# Your Biggest Pike



## njsimonson

Okay, okay...trying to keep the breath of life going in the forums and give people something to talk about while at work.

What is your biggest northern ever? Again, catch and release, or kept doesn't matter, length or weight.

My biggest pike is 35 inches, caught and released on Devils Lake like my walleye. What can I say, the fishing was INCREDIBLE up there this spring! Anyone else with monster pike? Post some pics if you can, mine are all up on my webiste.

I can't wait to hear about those Canadian pike!


----------



## smalls

Never caught a monster shark, but I spose around 10 lbs on Devils. I have done really well the last several years NOT to catch them...

But hopefully I can shatter that mark when I go to Cass Lake in a couple of weekends. Big pike and musky are all I am after!


----------



## MOSSBACK

Two years ago my brother and I went to Reigndeer Lake Sask. On our best day we landed six Northerns over 40" My biggest of the trip was 42" By brothers biggest was a 47 1/2" monster I have it all on video.

On the second day we went up the lake about 40 miles. we were in a shallow bay and saw a huge 50" Northern by a weed bed we casted and casted tying to get him but he would just swim away. Then when we were leaving the bay another boat in our party was trolling and caught him what a fish that was.

I tried to make a photo album on this site but I am too computer illiterate to figure it out. I just can't figure out how to resize the photos.

Nick, maybe you can PM me and come help me figure it out.


----------



## Goosepride

16 pound Northern.

My dad had never caught a 20 pound Northern.

Then he finally caught two 24 pound Northern in a 12 day span on the same body of water a few summers ago. He was pretty excited. One of them got a pretty big chunk of my thumb for lunch...don't ask...


----------



## jmmshadow

my biggest pike was a 46" pike i caught in canada on savant lake. wasn't even the lake we were supposed to be fishing, we were flying out from there. caught it under the floating dock we were leaving from.  
it weighed 26 pounds.


----------



## gander lander

I caugth a 40" that weighed around 20lbs


----------



## Ryan_Todd

i would have to say about 10 lbs for me. although i've seen many over 20 through the ice hole that wouldn't bite. last year my girlfriend had one on that we think was pushin 20 that snapped the line.


----------



## holmsvc

My biggest pike is the one in my display pic. I caught it fishing with simonson in the spring. I caught it with my 5 foot ultra light and 4 pound test. It was probably the most fun I've ever had fighting a fish.


----------



## BRYAN_REMER

39" pike caught it on the same trip as my walleye. It didn't put up a fight it just let me reel it in and laid there while I unhooked, took a picture and released it. It was a really ugly fish with alot of scars on it. One of my buddies has 2-44" pike from that lake on the wall. I missed a monster that week on a bucktail too, 10 feet from the boat and it spit it out and was gone.


----------



## jacks

This spring I managed to luck out and caught a 44in. 28 and a half pound pike fishing Sakakawea during ice out. I was using a smelt on the bottom. The pike was not that long but was very wide and full of eggs. It really did not fight that great, it made one good run and that was it.


----------



## Bagman

I caught a 38" Norsky on Lake O the Woods while downrigging for Eyes a few years ago. Fish was super thick and didnt put up a huge fight(recurring theme here). Something near 20lbs was estimated by the captain of the boat...we put her back in the lake. I was reeling in a hammer handle last summer on a local MN lake when a monster cannibal appeared right beside the boat and engulfed it and my lure. The giant simply grabbed on and made a power dive....all I had left on my lure was scales. Quite a rush.


----------



## sandman

This fall I caught 6 pike over 16 lbs. Check out westerncanadafishing.net and have a look at the photo albums. I just came upon this site. It looks pretty good. I will try to build a album here but as a computer idiot it may take a while. :beer:


----------



## wtrfwlr

I caught a 42" Northern in Canada, we were trolling and he hit like a freakin whale. Best day fishing ever!


----------



## djleye

18 lbs., Lac Seul, Ontario. On a topwater bait!!!!! Very cool.


----------



## waterwolf

40" trolling with a depth raider in 28' water.

Amazing how they look so much larger in the water. 

I swore it was mid 40's


----------



## WARDEN247

Have you ever tried fishing Portsmouth Pit? There are some huge hogs in there.. You can't use live bait but nobody ever said anything about dead bait..


