Weather: Morning was calm, but a hurricane storm hit at 1:00 p.m
Moon Phase: 75% moon
Location: Yuba Reservoir
Water Temp: 63.4 degrees
Bait: Swimbaits rigged weedless
Who Went: John and his girlfriend Whitney, Me
I finally got to go pike hunting down at Yuba this year. It has rained every day for the last 10 days straight and we took a chance heading down there today, but it paid off. The morning was absolutely gorgeous with calm conditions and nice cool temperatures.
It stayed like this until around 12:30 and then the hurricane hit! I was very excited to try my new swimbaits down at Yuba because last time I was there fishing for pike I spent more time un-snagging lures then actually fishing. I rigged the swimbaits weedless and it cut down on snags by about 95%. It didn't take long til I put this little guy in the boat.
We continued to cast and work all the reed edges we could find but didn't have much action. The wind started to pick up and we could see a storm coming so we positioned ourselves so the wind drifted us along a stretch of reeds a quarter mile long. This is the habitat the pike thrive in.
Right as the wind had blown us to the very last corner of the reeds we were drifting, I felt like I had a hit, but wasn't sure if it was just my swimbait bumping into the reeds or not. I kept reeling in and just as I was about to bring my bait into the boat..... WHAM! I got nailed and instantly the fish started taking line, and I mean a lot of line! John asked me, "do you think its big?" "Uh yeah I do," I said! It fought me for awhile and then did the underneath the boat and around the trolling motor trick! John ended up netting him on the opposite side of the boat that I was on. What a rush, and then out came the beast!
No more than 5 minutes after the picture taking was over the wind started to pick up and the sky started turning dark, but we couldn't stop fishing after catching one like that.
We drifted the same stretch of reeds before realizing we better get off the lake! We ended up getting off the lake just in time because the closest thing you can get to a Utah Hurricane is what we were in! The drive home was in one of the worst storms I have ever seen in my life. Lightning everywhere with loud thunder. The road looked like a swimming pool and it poured rain all the way home! It was all worth it though and I can't wait to get back down there! John wanted to eat the pike so we took them home and filleted them out. I learned that I will never bring a pike home again! There was tons of meat on each fillet, but they have what they call Y-bones and they are miserable to get out of the meat. We massacred the fillets and I learned a valuable lesson.... Catch and release pike!
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