Oscillation" for the long answer there.

In many areas the sea otter population explosion in the last 40 or so years has hammered the sea urchins. The urchins kept the kelp beds healthy by nibbling on the holdfasts. Without them the kelp beds are shrinking rapidly. This reduces nursery areas for many, many species and increases all kinds of predator issues. Net result is a decline in feed for halibut and others. Suddenly, "chalky" fish became an issue.

More halibut are known to be killed and wasted as bycatch than the entire subsistence, sport, personal use, and charter fleet combined. We are supposed to feel guilty about our 5%!

Pissed off because someone wants to keep and eat a probable "fish of a lifetime" sounds more like jealousy.

🙀

I saw this was still on the first page and wondered, How the hell is a pike eating a perch still on page 1?

Now I know😂

Speak for yourself!

I would like to catch one of the monsters someday, but I would not keep it. I would take pictures of it in the water before I released it though.

For me the fun is in the catching, not the keeping, nothing to prove here. I have been fishing for Halibut for years. As others here have said, I prefer Ling Cod over Halibut and I only keep Halibut < 40 lbs.

Every Halibut fisherman knows the hens are the large Halibut, and they do produce millions of eggs over their life cycle, and they are Stringy and not good to eat IMO.

I’ve hauled a few around the 300 mark over the rail. Big stinky sob’s.

Sportfishing, never caught one over 50. One I caught was so small, when the fish checker at the dock saw it, he chuckled and asked if I was taking it home to my aquarium.

I hauled it up and a guy on the boat decided to gaff it. WTF? I guess where keeping it now.

Must be why the Japanese buyers pay a huge premium for "whales."

They and the Chinese also pay a huge premium for Chinook, which is NOT GOOD for people like me who fish the Skeena River in BC.

A couple of years ago they completely shut down the Skeena River to Sport Fishing, and with The Skeena River being one of the premier rivers in the world for Chinook runs, that's not good!

Canada has a rich history of destroying our fishers on both the east and west coasts, commercial fishing is a curse.

Back to pike.

I watched a duck with about 10 small ducklings in tow swim across the Cosna one afternoon, in line.

At the back of the line, there was a quiet swirl. Then another.

Poor mama duck was frantic when she turned around at the shore and only had 4 babies left.

Some animals definately have a sense of count, even without fingers.

And the Innoko, Porcupine, Dall, have caught a few toothy bastards

Some of the best was up the Dall and a small stream off the Black.

They were hungry and active, I would remove all the treble hooks and put on one siwash hook with the barb crimped.

Caught a few right at 40", they were hawgs.

The natives dont mess with them and those pike on the Black hadn't been fished for years!

And your connection to logic is where?

Yeah I bet

I grew up on the East Coast and watched Trawlers decimate the Cod Fishery, and watched Over Fishing for Atlantic Salmon destroy the stocks as well.

Sport Fishing does not decimate fish populations, commercial fishing does. Not to forget the kill rate on the bycatch is horrendous.

That is the fact and I base my logic on Facts Not Fiction. Just Saying

I have ZERO argument with anyone who wants to kill giant Hen Halibut, I say Fill your Boots and whatever turns your crank, go right ahead!

I don't understand it and you will not be seeing me to it.

I would like to catch one of the monsters someday, but I would not keep it. I would take pictures of it in the water before I released it though.
KillerBee that is your choice and it was their choice to keep it. I guess that doesn’t count in your courtroom though. The fish were caught legally and if you don’t like the law get it changed (Oh wait you’re from Canada.)I’m curious if you’re fishing in Canadian waters or US waters? as a lot of Canadian fishermen I know fish our waters.

Again, your connection to logic is where?

Are you a commercial fisherman?

No, but have 30+ years ago. Had a charter boat for 27 years and sports fish only.

Obfiscating to avoid displaying the first logical connection in your rants is not going anywhere...