----------



## mallardhunter

My biggest nothern 14lbs


----------



## waterwolf

I have fished Portsmith mine, but for trout only.

I have a few buddies that have pulled some really nice ones from there though. I think this past summer two were over 40". Casting the trees.


----------



## WARDEN247

As a younger man growing up in that area, I did alot of snorkling in those pits.. I would bet I have over 300 lures, found snagged, up on those tree limbs. I too fish that pit for trout. I don't fish it on opener any more though as there are way to many people catching the stocked Rainbows.. I give it a month and then bring out the down riggers for the big ones. Sure is pretty out there though. Clearest water I have ever seen.


----------



## waterwolf

Clear is right  I hear a lot of people scuba/snorkel over there. They claim they see some really big fish also.

I did fish the opener there years ago, but never again. Not into "crowds".


----------



## Remmi_&amp;_I

My largest is a 17 pounder. Every year we go out as soon as there is about 10 feet of open water in the bays at Sakakawea


----------



## Thorson

Biggest fish i caught was in a gravel pit!! It was 12lbs and my buddy caught a twin to it seconds after.


----------



## win300us

I caught A 44in 24 pound pike Ice Fishing in A small lake around here


----------



## DJRooster

Great run...Caught four that were 15 to 20+ pounds at Dry Lake a few years back when the northerns were at their peak. All were released. One winter I easily caught over over a ton(2000 lbs) of fish. Talk about a great run. Every time you were out you would catch at least one fish over ten pounds. It was just an average day if you didn't catch 15 or more in a trip with the smallest being 4lbs and the average being 5 to 6 pounds. It is about as good as it gets in North Dakota.


----------



## smalls

Not sure about my biggest, probably between 10 and 12 pounds on Devils Lake.

But when I was a kid I used to fish a very small river behind our farm and I am pretty sure I caught and released the same 2 lb hammer handle uncountable times one summer. I caught a few bigger and a few smaller, but probably every other time I caught a fish in one stretch of river it was that scrappy little guy. He never learned that I was just going to let him go and every time he did the alligator roll when I got him close to shore. He was an absolute sucker for the 5 of diamonds 4" daredevil.


----------



## buckseye

44 inch male out of Yawningstone Lake, Manitoba 8)


----------



## KEN W

I have gotten 12-15 between 20 and 26 lbs.All in Canada.

26 pounder was last June....46 in. long.


----------



## Maverick

Some slew that filled up with water......
I was out with Chris and his girlfriend(at the time)/wife in the middle of knowwhere ND. We were on a good tip from the family about this lake that has no access but you can jack knife our small boat on it. Got out there after a bit of monkeying with the boat, and away we went into an brothel of pike. We actually were looking for eyes and caught a few but had our hands full of pike. Around 5:00 pm I hook into the big one of the day. It was 17lbs of pike that wouldn't fit in the net. There had been 19's and 20 caught there earlier that year.


----------



## Goldy's Pal

> Some slew that filled up with water......


Ooh I know where that spot is. :lol: 
Got a lot of 8-10's but biggest was 12 and 3/4. Caught on a mepps spinner fishing alone. It made about 4 runs on me when I thought I had it netted at the boat, but finally got it. Somewhere on the Mississippi river. :wink:


----------



## Bigdog

Biggest ever was 30# and 50" from the NWT in 2000. Had another 50" that weighed 27#. Biggest in NoDak was a hair over 20# from Sak.


----------



## Boy

My biggest was like 36"" and about 15lbs.


----------



## DJRooster

Wow...50"! I can see why they call you "big dog." That is a beautiful fish.


----------



## njsimonson

Bigdog - you heading back to DL this spring for some pikie action? That's where I caught my big un.


----------



## Stizostedion vitreum

My biggest pike have come when fishing for other species. A 14 pounder at Grano Crossing on Lake Darling when I was fishing for perch,

and a 17 pounder when I was pulling spinners with crawlers in the weeds on Devils lake while hunting for walleyes.

The only time I target big pike is early Spring on the East end of Sakakawea. I have not caught my piggy yet. Maybe this Spring will give me my 20+lb pike. Stizo 8)


----------



## DJRooster

Question???...What genus species are you Stizotedium vitreum??


