Fish-Hawk.Net

Hi all! Been a while since I've posted, thought I'd get involved again with a short report, sans photos...

Was on Mississippi Lake for Zone 18 opener, targeting pike. Found them in bays in water shallow enough to have a slight weed growth and in the general vicinity of the river mouth in the south end of the lake. They were biting on 3/8 oz. white spinnerbaits, Mepps Aglia Long #4 spinners, and 3.8" Bass Pro Speed Shad Texas rigged on #3 weighted hooks. Mostly fished the south end of the lake so can't say how things were in the north end. The pike were looking healthy but they were hitting the baits very lightly and not as aggressively as they normally do - had to fish slow. I suspect they're still a little worn out from their spawn.

I was fishing the St. Lawrence out of Morrisburg last Friday, targeting pike as well, and every one I caught was beat up pretty bad from the spawn. Same deal on the baits for the St. Lawrence, in the feeder creeks and bays where there was muddy water.

Cheers!

Thanks for the report! The rideau the pike where hitting hard but so where the musky Thinking off hitting the miss next week at some point so this helps greatly!!! tight lines!

Yea, good report there boomer. Nice to see the sharing of techniques that worked. There's lots of posts with some great pics, but for the most part you don't hear too much of that. It's not often that we see a pic of a fish with the lure still attached. Plus the fact that you had to target the warmest water still, was a great tip. Good for you man.

Cheers

Thanks for the report!

Heading up that way this weekend - first camping trip with the kids this season. They'll want to shore-fish so I'll plan on bringing lots of spinnerbaits and things easy for them to fish with. Hopefully we get into some pike action. But also a walleye wouldn't be a bad thing - have caught walleye on everything in the past few years, including a white spinnerbait I was burning back to the boat on the Ottawa River! LOL

Miss usually warms pretty quick I find. Odd the pike were still lethargic. Bumped into quite a few on some bigger, probably cooler lakes, and they've been shredding.

Thanks for the report.

A few of the pike we brought in the the Rideau were beaten to crap as well. Huge open slices on some of them. I didn't know the spawn beat them up like that. Poor dudes!

Mississippi River pike out of Appleton were pounding everything last Saturday (the really hot day). They were on the shallow flats around the feeder creeks and down by the power line as you approach Almonte.