Yes Sir, the Yukon, and there is no shortage of 50s and a few beyond 60 inches every once in a while.

Ted

No, I am not (Obfiscating) the correct spelling is Obfuscating. Ranting? Pfffffff, I am not ranting!

I have been fishing for salmon since 1974. Are you saying that Commercial Fishing is not the culprit for decimating fish stocks Globally? If so where is your logic? You sound uninformed to me buddy.

You did read that I have no issues with anyone keeping Giant Hen Halibut right? The only thing I have said about that practice on this thread is that "I do not understand it" and that if that turns your crank, FILL YOUR BOOTS!

I am not looking to argue with you, I have done my research and have nothing to prove to you or anyone else.

If you are saying that Trawlers on the East Coast did not decimate the Cod fishery on the East Coast to the point of collapse, I suggest that you do a little research, because you seem to be clueless.

Want another example? Here is a freshwater example. Where I fish for Sturgeon, the commercial fishing for Lake Sturgeon almost drove them to extinction.

Are you saying that the bycatch involved with Commercial isn't horrendous?

Anyhow, no hard feelings Sitka deer. I am planning on fishing off of Prince Of Whales Island in 2025. I can not wait, I have heard that the number of salmon in that region is still fantastic!

This year I will be fishing for Salmon, Halibut, and Cod off the coast of Prince Rupert BC. I am a dedicated fisherman and hunter and believe in conservation, of basically everything.

Here is a picture of my freezer after a four-day fishing trip. Two days on the Skeena and 2 day on the ocean, I love it! 🎣😉

My Fish freezer is 4'L x 3.5' D and 3' wide, that freezer is exclusively fish from 1 trip to BC, so I know a little about fishing, obviously more then you seem to know.

Anyhow, I am watching the Trump Rally now, have a great day!

You freeze them whole? Guts and all?




P

Brothers Sitka and Canuck that wishes he was American lets cool it with the halibut slap fight.


There are bigger fish to fry, 60 lb poodle eating Pike. Please, stay on topic.

Not Prince of Whales, the correct spelling is Prince of Wales.

I like to bonk, bleed, gut, ice, fillet, freeze.











I catch a few fish every now and then.






P

That silver underneath the in-the-round chinook appears to be headless.

It also appears to be unwrapped.

To each his own I suppose.

I'll be darned.

I didn't know they sold freezers that small!

I’ve seen loons do that several different times. They come from underneath as well. They keep eating them until the hen gets them in shallow.

Osky

Sorry for taking it down the rabbit hole. With the other pictures of other fish it seemed funny at the time to put something up that could eat said poodle. Maybe he was thinking of muskies.

Great Idea hillestadj!

I have no fish to fry here...every pun intended lol

Have a great day in the USA ~

Dam Type O's hey lol

Back to Pike, I have caught more Pike in more places than anyone I know, including Walleyes too. My biggest Pike was 24 lbs. Caught that puppy on the Saint Lawrence River in Lancaster, Ontario. Huge Muskies there as well.

Caught him/her on the trusty and old Red Devil, the most Killer Lure I have ever seen for Pike.

Cheers ~

This one had a bit more girth.


Osky

LMFAO

I caught a 46" pike in the Kobuk fishing for Shee fish. I thought it was huge but probably on 20-25#.

Blair,

There is an example of why you can't go off "charts." Pike vary way too much.

You have a 24 - 25 lb pike in that pic and it's 41"...

That's a truly believable 22 lb fish.

38" 16 - 18 lbs. Can't recall.

Here is a 40" that didn't make my 20 lb mark.

Beautiful coloring on the fish, long arm and all...

45” musky kind of a skinny sucker. No idea how much it weighed but I caught it walleye fishing.



36 or 37” pike, 16 pounds. Caught on a hotdog on a quickset rig for a sucker. Lmao

These last 3 were all caught about 10 minutes apart, on hotdogs. One on a treble and the others on a quickset, sucker rig.