----------



## Bigdog

That was a heck of a fish. Have caught alot of big ones on that lake. Here
is the lodge website, should be my picture there on the home page: http://www.nwtfishing.com/ if you click on the "The Fishing" tab, I am the first 30# picture and my late father is the 25# pike picture. Both were released. Got the big one on a Peterson tackle Inhaler rattletail with white bucktail and orange blade. Darn good bucktails.

Nick - you bet I am planning at least one trip up to DL this spring, maybe even swing up there twice. I am starting to get an itch in my casting arm.


----------



## njsimonson

Good lord she was a BEAST BigDog! Sweet pike!


----------



## Habitat Hugger

I don't recall what my biggest pike was, but will always remember the one that would definitely win the award for "The Most Fun Northern!" (Oh Oh, you are thinking - here comes a fish story!) My wife and I were fly fishing Northerns up at Kississing Lake in northern Manitoba and had caught some pretty big pike when I got one that I thought was the mother of all pike. This fish made run after run, stripping back well into the backing a bunch of times, went completely around the boat a half dozen times. Bloodied my knuckles from the reel handle. We hadn't even seen him and were starting to think we had bumped into a huge Lake Trout. Finally we got that fish in, and darned if it was a little Northern that couldn't have weighed 3 or 4 pound max. We carefully examined it to see if another BIG Northen had grabbed it and done all the fighting. Nothing - not a scratch! We sure released it really carefully to ensure that scrappy little guy wasn't removed from the gene pool. To this day I don't have any idea why or how such a little fish could put up such a long and protracted fight. Of the thousands of Northern I've caught, that's the one I'll never forget.


----------



## goosehtr4life

"40in a tish under 20lbs...Sak. spring fishing through the ice.

I have friends that I fish with have caught several bigger than that through the ice spring fishing the bays. Sak. is the place to be for big Pike in the spring...


----------



## quackattack

My biggest was a 15lb pike in 2001 at lake of the woods, caught it on 8lb test. My grandpa caught one up in sask that weighed 20lbs and has caught two 18's on lake of the woods.


----------



## deafishunt

my bigger northern is 43" 18.6 lbs. I caught northern at wingwall and used 1/4 white jig with minnow then hammer and fought him for serval minutes and I had a problem with size net so pulled him out to shore. I hang mount pike on wall.


----------



## WhakGreenie03

My biggest is 43" and caught that off shore..on 4lb test with a pink daredevil that i bought for a dollar. I caught it on the 4th of July, 1 year after my uncle caught a 42.5" er on a BB and spinner. I was fishing off shore with 5 of my cousins in the water. Had to run on shore after i couldnt talk 4 of them in getting away from the water. 15 min fight ended when my cousin scooped it up with his hands and threw it on shore.


----------



## wtrfwlr

I'm from southern Illinois so there aren't that many good pike and muskie lakes, But we go up north to wisconsin and Canada. The biggest pike i've seen with my own two eyes and not a mount at bass pro was a 41" northern a little over 24 lbs. my dad caught it. My biggest northern was 38" didn't weigh it, but it was skinny. I caught a 37 1/2" muskie up by Springfield that weighed 14 lbs, biggest one i've caught. You guys have it nice up there. I'm always envious to read ya'lls posts. THe only thing i'm not envious of is the fact you have to wait for fishing seasons. NO such thing as a season on fish down here. but you make it up in the excellent goose hunting!


----------



## Habitat Hugger

Guess I should report my latest & biggest fly rod caught one a 24+ pounder, 47 inches long, spawned out female at Rafferty Dam in southern Sask. Probably somewhere between 25 - 30 pre spawn. Used a 10 weight rod, full 50 yards of backing (used it all up except for a couple of turns 6 different times) and a 12 inch multicolored spun elk (white)/ deer(red) /elk(white) head with multicolored jumbo bunny strips (red, white, and yellow) and flashabou. I call it the "dead parrot" as that's what it looks like. 35 minute battle - what a blast! Was going to post a photo but don't know how to downsize it before sending it to the website.


