Lots of Work, No Pike

In fact, I was the only one who caught anything today, out of the three of us out there. Both Dalton and Adam had hits, but they didn't land any fish.

Our intended destinations were the channels and back bays of a tidal river, the weedy backwaters that few boats are able to reach and don't often get fished. There's a reason for that...

On more than one occasion we had to stop, pull up the trolling motor, and pull or push the boat manually.

Dalton towing the boat.

 

Multi tasking.

We were spotting some reasonably sized fish moving but no big pike. I caught the first fish of the day, a chunky yellow perch.

Some more work and we made it up to a pool bellow a bridge that holds some fish. I hooked into a nice white perch right away and a giant largemouth chased it to the boat. That fish never showed again, but we saw some big suckers, a large catfish, and I caught a glimpse of a prehistoric looking creature that must have been a sturgeon. It was a startling sight, and a very rare privilege.

The way back downstream was far easier, because the tide was coming in. We were marking fish on the hummingbird, carp and baitfish were jumping with regularity, and the motor became temperamental so we didn't have time to stop and fish.

Lots of fun regardless of the lack of pike. I'd do it again tomorrow.