Fish-Hawk.Net

Hi Guys ... I know everyone fishes the lake for trout and bass but has anyone caught any nice sized pike, either on purpose or by accident?

I will be camping there next week and am looking for something to fish in my Yak.

Thanks

My PB Charleston pike is 9.5lb, but I rarely target them. Usually incidental while targetting other species.
I have seen much bigger hens in the creeks before season opens. There are >15+lb pike in the lake for sure

I've caught some nice pike while trolling for lakers. I caught a 10lb pike and a 10lb laker on the same day

Rideau_Lungehunter wrote:Hi Guys ... I know everyone fishes the lake for trout and bass but has anyone caught any nice sized pike, either on purpose or by accident?

I will be camping there next week and am looking for something to fish in my Yak.
Thanks

Obviously you are at the mercy of the wind, and distance is a factor as well, so where you camp will affect where you can go. Where are you pitching your tent?

I've caught two smaller pike on Charleston. One in Eastern water of all places on the gang troll, and the other on purpose the one time I tried. Like Len says, there are some quite large Pike in there, but they are hard to target once summer sets in as they relate to deeper cool water and a deep water forage base. Lakeline used to have some pre trout season clients that would target Pike and Crappie.
It's not like there are lots of weeds in this lake for the most part, but it actually has one fairly extensive "deep" weed bed adjacent to the bottom of Big water. I never even knew it was there for the longest time as I was always trolling for Greys. It is the best spot on the lake by far to target Pike. It runs parallel to Wolfe island in between Flat and Rabbit/Crozier isles. You're looking at weeds in up to 20 feet. Only thing is, any sort of northerly winds would not be conducive to kayak fishing, and a strong wind would need a big boat.


On the other hand, being this early in the trout season yet, I see no reason why you couldn't troll in 20-40 fow with a Cleo or Williams with some weight for Lakers. Again, depending on where you camp, areas in Western water like Tallow Rock bay are well protected from winds.

Good luck out there. Cheers

Great info Smitty.

RJ

Thanks for the replies ...

Great info Smitty ... I will hope for a quiet day to try and fish the weed bank. Also, I had wondered if the lake trout would be accessible so I'll bring a couple of spoons and try dragging one up.

If I manage to catch anything, I'll post a report when I get back.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Our biggest pike in Charleston was a hair over 11lbs, and came off the deep side of Englishman's on a 4" Motor Oil Berkley power worm while fishing for SM.

nanookofnj wrote:Our biggest pike in Charleston was a hair over 11lbs, and came off the deep side of Englishman's on a 4" Motor Oil Berkley power worm while fishing for SM.

That must have been a blast on light equipment.
Does Englishman's Rock actually break the surface? That old hand drawn map above shows it and Babcock's Rock but my other hydrographic map shows neither one while Navionics only shows Babcock's.

Cheers

smitty55 wrote:Does Englishman's Rock actually break the surface? That old hand drawn map above shows it and Babcock's Rock but my other hydrographic map shows neither one while Navionics only shows Babcock's.

Cheers

No it doesn't. Englishman's is still below (but close to) the surface in the late season after the water drawdown. Might break surface in a deep trough if the waves are big,
It's one of those pesky skeg busters just before rifle season starts.

We will all be looking forward to your report. I have fished this lake many times for Lake Trout. I have only caught LT and small mouth bass. I think that there would be some good pike in the lake. I went kayak fishing over the weekend on Lake Clear and caught a couple of bass. It is harder to fish from a kayak than I thought it would be. I enjoyed it.

Cool map smitty. Looks pretty vintage. How old is it?

Good luck this week Rideau_lungehunter. Let us know how you make out.

That 11 lber made for quite a fight and happened long before our current clear water set up of braid connected to a fluro leader, so a lot more stretch with the Berkley 8 or 10lb mono XL we were using. She went back in to the depths upon release.

We've also caught nice northerns off Babcock's as well as on both weedbeds around flat island in Big Water in the fall, but nothing quite that large.

Two weeks ago we landed this pig on straight 8lb fluro on a small hair jig with plastic leech trailer while fishing for walleye in 40 - 70 fow on the Larry. Went over 50" and definitely the largest freshwater fish I've ever experienced being caught. An incredible fight on 8lb fluro. Safely returned.

Out4trout wrote:

smitty55 wrote:Does Englishman's Rock actually break the surface? That old hand drawn map above shows it and Babcock's Rock but my other hydrographic map shows neither one while Navionics only shows Babcock's.

Cheers

No it doesn't. Englishman's is still below (but close to) the surface in the late season after the water drawdown. Might break surface in a deep trough if the waves are big,
It's one of those pesky skeg busters just before rifle season starts.

Tks Len. I didn't recall ever seeing it. Strange that the depth maps don't even show anything above 20ft.

fatluke wrote:Cool map smitty. Looks pretty vintage. How old is it?

Yea neat map for sure Luke. Very good for hand sketched back in 1899 from what I can tell.

Cheers