----------



## Springer

Talked to a buddy of mine today and he said his kid was fishing down by Ashley and he caught a 48" Northern that was just under #30 today. 
That has to be a big fish for ND.
He was cranking for walleye when he caught this one.

He was on Dry Lake.


----------



## wisfishermen

47 inch pike on a river here in Wisconsin threw that bad girl back. I got a replica made.


----------



## Mike_Ulmr

My biggest pike to date is 37 1/2" and 25lbs. I caught this fish about 5 years ago and she went back in the lake. I caught it near Flin Flon, Manitoba. I have also caught alot of 30-42inchers up there :beer:


----------



## njsimonson

> He was on Dry Lake.


They've been pulling nice slimers out of there for a few years now, but I've heard of NOTHING THAT BIG until now! WOW!


----------



## 25for25

my biggest northern was 28 pounds and 45 inches long, on a fly in by tompson manitoba Canada


----------



## alaskanman

my biggest 20.5 about 43 inchs long. Got it in canada, costigan lake, Reds camp.


----------



## Camo

12 pounds


----------



## frenchie

the biggest pike I have ever caught is a 43 inch 24 lbs caught at Lake St. Pierre in Quebec, Canada Caught it trolling with a Toronto Wobbler just lucky I guess


----------



## wirehairman

40", 19 lbs even. Through the ice on Fort Peck last spring.

[siteimg]3048[/siteimg]


----------



## rockinmichigan

If I've tried catching northerns once, I've probably tried a hundred and one times with no luck. I've had them hit me up a few times. One hit me up December of '04, I'd say that was the last time they hit me. Took a minnow lure with a 3/8 ounce jighead on 8# test, by the time I set the hook the line was snapped, about halfway down my rod. Wasn't a branch or rock or even a down tree I hooked into to make me think it was a hit, this really was a hit and I know it. I didn't set the hook THAT hard to make it snap, there is some give to 8 lb. test on a medium-heavy 6'6" rod. 
Caught and landed a 26" longnose gar if that counts any, that weighed between a pound to pound and a half. Also hooked into a longnose gar that had to be pushing 40", caught that one on a gobie I was using as bait. Got 'er to the dock, my buddy was standing to my left and tried to net it. Got as far as its beak and face into the net, then the son of a gun moved to the right, gave one good thrust and was off the hook. I was so ****** off, I wanted to cry right there. Easily the biggest fish I had ever brought even that close in. Had to be about a five pounder, fought really good too.


----------



## farmerj

I caught this fish....









About 10 minutes after landing this fish...









42" Lake of the Woods on 1/4 oz jig with 6 lb fireline.

Lessons learned that day:
When fishing alone, always extend the handle on your big net BEFORE you leave the dock.[/*]
BEFORE you put that new net in your boat. Take the stickers off the handle.[/*]


----------



## tlowes

36 inch northern from lake Ashtabula. Have caught bigger Muskies.


----------



## Greg_4242

My biggest is 38". I get the Manitoba Masters fishing mag. and it says that the largest pike caught last year was 57". I want to see the photo of that fish.


----------



## rockinmichigan

A 57" northern...holy apesh*t I'd love to see a picture of that too!


----------



## Invector

I have looked though the pics u guys put out and must say that I have been impressed. I have fished in many different areas for pike. The one thing is that each state I have fished for those lovely green monsters I'll always remember the biggest and the one that got away. I venture up to cannada every year and have nabbed many pike in the 40" range, my biggest in that lake was about 45.5" (estimated by markings on a broom handle). The one that got away was in my mind over 30lbs. She just followed my lure and would only bump it. Here in ND my biggest was a 45" with a gurth of 20". This fish would have gone 25lbs. from the size of girth. My biggest so far in life has been a monster taken while fishing Musky in MN. That fish was 48". (All these fish were released and estimated in some manner.) I due feel that I will some day I will break my current record and return her to the deepths wich she came. Just remember to let them go to grow.


----------



## duckduck...goose!

i got one 39lbs and 52" on lake ontario.its sitting in my living room


----------



## rockinmichigan

If I caught something like that I'd put 'er on the wall, too. The 26" longnose gar is just about done at the taxidermy. Not the biggest fish in the world, but its my first gar (and so far the only gar I've actually landed).