That looks way bigger than 18.

59 1/2 pounder. Toy poodle on a 9/0 circle hook under a balloon rig.

Where the hell seafire go?

He must be talking to Sal’s wife.

He has been fighting one of those 60 pound Pike for the last 4 days.

Ya, wondering how a Perch thread is still on the front page, Now I see,

Alrighty then, The internet, Fantasy island.

I honestly don't recall. Maybe that was the 40" that went just under 20.



Or maybe I need a new GD scale! lol

I got these two on a size 12 bucktail caddis tipped with a mealworm.




P

Nice fish Pharmseller. I would have guessed that got them on a poodle ears nymph.

I had one bust me off on a gold ribbed hare’s ear bead head about 20 minutes prior so I changed my tippet and went a little bigger.





P

You're a damned legend-- in your own mind-- and more wrong than you realize, but your ego prevents you from recognizing it.

Please do post up some more long-arming hero shots, though. They really do make everyone's day and hundreds here are simply green with envy. I know I lose a lot of sleep over not being you.

Might I suggest the next bunch have you bare chested while you're thrusting a fish into the lens as far as you can reach? The gang here will go nuts when you share those! All hail Sal!

It's my "high" long arm!

I love it when guys make claims like this, either fishing or hunting. “I’ve killed/caught more deer/elk/fish than most of you have ever seen” is my favorite.

If you really have, you don’t make the claim.

Edit to add, I catch a lot of fish but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the guys who really know what they’re doing.





P

that's kind of what I was thinking so I finally read some of this thread.. all I can think of is the good old tall fishing tales .. you know the one that got away.

pretty sure I've never even seen a northern pike in the wild anyway maybe an aquarium? sounds like they would just eat everything else in the aquarium..?

probably never fished water is that even were inhabited by northern pike

one question are they good to eat or kind of like gar you got to know exactly how to fix them and they're really bony,?

KP had a couple lakes get rotenone treatment to remove the pike. Invasive here and hell on salmon.

these questions inspired me to do the work at Google.


did not realize northern pike or native down to the central part of Missouri and not all that far north of me. but just a hair north of me they actually used to stock Northern Pike in Stockton lake I guess.. color me surprised
then I came across this video about Ozark Pike and found an article too..




https://1source.basspro.com/news-tips/pike/4555/ozark-pike

They are excellent to eat, particularly from northern, colder waters. Takes just a bit more work to fillet them bone free but well worth the extra effort.

Osky

Huge differences in eating quality based on the water they live in. Clear cold water they are fine... most of Alaska has tea-stained bog water and they taste as muddy as most catfish...

Iron bender that surprises me as I would have thought that they were native all over Alaska. I’ve caught them in Sw Alaska are they native to that area? Idaho has them in Lake Coeur d’Alene but I’m sure they were planted legally or not I don’t know. There is quite the variation in markings from the different pictures posted.

👍👍

The story as I heard it, a couple of guys loaded up the floats on their planes and took them places they didn't belong.

I think pike are very good eating for a freshwater fish.

Unlike grayling, freezing doesn't affect their taste as much.

Pretty good pickled as well, the Y bones are a pain, the bigger they are the easier they are to deal with. Hammer handles are downright awful.

The pike on the KP were definitely non-native and introduced. F&G treated several lakes and interconnected lake systems to rid them. It’s believed other areas have had enough time to establish pike-salmon symbiosis, not present on the KP.
Here is a F&G map of their normal range. The spot on the KP I’ve not heard of pike still being present.

I'd like to hear what longarm has to say about this.

Strange how they get stymied at the Canadian border, eh?

I would really like to try spearing them
Here is Saginaw Bay they do it through the ice
Very close to me but I have not personally done it

Hank

I haven't done that in 15-20 years but it is legal here and a real hoot too.

I love spearing pike.

