Why are there no massive pike in Erie like up north?
- Thread starter Wildfire
- Start date
There are 40 inch fish but rare. The inner bay doesn't have the depth to support monster pike . They will use it in spring amd fall but move out for cooler waters. I believe the really big girls wamt a different forage base as well like Cisco and whitefish. In the one lake I fish up.north the really big pike feed almost exclusively on Fatty fish.
Caught two right ar 40 last year, saw another even bigger so they are around
Lake Erie has everything needed to produce big pike. Plenty of spawning habitat and easy access to endless cool water summer refuge with plenty of big juicy prey.
The issue is harvest IMO. It takes a long time for a pike to reach 40". There are certainly a few of those giants out there but not near as many as there could be....
Most guys won't release those big 12-15lb fish that will become the 20lbers
Josh
The issue is harvest IMO. It takes a long time for a pike to reach 40". There are certainly a few of those giants out there but not near as many as there could be....
Most guys won't release those big 12-15lb fish that will become the 20lbers
Josh
I used to chase pike every spring... I had friends that netted the bay every spring for pike... I've seen them threw the ice and in the nets... The giants do exist... The bay and lake has EVERYTHING needed to produce giant pike and musky...
IMO why we don't see more giants caught:
Way too many 8lb+ fish being kept...
Smaller fish more aggresive...
Not targeting proper area's or using proper techniques and baits...
Ones being caught are not being shared...
A few pics of some of the better fish caught on my boat...
IMO why we don't see more giants caught:
Way too many 8lb+ fish being kept...
Smaller fish more aggresive...
Not targeting proper area's or using proper techniques and baits...
Ones being caught are not being shared...
A few pics of some of the better fish caught on my boat...
You gonna dust of your pike gear and fish the Fall Pike Derby @jammer? It might be more enjoyable and profitable than stripping copper wire
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I've targeted pike in LPB for the past 42 years and have yet to catch a trophy. I did see one mounted that weighed 23 pounds when caught off Turkey Point back in the sixties. My personal best is only14 pounds and my boats best weighed in at16 pounds. Once upon a time I had an estimated 18 pounder up to the boat but obviously never got to confirm it. Good luck finding a legitimate trophy here.
Foulhooker
Well-Known Member
Trevor M
Well-Known Member
I don't target pike here, but if I were to do so, I'd probably head to Long Point Bay to do it. As I've said before, the reason I no longer target pike is living in Yellowknife, I got spoiled fishing for them because I could literally walk 10 minutes from my house and catch them at will, every cast, in a very shallow lake named Kam Lake or Grace Lake on the other side of the road. I could also go a little further and fish for them at a territorial park on Long Lake across from the airport, or a lake named Jackfish Lake by the local power plant, and if I felt like going that far, I could go out by where the Giant Mine bunk houses were and the Yellowknife Yacht Club and fish for them the mouth of Baker Creek where it emptied into Great Slave Lake, or go a little past that and fish for them in the Yellowknife River where it emptied into Great Slave Lake.
In the High Arctic, fish don't grow as fast as they do here because the water is so cold. A 10 lb fish may be 30 years old or more, and a trophy fish up there, say 30+lbs is guaranteed to be 50+ years old as a result, (according to the NWT CO's I spoke with.) I've caught pike that ranged from 1-5lbs up to my personal best pike ever, and to date the biggest fish I've ever caught, a monster pike at just under 41lbs, (and everything in between) caught in the mouth of Mosquito Creek in 1986, the year we moved there and that was the only year the mouth of Mosquito Creek was open for spring fishing, (that means ice out which happens in mid to late June) and they closed it to spring fishing in '87 and every year since. I thought I'd hooked a log until I saw it because it never fought. Not one head shake and it wasn't pulling. It wasn't doing anything you'd expect a pike to do, and to be honest, I don't think it knew it had been hooked. Being ice out had literally just happened, it was still fairly lethargic, until it realized it wasn't in the water anymore. Then it had a bit of a temper tantrum.
In the High Arctic, fish don't grow as fast as they do here because the water is so cold. A 10 lb fish may be 30 years old or more, and a trophy fish up there, say 30+lbs is guaranteed to be 50+ years old as a result, (according to the NWT CO's I spoke with.) I've caught pike that ranged from 1-5lbs up to my personal best pike ever, and to date the biggest fish I've ever caught, a monster pike at just under 41lbs, (and everything in between) caught in the mouth of Mosquito Creek in 1986, the year we moved there and that was the only year the mouth of Mosquito Creek was open for spring fishing, (that means ice out which happens in mid to late June) and they closed it to spring fishing in '87 and every year since. I thought I'd hooked a log until I saw it because it never fought. Not one head shake and it wasn't pulling. It wasn't doing anything you'd expect a pike to do, and to be honest, I don't think it knew it had been hooked. Being ice out had literally just happened, it was still fairly lethargic, until it realized it wasn't in the water anymore. Then it had a bit of a temper tantrum.
Definitely some good muskie out there, have seen some sandy's just over 50" from LPB