My first 10+ pike!!!

I went out this morning to fish some pike. I started off with some shallow trolling and did that for a while. Didn't catch anything - as expected really.

The water level in the river has went down drastically the last couple of days - especially during last night. It's almost down to the lowest level actually.

I went to a well known spot - it's known to hold big pike, but I have never had any luck there... until today! I put on a Savage Gear rubber shad (brown trout pattern). A couple of casts and something hit the lure. I was concentrated and sat the hook. At first I thought that this must be an OK fish. I was thinking maybe a 4-6 kg fish. But all of a sudden it took off on a hard run. Wow, this is something really big! After a couple of minutes I manged to pull it in far enough to see it. Holy shit! It was massive! I instantly knew that this is a PB for me! The fish did 4-5 long and hard runs and it took me about 10 minutes to net the old lady!

The problem with catching fish like this when you're alone in the boat, is taking pictures. It's friggin' hard! And the display on iPhones really suck out in bright light. I couldn't see the display and hence I couldn't see if I was getting good pictures... and I didn't. Not super bad, but they could have been a lot better.

I got the fish measured and weighed and by golly, new PB - with good margin. My biggest fish was up to this point 9060 grams and 106 cm.
This sucker was 10780 grams and 123 cm long! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!








I got the fish back in the water and it took a while to get her swimming again. Man, what a wonderful feeling to see such a big fish swim back into the deep!
But, it doesn't end here! I turned the boat back to fish the same spot some more and I noticed something on the surface. It was my fish - floating up-side-down! Nooooo! I got a hold to try to save her from dying. It took me about 10-15 minutes, but finally she swam down to the bottom (it was really shallow there). She sat on the bottom for a while - which was a good sign - she wasn't turning up-side-down again. Finally, she took off and made the water murky from the sand/mud bottom! Happy times!

Still not finished...

I started fishing the same spot again. First cast and another huge fish attacked my lure again! It was about the same size as the first one and hit real close to the boat. A couple of headshakes and she was gone! I got a good look at her though - she looked more like a muskie than a pike. Real dark gray and the markings on her were pretty 'weak'. Anyways, I couldn't believe it. Two pikes around the same size on the same spot! And I lost one of them!!!! Argh!

A couple of more casts and WHAM! Again!!!! Different fish again, and again around the same size!!! What??!!?? She came off also I'm afraid! God damn motherf****!!!!

But you know what - I'm not allowed to be mad. I got my 10+ kg fish today and I couldn't be happier!

Go Team Riverpigs!

PS. We should have caught this fish last weekend! It would have been the winner fish - by far!

PSS. I wish I had gotten better pictures, but there's nothing I can do about that now.