Did quite a bit of dark house spearing when young until the state started putting musky s in so many lakes and shut it down.

Osky

Turdeau’s fault I suppose. 😉

ironbender;
Good morning my friend, I hope you and your fine family are well and rested after the weekend.

With the understanding that if at all possible I would also assign that to PM Socks, I'm not sure that the evidence supports that particular thesis.

Since it's me and all, I'll share a couple quick "Jackfish" stories from my Saskatchewan youth.

When I was about 12, I was splitting firewood at the firepit on shore in front of the dock of our church camp which was on Greenwater Lake, SK.

Presently a boat was heading directly to our shore, a driver heading in at fair speed and another chap fishing whose rod was mightily bent over. As the boat contacted the beach, the fisherman leapt out and dragged to shore the biggest, meanest pike I'd seen to date and since. It looked huge ironbender and was obviously unhappy about being caught.

Buddy shouted asking me something like, "Hey do you have anything to knock this jackfish on the head with kid?" and I handed him the axe, which he took with thanks, spun it around to use the poll and proceeded to give the fish at least two and perhaps three solid whacks on the top of it's head.

After we saw it was dead, he said they didn't have a net big enough to hold it, thus the run for the shore.

I want to say they did weigh it and it was just a tad over 18lb but I can't recall if they measured it, likely not as that might not have been a thing in the early '70's.

Second tale with jackfish goes like this.

We'd gone under farming and I was working for a local cabinetmaker as we planned our move out west to BC.

In what would become a foreshadowing of things to come in my career with table saws, I managed to change the shape of my left thumb and despite a local small town doctor treating it, a few days on it began to stink so my wife took me to the closest hospital emergency since I wasn't going back to that doctor.

When I came out from there, a young RCMP Constable was talking to two somewhat disheveled looking fellows, all three who were opposite where my wife had been sitting waiting for me.

The details are somewhat lost in the fog of 40 years passing ironbender, but the tale my wife finally got out between bouts of laughter was more or less this.

The two fellows were out fishing in an aluminum boat and in true Saskatchewan fashion were also consuming much brewed barley product, being patriots and wanting to keep local farmers in business single handedly no doubt.

One of them caught a jackfish, which my wife understood to be "about this big" when the fellow held up his hands to the RCMP Constable, so perhaps 30" longish?

The fish wasn't happy being caught apparently - a trend we'll notice with them it seems - and as the barley infused fellow was trying to retrieve his lure, likely a Len Thompson spoon, as he called it, the "damned jackfish" latched onto him with grim determination.

His friend waded into the fray and somehow lost his balance, fell and struck his head on the boat, cutting it open reasonably well.

That meant it was left to only one of them to battle the pike, which bit him in a couple more spots before as he told the constable, "then the damned thing jumped out of the boat!"...

She still talks about that day ironbender.

Honestly though, how many times in one's life will one hear about a fish beating up two fishermen before returning itself into the Saskatchewan slough?

All the best.

Dwayne

PS;
She indicated that the RCMP Constable was there on some other business, knew at least one of the fishermen and the incident then wasn't an official police matter, even though violence had been committed.

She also indicated that the Constable was not able to contain his laughter, not even a wee bit.

Great stories again, Dwayne. Thanks!

The bit blaming the sparkle socks was TIC, as I’m certain you know. Any opportunity to mock that character.

I have never combined water/boats (or guns) with properly prepared grain products, back when I was imbibing. I don't have a lot of smarts, but I have that much. Not to mention I have done so bank fishing. That's different.

I can understand how it might be hard to make out which fish to grab when only one was on the hook ....

As Mike indicated, we have had pike introduced illegally or accidentally- probably the former - here on the KP. One such place that had (perhaps still does??) is Sevena lake, from which drains Soldotna Creek, into the Kenai River. Hence the salmon concerns. I'm not sure if they treated that lake, but they should have. When pike on the KP comes up, I always think of this incident. Close to me, Mackey Lakes are also float plane lakes that have or had 1-2 lb hammer-handles, mostly. But I was looking for bigger fish.

