Fish-Hawk.Net

Well I know of a few people that it's happened to but yesterday was the first time it happened to me.

Having a little time to kill I headed down to an enjoyable urban stretch of the Rideau R. for some smallie action. (The Tuesday night guys can probably guess my location.) With the bite being a little uncharacteristically slow I decided to switch to a popper to see if there were active bass that I could entice.

After landing a few tiny ones I hook in to a spunky one in the middle of the river. After two tail walking jumps about 10 yards away, he comes racing towards me. I'm like "What the F@#K is up with this fish". I'm stripping line as fast as I can to keep up and he races past my feet, being chased by a 36-40" muskie.

Needless to say the muskie managed to catch my bass then motor to the other side of the river. Fishing only a 5 wt, I could barely budge him. He eventually let go of the bass which I landed and released (a good 8" SM with some nasty flesh slashes inflicted by the muskie.)


I think the next time I'm down there I'm bringing my 8wt and some big flies!

Todd,

I had a similar thing happen to me this spring at Manotick Mill. Hooked a middling sized crappie on a nymph. With the sky clouded over I couldn't see the fish but all of a sudden it was like it was on steroids and then it just stopped moving. Fishing a 5 wt (like yourself) I couldn't budge it and thought it may have looped round a rock.

Sure enough the cloud cover parted and there's this giant pike just sat there with the fish in it's mouth. It eventually let go and I reeled in the crappie. After that I think the poor fish was probably happy to see me!!!

After that I saw the same pike (scar on it's side) several visits in a row but it wasn't biting on anything.

Rossco

races past my feet, being chased by a 36-40" muskie.

Time to google up some steel toed wading boots and waders with shin pads.....

One evening in July, I tied on a big, hairy dahlberg diver in the hopes of picking up some shallow water largies or pike. After about 400 very poor casts at a beaver house that I knew held largies, I was able to get the diver right on the edge of a beaver house. Almost on cue, a 14"-15" largie comes up, smacks it and heads back to the beaver house. Remembering that this type of situation is why I bought an 8wt as my first fly rod, I start working the largie out of the sticks and as it starts coming toward the surface, I see the last 3/4 of the fish firmly planted in the jaws of a big pike. The pike took us on a bit of a run and then the line went slack and the diver popped to the surface. The pike had a nice meal......

This was also the 4th time this year this has happened. My wife has had 3 instances where a big pike has attacked a hammerhandle she was reeling in.

During the spring Adventure Weekend in June, Anthony hooked into a OOS smallie at the mouth of the Black River that got owned by a massive pike. I caught a glimpse of the fish with the camera. Smallie swam away fine although it did have a severe gash on it's tail When we came bac the next day the exact same thing happend in the same spot

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