Confidence and Creativity a Factor..

 So the last month or so has been a very serious test as pike fisherman for Josh and I. Our goal is to land some giants and almost all we have caught since august is 30 inch or less fish. It has been a struggle with all these conditions being a factor.. water clarity, strong winds, heavy current. It truly makes you second guess every single lure you tie on and each spot that you cast too. After the first few hours of a day with little to zero hits or action you get the .. here we go again feeling.  Once you lose your confidence you will lose your focus and at any point that loss in focus can lead to a missed hook set or a lure in a tree branch. After tying on some new line on my pike rod and organizing my gear tonight i started to think that half the battle could be mental. You have to have your head in the game for every single cast. Positive thinking could be the difference between a skunk and a monster.  

 On top of maintaining confidence sometimes you need to get creative. We have taken our standard lures and added pinks, whites, chartreuse and other colors to have something to throw for all water colors. Have multiple lures with different vibrations and or size. We know its easy to just buy some pondies slap em on a hook and bobber and wait... but that takes zero skill and it is also very boring playing the waiting game. I would be happier to catch my trophy on a lure than bait. Bait will soon be the only option but until then... nope!. But for this weekend with Bantam for Saturday and Piketoberfest on Sunday we will be ready with our lures and hopefully with some luck, confidence and creativity we will land the elusive beast!


By: Joe Jacobowitz

Passing time in a Hurricane...w/ pike report and a pumpkin!

Hey everyone, just sitting at home waiting for Sandy to pass through. Still have power but the heavy heavy winds haven't even hit yet. Knock on wood.  So this past weekend we hit 2 rivers in CT for pike and it was very very slow. Its odd we caught more numbers and had more aggressive fish in the summer which should be the opposite but part of the fun is trying to break down spots and find a pattern. Lately its been hit or miss with a good day being 2 fish. 

Also, 
PIKETOBER was postponed due to Sandy. Date to be announced.


On Saturday we ended up with 5 pike but none above 30 inches with one break off on a hook set being the only large fish we saw. And Sunday we hit northern CT River with only 1 fish about 20 inches.  We tried throwing a bunch of different lures in hopes of striking gold. Good news was we caught fish on something other than spinner baits finally.  3 of the 6 pike came on swim baits.  2 on a large jerk bait and just 1 on a spinner.  One thing we are finding is the active fish are very shallow around weeds and they are only hitting lures with a steady retrieve. We also caught 4 smallies on our pike lures.  We will just keep trying, its been over a month since we have landed a good fish but if we put in the time its bound to happen soon.  Just hope our rivers wont get completely screwed up from Sandy.  So while being bored today i carved my first ever Pike Pumpkin!  Anyone in the path of Sandy stay safe!     Enjoy the video!

By : Joe Jacobowitz

Piketoberfest 12 this Sunday.

  

  Oct 28th, is this years annual pike tournament on the CT River.  This is the 12th year is a row for this event and will be me and Josh's 2nd year competing.  It is run by www.ctfisherman.com which if you are not on you should join.  Only members are allowed to fish this event. CT doesn't have much for pike events so this is always alot of fun and is a pretty big deal.  Last year over 30 pike were caught which is a really high number we are hoping to break this year.  It is all catch and release. You just need a photo of your fish on the measuring tape and longest fish wins. 1st, 2nd and 3rd receive prizes. 

 This year it will be in my new boat which im excited about, only problem is figuring out what part of the river to fish. The pike action has been nothing short of slow for the last few months which makes this decision difficult. Josh and I fish lures for pike not bait but this year we may have to put out a golden if we cant manage a bite. Im looking forward to show casing the dynamic lures i was sent for this event to show the other fisherman how awesome they really are.  In a perfect world we will place in this event by using these lures. Which is very possible!  But even if we dont catch much for fish this is going to be a great time.  Looking forward to writting the post on  how it went!  

Jack's winning fish from last years event.

Tight Lines Everyone.

by: Joe Jacobowitz

Dads Biggest Trout Ever! 10/21

I just got back from a weekend up in new hampshire for my girlfriends birthday, stayed on winnipasuakee river at her grandparents house and hardly got to do any fishing, but I caught one largemouth and most the spots i tried to fish up there were closed from Oct 1st - March 31st. Which to me is a crock of you know what... So on my way home i get a call from my dad as happy as can be and he tells me, " i just got back from 5 minutes of trout fishing at wharton brook, i got 1 nice brown first cast and second cast i got about a 7 lb rainbow. " I couldnt believe it, my dad has fished for trout his whole life and always trys to get me to go but i always say im not going trout fishing for dollar bill sized stocked fish. Well today i put my foot in my mouth. He brought it home for pictures and on the ride it dropped a ton of eegs in the bed of the truck. He weighed the fish and it came in at 6 lbs 8 oz and around 23 inches. Which beat his old best of 5.5 lbs. He caught it on the old meal worm marshmellow combo on 4 lb test. He didnt have a net so he walked right into the water shoes on and all to land this fish with a whole group of fisherman around him cheering him on and cursing him up and down lol Congrats dad! but hey...im still not going trout fishing =) Here's some pics, My dad is 6 foot 7 & 280 lbs lol so he makes it look small and the other one is my mom holding it, the brown is 14 inches which really shows the size of the rainbow.

Testing the Motor w/ a Pike Bonus!

 RiverJosh and I only had a few hours to fish after work tonight so we went local. 10 minute drive to Lake Beseck. Tossed in the boat for trip #2 and fired up the motor for the first time..(first pull) And took it for a nice little joy ride. The boat flat out flys and once up to speed planes nicely. 

We have now been to Beseck a few times in search for the " Pike " that may or may not be there. So far it has been a failure. But ive see photos of people getting pike and have heard from a few fisherman that there is a pike population there. So we continue to give it a shot. Last time we got 1 pickerel 0 bass and missed one solid hit, Tonight josh got a nice pickerel on a pink sluggo and a yellow perch on a white grub. A few minutes later i got a 2 lb largie on a white spinner bait by the dam.

Then right before we were going to leave we checked one last area that had a pike vide to it and i got smacked on my spinner bait, the fish left a wake flying to the right and we both knew this was gonna be one our first beseck pike and second and most importantly the first pike in my new boat! It was 26.5 inches. Not very big but i wouldnt have cared if it was a 14 incher. lol Now with this pike it puts me and josh combined to 98 Pike on the year. All on lures and all released. 

Maiden Voyage - Haulin Bass CT

Last Thursday i finally pulled the trigger on Jacks boat. It was just what i was looking for and id been looking at that add now for three months. After spending 3 hours at the DMV with Jack the transaction was complete. I took it home slapped it in the garage waxed it clean and vacuumed out the whole thing. He did an amazing job on the vinyl in this boat.

I put my trolling motor on it and my little 4 HP Merc and took it too bantam for its first outing. The boats space and comfort is unreal compared to what ive been fishing in and it very stable. .... Ok now to the fishing. It sucked. lol Our first 4 fish in the boat were Pickerel. Then i caught a 4 inch yellow perch and a small largemouth while trolling for pike with huge spinner baits. Not one sniff from a pike all day.  Happy to catch a bass in my boat!

On our way home i went straight to a outboard in Cromwell. It was a 1985 Johnson 20 HP long shaft for 600 dollars in great condition and after talking to the owner he knew his stuff and took great care of it. Fired it up and handed over the cash put the motor on the transom and brought it home. Then had to go to walmart buy the whole fuel line and tank set up which is crazy expensive. Bought brackets to hold the tank and the battery in place during transit. Looking forward to getting out there and trying this motor!

Thanks again Jack!