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Killer Pike!!
A few years back I had a cottage 45 minutes north west of Ottawa and had fished the lake for 12 years summer and winter. In summer we did very well with the largest Pike being a 37 lb monster that took one hour and fifteen minutes to bring in on 8lb test. A lot of people didn't believe me until I showed them the stuffed head on my rec room wall. In winter we did not do so well given the fact that you cant use live bait in Quebec and the size of the lake.
I read an article about northern pike and how good their sense of smell is and decided to experiment. I sat down and made a list of all the baits I knew or heard about and slowly rated the success that I have had with each. Either I wasn't in the right spot at the right time or I didn't know what I was doing and fishing as much as I do and catching Northerns every where else I fished told me the first suggestion was right.
I told my wife I was going to the market and would return shortly and if my fishing partner called to just come over and we would leave from my place to head up to the cottage.When I returned he had called and was on his way.We left at about 7pm and arrived at 8pm. When we arrived I told my partner that he should take the auger and punch some holes and I would get the fire going and bring in the food and other supplies. He punched 20 holes and we were ready except for rigging up our lines. Putting on very large hooks so that small fish would not be caught I went to the fridge and got the bait I had purchased earlier in town and when I took it out of the bag my partner started laughing at me. Sardines he said what do you Think is going to bite on that. I just said we'll see and shrugged off his joking. We set up our lines in fourteen feet of water and went in to watch TV. We were in and out constantly until about 11pm when my partner let out a roar that one of my tip ups was down. I rushed out and grabbed the line, I set the hook and the fish tugged back cutting my index finger on the line, I knew it was big. A few minutes later we had the line reset and were inside ready to weigh the fish. I asked my partner if he wanted to guess its weight and he guessed 20lbs but I knew by holding it that it was heavier so I guessed 25lbs. Truth time on the scales the fish weighed in at 27+lbs.
We took shifts sleeping during the night and got two more fish 17lbs and 14lbs. This had me convinced that the smell of whole uncut frozen sardines were just the way to go for catching big Northerns. Over the next 5 years I was one of the only fisherpersons on this lake to constantly catch big pike through the ice, with the largest weighting in at 33lbs. The Great Northen Pike surely has a great sense of smell so give this method a chance when your not having success with other baits.
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