Goodbye cabin-fever

There’s something about the year’s first fish. No matter what species or size, you always seem to store it eternally in the memory bank. Whether it be the actual fish or the feeling of carving the lake for the first time after a long season of cabin-fever, something sticks. In this case, I’ll remember being completely alone on the lake and the silhouette of the forest next to the spot where I caught her (see The stumps picture above), the spoon I used, and the feeling of absolute freedom the experience provided me with.
Those of you who are early birds like myself will know how a fish like this feels. Not because she’s a trophy by a long shot, but because she broke the ice. I think I forget what it feels like to catch a respectable fish after a year in the shack. I really think Mike over at Mac’s marina was getting tired of answering my phone calls. So is the boat ready Mike? She was on April 26th and this is my first open water fish of the year. She’s fat with roe and gave me a pretty good fight. I got a Berkley digital scale for Christmas from my dad and I couldn’t wait to try it. I had it working in December and we tested it with some weights at home. Guess what, the first time I try and use it on a fish the damned thing doesn’t want to turn on. What can you do, I guess us fishermen are forever doomed to overestimate the weight of our catch. I say 15 pounds!
In all seriousness, I give her between 8 and 9. She was 32 inches long if that means anything. It was pretty cold that day and the lake had been fairly settled for a couple days. I tried a bunch of spots and threw spinnerbaits, soft plastics and spoons at each of them and got nothing. I figured I was a little early and the pike hadn’t moved shallow yet. Then I made a final stop at my absolute favorite spring spot. It’s picture perfect ; an isolated point with no cottages in sight and tons of old submerged tree trunks and branches. The immediate area averages about 10 feet deep and there’s access to a main lake hole about half a km away. There’s one spot where I seem to always catch something. A little creek poors out of the forest right into this submerged lumber. I threw a heavy spoon (1 oz) chartreuse and yellow with a little red (I like the red on all my lures especially in shallow water in spring) and she hit it hard. 5 minutes later I had her in the boat.
Thanks to Brad and the bunch at Fishin’ Buddies for the pike cleaning video. Click here to see it it works great. Try this recipe too.