----------



## rowdie

It was only a 23 lber, but I cought it while ice fishing for wallys. The rig had only 20 feet of line on it fishin 16 feet of water. It was old mono and I had to stick my arm down the hole with the stick the line was on and try to turn its head. I could feel the mono stretching, and it took about 15 minutes wiht my arm in and out of the hole. The thing took up every sq inch of the 9" hole I was fishing.


----------



## rockinmichigan

Rowdy, I honestly get a kick out of you saying "only," because I haven't hooked into something with that much weight to it. For the 20 or so years fishing I've put in I've never been lucky enough to catch a 23 pounder or in that neighborhood, or bigger. That had to have been a pain in the butt to try and bring up that size hole, but well worth it. :beer:


----------



## njsimonson

duckduck...goose! said:


> i got one 39lbs and 52" on lake ontario.its sitting in my living room


Dude, I gotta see that...can you snap a digital pic of the mount?! That is one insanely large pike!!! Normally a 50" pike is around 30 lbs. That thing must be FAT!


----------



## rowdie

I grew up fishing for northern on Lake Oahe, and I've caught one over 10 lbs alomost every year, and usually one or two over 15. Someone usually catches one over 20, but now I mainly target walleye. The reason I said only is becuase of some fo the hogs people were reporting on here.


----------



## Paka

12 lbs., back in '03, out of Thirty-One Mile Lake in Quebec. Hope to top it, of course. :wink:


----------



## DRYLOK

Cass Lake,Minnesota
33"
:eyeroll:

The biggest fish I've ever caught is 43" muskie Lake Shelbyville,IL


----------



## seabass

42 inches trolling with a rapala... thought I had a snag, so was backing up the boat, and my snag started to swim!  It was ~20lbs...

Oh, it was on a southern ND lake... :wink:


----------



## rockinmichigan

seabass, that's a helluva snag. Got a picture of it :beer:


----------



## seabass

rockinmichigan said:


> seabass, that's a helluva snag. Got a picture of it :beer:


Not sure how to put pictures here, but
Click here http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/northern-pike-fishing/

Of the first three pictures, its the one on right side... Pretty fun!


----------



## Ihuntnfish

39 1/2 in. and about 19lbs up on lake of the woods in the spring through the ice. That is a blast, it was so nice that year we were sitting on the ice around a card table playing cards in T-shirts.  Hopefully I can get a nice one over 40 this year


----------



## rockinmichigan

That's a nice northern, what kind of Rapala were you using? Like color, etc.?


----------



## seabass

rockinmichigan said:


> That's a nice northern, what kind of Rapala were you using? Like color, etc.?


Fire Tiger shad rap...


----------



## Fossilman

I caught mine in the Antler creek,just north of town,it came in at 19 #'s and 39 inches.........


----------



## njsimonson

Thats a dandy Fossilman - welcome to the site!


----------



## Lycanthrope

My biggest was about 22 lbs from sak, usually always get a few in the 18+ range, but still waiting for that elusive 25+. Did have a big one on a tipup that I was having problems getting through my 8" hole last spring, ended up breaking my leader when it was like half way up, grrr.


----------



## goatboy

48" Heart Butte in July, kind of an ugly old thing!


----------



## Fossilman

Anybody been to Ruthville,north of Minot?
the owner(Ruthville Store) has his Northern Pike on the wall there,its a 43 incher and a good story behind it..................


----------



## Techhead

biggest was 46" Sakakawea, 4 years ago, up by Parshall, numerous over 10 at Devils Lake, Dry Lake and Goose over the last 5 years, best fishing for nice sized pike, of course the channel A run on devils, and the ice fishing on Dry and Goose lake a few years back down by Danzig ND. One day, my dad and I caught 75 pike with the average about 6 lbs, biggest 18 lbs. kept 6 about 6 lbs each and took pics and threw the big mommas back


----------



## NDTerminator

Don't know the weight but it was 36" out of DL. Spring northern fishing on DL is unreal, you can catch & fight northerns until your arms are literally sore. Just hang a frozen smelt about 4' under a bobber or throw daredevils. 30-36 inchers are pretty common, and every now & then you'll see a bigger one pulled out...


----------

