Who Knew?

Fishing Time: 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Weather: Sunny, slight breeze, 70's
Water Temp: 57 degrees
Who Went: Phil, Mike, Zenger, Me

I called my cousin Phil to see if he was open this weekend for some fishing. He told me that not only was he open, but also my other cousin Mike, and their friend Zenger! I said, "ok where are we going?" He told me they really wanted to try Yuba for the Pike they keep hearing about. That was good enough reason for me. We got a late start with me making it to Spanish Fork to meet them at 12:00 p.m. From there Zenger hooked on to my boat and we were off! We got to the lake, launched, and started casting around the dam in search of some of these aggressive pike. On Phil and Mike's first cast they both had fish following there lure. They were not sure what kind of fish they were but it got us excited anyway. We worked the rest of the dam with no success so we headed to the other end of the lake toward Painted Rocks. We started casting around some flooded willows but could not entice anything to hit. My cousins were starting to get dissapointed and so we moved and tried an extended rocky point. We started casting and just as our hopes were almost gone, I had one hit on a #5 Mepps firetiger spinner and roll on the surface. It was a pretty large pike and this got all of our excitement back! Zenger was casting an X-Rap Rapala with a blue back and white belly and finally hooked up with one! When he came to the surface we all realized that it was a big pike! We got the net on it and sat there in amazement at the size!

I weighed it and we were all shocked when it came in at only 8 pounds. It looked like it would weigh much more than that! We let him go and continued fishing. We all started getting hits and seeing an occassional follower around the boat! Mike finally landed his first with this dink that looked like he almost became lunch to a bigger pike! If you look close you will see a large laceration on his side from a pike trying to eat him!

Phil and I both had some hits but never could hook up with any! Once we felt we had fished this point out we decided to try our luck trolling for them. We trolled a few different shorelines but didn't even get a bite! We went back to shoreline casting, working points and submerged reeds until Mike hooked up with the big boy of the day! It was 37" long and weighed in at 12 pounds. Again I would have thought that it weighed much more and I now realize just how big a 20 pound pike is! Mike was shaking he was so excited!

We said farewell to this big fella and moved on. We found a cove shortly after where we all started getting hits again and Phil had a good one on but lost it! He redeemed himself shortly after when he hauled in this nice Walleye! Phil catches a Walleye every where I go with him!
Mike ended up landing another nice one, and he seemed to have the hot hand of the day. I was the only one that put up the big goose egg! I had many chances but just couldn't hook up! It was a fun trip with some big fish, and I hope to make it back here soon, as Yuba is a boom and bust type of Lake that is definitely in its boom period right now!