My New PB Largemouth. CT River! by: Josh Rayner

Joe and I started our day at a "pike lake" in Central CT. With the weed kill chemicals leaving a milky green haze in the water, (similar to that of Bantam Lake but worse) we decided to go back to The River. We had been there a couple weeks ago in search of pike, only to find water temps still in the 70's and no pattern had formed. 

Today was similar. Water temps are now down in the 63-65 range. It was slow. We saw more of a presence of pike in our spots today, but they are still in between, as opposed to other fisheries we've been putting some time in to. 

The bass suprised me in a way today, hitting large, gaudy spinnerbaits decked out for enticing pike, run on steel leaders.

On the other hand:

Joe and I heard what sounded like a fish jumping behind us, we both turned to find this at the surface. An 11" bass trying to choke down a 9" perch. Unreal. The barb on the perch's gill plate was stuck in the bass' lip. We successfully seperated them and both fish swam off. 

Working weedlines, working weedlines, a bass here, a perch there, not much happening... BANG! Joe hooks up. It's a pike and a good one at that. It races at the boat, and Joe kept right up with his new burner reel. Never lost tension. Now the fish is boatside with a ton of gusto! The hook pops without warning. We all know that feeling. You did everything right and the unexplainable happens. I even felt that one in the pit of my stomach. Our guess was over 40" and what would have been Joe's personal best.

3 casts later, I hook up on a fish eating from the same school of bait. Feels like a good fish. Pulling line on my Curado. It surfaces, its a bass!? I'm not going to lie, the second I saw this fish I horsed it to the boat and told Joe "lets not mess around here, get the net!" Great assist Joe, thank you.

I'm proud to say this CT. River bass went 6 lbs. 14 oz. and is my personal best.

Wading for Pike = Awesome

Went wading for pike yesterday during conditions i thought would be prime for pike with a cold front, rain and wind.. Well 3 hours of no action literally not one hit proved me very wrong. I was frustrated to say the least but today i decided id give it another go. Bantam after rain has been good to me in the past and today i did it in waders yet again. My very first pike rod and reel was just last year and was in waders bass fishing in the CT River. Its an amazing thrill to have a fish with the size, power and teeth in the water with you as you fight them. Ive been dying to have it happen again. Well today it did. My second cast of the day i got slammed by a fish that pulled line for about 5 seconds and was gone. Didnt snap me.. hook just popped loose. Was an exciting start.

 About 20 minutes later i was throwing a Dynamic XXL jerk bait fire craw pattern and it got smashed. I knew it was a solid fish and slowing started backing up from waist deep water  to knee depth. As i got the fish close it made multiple jumps and even at one point went right between my legs which was freaky. lol But i skipped rope and landed my biggest fish in waders ever. 36 inch pike probably around 12 pounds. Very fat and healthy after a measurement and a few quick photos i sent her back. At this point i didn't care if i caught another fish.

 Then i tied on a spinner bait and got a 29 inch pike on my 3rd or 4th cast. I kept on fishing for another hour and right before i left i threw out my dynamo fire tiger 7 inch swim bait and a massive pike hit it at my feet sending the lure 3 feet into the air but no luck on hooking up and she never hit again.  Left feeling pretty good about the day and it made the taste of the day before a little more tolerable.  Very difficult to get photos while being alone and in the water but here's just a few.

36 "

29 "

Bantam 9/08 and 9/11 Custom Spinnerbaits by Josh Rayner

In the weeks following Joe and Larry's epic day at Bantam Lake, Joe and I have re-visited the "hot spot" a handful of times in an effort to duplicate the experience with little success. Granted the pike are just starting to actively feed after a long summer, we've been anxious to get on some big fish even if it turns out to be a slow day.




Saturday we hit the water around 11. It was a short-lived outing, but before the monsoon we would soon endure, we each boated 2 pike and I got a bonus smallmouth on the way up to the north side of the lake which was way too windy to fish effectively. All 4 pike were taken by way of the 9/16oz. Booyah Top Secret spinnerbait in 4 feet or less in South Bay. I was throwing a sort of firetiger rendition with a chartreuse blade which seemed to be great with clear skies above. Joe was throwing his modified one with a hot pink blade and some red added to the skirt (details/photos below), which seemed to work well when the weather moved in. Both of the smaller pike we caught short struck and within a second hit again. The rogue smallie liked a white super fluke, who must have been suspending off of the sudden drop off Joe had noticed on the Humminbird. It was incredibly windy on the north end, and the rain chased us off not to mention soaked us to the bone.





