Bday Pike Trip w/ Josh Rayner

 Its my 29th birthday tomorrow and my gift to myself was a fishing trip for pike on the river.. so pretty much a standard Saturday. Had my fishing buddy back on the boat for the first time in months and hoped to have some of the luck I've had recently. We did and then some! Pike gods were smiling on us today. Launched at 7:30am water temp was 73 degrees water clarity was stained. With in 10 minutes Josh had us started with a really fat 36 inch fish. Got it on a black and blue swim jig with a paddle tail trailer. Was his second biggest pike from the river ever and a great start to the day. 

36 "

We hit a small cove and found 3 small pike. 12", 27", 28" Also got 5 largemouth on tiny buzz baits. Worked our way out to some big weed lines on the main river and Josh threw out a big chartreuse Houdini Shad and had a monster swing and miss then right under the surface we watched the fish find the bait chase it and hammer it. Was one of the coolest moments i have ever seen while fishing. The fish went 38.5 inches and was a beast. Kind of fish that makes ya knees shake! Seems these fish are putting on the feed bag and are starting to fill out. This pike is Josh's new PB from the river, with only his 44 inch from bantam beating this one. 

38.5

 About a half hour later i start a long battle with a large pike.. seemed like my lures didn't have any hooks. Fish short struck my spinner bait twice so i threw my jerk bait and it swung and missed then hit as i was lifting it out of the water.. missed it again! So i took my third rod and tossed out my black chatter bait and bam fish on! Got this to the boat the third trophy sized pike of the day at 36.25 inch. Was unreal the quality of these fish and how fired up they were. Not long after we were at the other end of the weed bed i hook up again and my rod made that sound.. that great sound of a big pike pulling line of your bait caster. Josh and I were in shock as we got this one to the boat. Fish went 37 inches and had a massive head on it. We called it a day not long after with 7 pike. Was the best dam birthday trip i could have asked for. 4 pike over 36 inches all on different lures was simply an amazing day. Thanks Josh for being with me on this great day.

36.25

37

37 release