"You would think an alligator would crawl out and come after you," Matt said about the river. Once it floods, it seems as if it will never come back down. The tropical storm that dumped so much water on us more than a week ago is responsible. At least the river has some clarity now, but so much water is on the floodplain, access involved a lot of messy trudging through mud and was very limited. We could not get very far up or downstream, because water had filled deep gullies.
All three of us got hits, but only Oliver and I caught pike. His was about 18 inches, and mine might have been 21. I had another on, very small, and missed three other hits. I tried a spot Matt was reluctant to claim ahead of me, where I had to stand on a rotting stump. A pike that must have been at least 28 inches long rushed my plug, bulging the water largely and leaving a huge boil. The encounter with the fish sank into me deeply, I want to bank a pike like that.
It's one thing to know really big pike exist in the river. It's another to have stirred the interest of a fairly good one. Merely to know isn't enough. Even a 28-inch pike, much smaller than some over 45 inches in the river, would be a good start on something more for me. The 20-incher I caught last time felt good. So did the pike I caught this morning, but the big one was an invitation to the next level.
Like last time, I practiced both my casting and retrieving. I have plenty to learn, but despite abundant wood in the water I cast to, I never lost a plug. That could be interpreted as evidence of my not getting close enough to it, but you will just have to take my word that plenty of times I did get the plug right alongside. On one occasion, Matt had cast alongside a big branch in the water that collected stuff and scum to create a perfect-looking spot for a pike to hide under. "I cast that spot a dozen times," he told me later. After he had abandoned it, I cast alongside, performing an almost perfect retrieve. I felt as if I knew just how to tease the pike I felt sure was there. By giving the plug slow, loose jerks. A 20-incher grabbed it and got hooked a second. I knew immediately that my loose retrieve had a flaw when it came to getting the hooks well-set, but it was just right to get the fish to come out.
I tried again three or four times. But the hooks had grabbed for a second. That pike wasn't coming back.
Oliver's Pike on white spinnerbait
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