The water was still very stained from the weed kill, but improved upon since our last visit. This however forced us to make some changes to our gear. As far as we could tell, gold and silver willow leaf blades and natural colored spinnerbait skirts were simply not cutting the mustard. We had to adapt. We took matters into our own hands and made quite possibly the ugliest spinnerbaits imaginable. Prior to these outings, I had purchased a War Eagle spinnerbait with white willow leaf blades. The glow that those blades put off is nothing short of shocking. It almost gives off a glow around the entire bait. We figured the brighter and more obnoxious the color of the blade, the more "glow" it will give off, especially in murky water on overcast days. So we purchased some hot pink and chartreuse spraypaint along with some gaudy replacement skirts and we had at it. We also threw a few trollers and jerkbaits into the mix. Using a Sharpie we added some subtle detail to our blades, and Dip-n-Glo markers to add some extra ugly to the skirts. I personally like a treble trailer hook on my pike spinnerbaits. Joe prefers a single. A spinnerbait is a very modifiable lure and the possibilities are endless.












a few of my bright ideas haha



Joe's spinnerbaits are already missing paint from teeth



Back to the lake again today, this time in our waders along the banks of South Bay, rigged up with more terrible looking spinnerbaits. I started off with this clown colored thing, then after about 3 casts I quickly realized that the water clarity had improved even more since Saturday. So I decided to throw a different spinner, with only half of the big willow painted chartreuse with polka dots, a white/chartreuse skirt and a chartreuse fluke trailer. I believe Joe was throwing white/chartreuse as well. In any event, we each missed a few strikes, Joe lost a nice one at his feet by the Morris launch, and I ended up landing one around 30".







Our success has been minimal but consistent, and any action from pike is exhilarating even if its just the flash of a short strike or a glimpse of a giant follower. As we learn more of the lake, it can only give us more options for times when there aren't 20 trophy sized pike stacked on one shallow flat. I'm still kicking myself for wanting to sleep in that day. - Josh

Pike Fishing 2012.. Recap / Lures / Technics / Weather Patterns

This year Josh and I decided  that we were going to spend more time pike fishing because one, they are CT's biggest freshwater game fish and two, there strikes and power can get your adrenaline going more that any fish we have ever caught. I would even put them against blue fish and with a mouth like that there teeth  are even scarier.  This year has brought us to new waters and even new states, but one thing is a constant... these fish are all fun to catch.  Last year we caught less than 20 combined and this season we have 69 and counting all on lures. 

Josh's Pike

 The spring started off with the pre spawn pike which we got plenty of in the CT River, but they were mostly males and fish on the smaller side. That was strictly a jerk bait bite which is one of josh's strong points for sure. We couldn't get them to hit anything else. That then shut down to a zero bite for a few weeks and then post spawn we picked up a few fish in the 20 to 30 inch range. Fish were located on points and rocky areas in 4-8 feet of water. During the summer months as the water got warmer the pike started to go back down into the deeper water and our action nearly died. Then it was a random pike while bass fishing. Caught on tubes, spinner baits, swim jigs,  and a few on even hair jigs. 

 That all changed at Lake Champlain in June when i managed 12 Northerns on Spinner baits, buzz baits, and chatter baits. The water temps were the same as here in CT but these fish reacted completely different. All in 3-6 feet of water hunting in the weed lines. It was pretty much unreal with pike hitting top water and coming 2 feet out for your lures. These fish did what all pike books and articles i read say they pretty much wont do. Mind you none of these 12 were over 31 inches, so most likely the big girls were doing what they should be doing and hiding down in the depths of cooler water.  When i got back to CT none of the things i learned translated here until august.

 Me and Larry Johnson had a day on Bantam where we caught 19 Pike all between 27-38 inches with 6 being over 35.  All these fish were caught in 1 - 4 feet  which is seemed some what odd until we did some research and realized what had happened that day and why.  This is where it gets interesting.  The night before we went fishing was the first night of the summer where the temps got into the 50's which brought the water temp down 5 degrees.  The wind was blowing towards one shore line and the weather was slight showers and completely overcast. All these factors brought these fish out of the deep water and up to the shore to hunt. With non stop action for nearly three hours it was something i had never seen.

 This is where your lure choice can also be a huge factor. The water we were fishing was brown like mud and i was throwing a 9/16 oz. white and chartreuse spinner bait and Larry only had a 3/8 oz. spinner and he didn't have a single hit until i gave him one of the bigger ones. Then he went on to catch the 9 biggest pike of his life.  Me and Josh have now been back to Bantam twice in the last 2 weeks since then and i can say our results have been nothing short of poor. With probably 12 hours on the lake we have only managed 1 pike. The conditions have been pretty much blue bird sky's with water temps around 75 to 79 degrees.  We are finding out that the rainy colder days absolutely have the best results. Good news is.... the best pike fishing of the year should be on the horizon and this year has been fantastic so far. With things we have learned and continue to learn im looking forward to hopefully each breaking our personal best and maybe making a run someday at that state record of 29 lbs. ( wishful thinking )

We recently bought some 1 oz. spinner baits that are massive and we got a few short strikes on them this weekend which gives us some confidence for our next trips. Another thing is Piketoberfest is coming up in October and its time to get out on the CT River and start to break down the patterns of these under water mythical beast.  You can read all you want but the best tool you can have is your experience on the water.