I was looking for access to Sevena Lake for pike fishing and followed the only narrow single-lane road to it- a couple miles long, that ended at a home site or homestead on the lake. A guy came boiling out and demanded what I was doing. I apologized, stating my intent, asking if I could put my canoe in there. He cooled down, and said I was welcome to go fishing any time. That 2 mile or so road was all his private drive, across wet muskeg mostly, put in by himself, at his own labor and expense. And yes, there is a "Private Drive" sign, and sometimes locked gate on it where it leaves public Robinson Loop.

I was subbing at the local schools, and one of the teen girls in a class some time later asked if her dad "had been mean" to me. I assured her he had not been. She then related that the fall before some bozo out moose hunting had parked his new F250 midway along the road, blocking it, locked, then gone hunting off-road, when her dad had to go to town. Or at least wanted to.

He backed all the way back up to his yard, climbed on the D8, cleared the road, and went to town.

BC30 that’s funny. My first year up there I was fishing out of Lake Aleknagik Ak. And before heading up I had a buddy tell me to watch out for the pike as the damn things will bite ya (he always had to make everything dramatic) After a couple of weeks I got a free evening and grabbed a couple of the dock boys and a boat and went pike fishing out in a small bay. We were fishing with top water plugs and wire leaders and the things were snapping about every cast but we weren’t hooking many. I finally waited for the tug and set the hook which got my first pike to the boat so I grabbed my camera and took a picture. The pike was laying on its side so I reached down to grab the steel leader to release the thing with pliers when the damn thing came out of the water bit my finger and as fast as it could happen it was laying on its side like nothing happened. Those things are fast and a lesson was learned as I never got left bleeding again.

My brother was playing a crappie lure at the side of the boat just to watch its action. A 10 pound or so pike made a rush at the lure, which startled the daylights out of my brother, so by reflex he jerked the lure out of the water before the pike could get it. I told him, "Be careful - you might catch something."

An ex-boss fileted a few pike and then started to clean up. To amuse his kid, he made a show of sticking his finger into a dead pike's mouth with predictable results. Yes sir, dead pike latched onto his finger with authority resulting in a lot of cursing and dancing, and a couple stitches at the doctor.

I've heard lots of stories about southern bass fisherman catching their first pike and thinking they can stick their thumb in it's mouth to lift it into the boat. hahaha

That’s funny Rooster. Hell I had been warned about it and still got bloody man them things are quick.

You mean you can’t lip a Pike? How about a Muskie?

It was many years before we ever got to a place with pike. But well before then we knew about them and how to deal with them.

It always blows me away how ignorant so many are on so many topics yet they are willing to blindly jump in and prove their low IQ.

The good thing about pike is it will usually only be a one of from what I've seen.

Yeah they are and the cuts they leave are like paper cuts on steroids. Sting like hell.

That's a lie. You can on both of them.

At least once.

Well, you can.

I just don't recommend it. lol

Its all fine until it isn't. The margin for error if a fish thrashes isn't great. YMMV. I'm just happy to unhook and let em swim away or if in one of the must kill zones reach down and snip its gills with my scissors and its done..

Never have weighed 1 !

Caught lots bigger than this guy, but it shows the "thin" after spring spawning thing, pretty well !





Big ole poodle eatin mellon !

haha

I've caught them after spawn too. Their head does not look right on that skinny body.

Kind of like my old chocolate lab/llewellin setter mix. lol

Now that they know pike do fine in saltwater there is a much more likely case for wandering pike to transplant themselves.

The high life!

Brings back some fond memories.

Thanks.

Tall boy cans, for the win !!

Here! Here!

160, you've posted this pic before. It's really cool.

What is that debris/sand stuff that you're standing on/by?

Looks like you may have enjoyed more than one that day!