Hey all,
Lots of muskie talk, but lets not forget the beloved pike!! So,lets hear it, what's your biggest pike?

My biggest is a 46' from Lake Utik, upper parts of Manitoba, Canada. Goes all the way back to 1991...... Chartruese 1oz Daredevil with 7 pink dots. Ambassedeur 521 reel on a 6'rod....boy I'm dating myself!

Minnesota: Little lake up north of Brainerd, pushing 40', caught on a 1oz Johnson Silver Minnow.

Let's hear 'em!

40" on Grace Lake with a brown/tan/yellow harrasser bucktail in May 2005


42" on Upper Red Lake walleye fishing with a 1/4 oz jighead rigged on a salty berkley grub when the walleyes reopened on URL.

St. Croix river, last year, october. 40'' on the button, full of shad(i'm assuming) it was a 6 or 8 lb. flouro leader i think 6, on a silver/black #9 rapala Husky j e r k. 6' 3'' Shimano Crucial, medium power/extra fast spinning rod, with a Shimano Spirex RE with fightin' drag. swimming release with water splashed in my face from tail... priceless!!! i was going for walleye but knew the area has large pike as i get them there in the 30 - 38'' range regularly. 38'' was my best before. same fish twice one week apart. got the 40'' within ten feet of where i got that 38''er the first time. was about three years ago i got that 38 so mabe i got her 3 times??? who knows,

Biggest is 32", caught trolling a deep diving crankbait, banging the bottom along a deep weedline on the Gull Lake Chain. Also caught a 29" that night, and my grandpa lost one about 35" as we tried to net it. Cool thing was the summer after that my grandpas neighbors kid who was about 7 years old caught a 40 incher trolling a crankbait.
But the biggest I have seen have been sight fishing through the ice, some monster northerns for around where I was, but haven't been able to get those big ones to open there mouths yet.

The longest pike I've caught was about 41" on Mille Lacs while fishing muskie, but it was really skinny (prop wounds). I've caught quite a few around the 40" mark that were healthier and bigger than the 41 incher. I've heard they really like Mantas.

My two biggest were caught about and hour apart on Leech lake in 95. The first was 40 and the second 42. Funny thing was that though we had no scale it was easy to tell the 40 far outweighed the 42. They were both caught on a copper red eye wiggler on one of the craziest weather days i have ever seen. It was mid/late August. Severe thunderstorms rolled through just about at day break. That lasted for about an hour or so. They rest of the day was cold, very windy and rained like [PoorWordUsage], you could hear thunder clapping int the distance all day long. The high was about 45. We almost didnt even go out that day, easy to say im glad we braved it. It was by far the best day fishing ive had in my life.

39" 7 or 8 yrs ago ice fishing up in the Crosby area. That one was fun to pull in on 2lb test. Luckily I had plenty of witnesses, as the pics didn't end up turning out...

I don't know what was going on in 2006, but it was the best season for big pike I/we've ever had. I had 12 over 40" in the boat , the largest being 44" with a "nub"(rubbed raw)tail. All were caught on Mille Lacs while muskie fishing, and they all ate big blades and big rubber.A couple were caught at night too. Very strange.A buddy caught a 42" on a Hog Wobbler(slow moving topwater) at 2AM!!!! Apparently, the fish STILL can't read the rulebook. Steve

"When everyone else zigs, it's time to zag"-Ron Lindner

I've got 2 at 42" on tipups.

Biggest is 43" from Mille Lacs on a Dawg

I had the fortune of fishing on a Gravel Pit that was accross the street from my dad's old place. We did very well there fishing for pike. One day when I was a junior in High School, a buddy and I were out there fishing pike (the day I burnt up my citica). It was late October right before ice up and we knew they would be stacked up on the edge of a shelf out there. The water was crystal clear, you could see bottom in 30 during the winter. We were casting big rapalas and suicks just past the edge of the shelf and slowly pulling them right over and up on the shelf and we would see them come up like a submarine. In three hours out there, we caught 30 fish from 34-44" and I missed one that would have been close to 46-48. It was the best day of piking we ever had. Unfortunately, it was a really cloudy day and the disposable camera we had with us had low speed film and none of our photos turned out.

I located the big pike in the pond fishing for the tiny panfish that called it home. One day in the summer I was reeling in a small gill from some timber along the shoreline and a huge pike came up and inhaled it hole and bit me off right at my feet. To say I was trembling with delight would be an understatement. There were millions of 2-3" bluegills and 3-4" crappies in there. I was also able to catch a bass that went 5 lbs and a crappie that was 14" long out of this pond. I loved it. The only problem I have is getting access to the place anymore as it is all private land surrounding it now.

We got some rod breakers through the ice out there too, tons of fun had when growing up there.

Hiya -

51-1/4", from the Innoko River in Alaska, 1996. Probably won't ever see one bigger. Also probably the only fish I ever have or will measure to the quarter inch...

The Innoko is a tributary of the Yukon that runs into the Yukon at Holy Cross. I guided there for the summer in '96. Most spectacular pike fishing I'll probably ever have. We averaged 7-10 a day over 40 inches. If I had decent fishermen in the boat and the fish were going, doubling that wasn't unusual. Best day I had was with four fly fishermen - one of the guides was sick so I ferried his guys to a nearby backwater off the river and had them wade. I stood on the bank watched them catch 41 over 40 inches that they measured, and there were probably a bunch more that were 40 that they just unhooked and let go. Set 3 line class records, one guy broke not one but two Sage fly rods when hooked fish ran between his legs, and one dude who has a medical condition that made him pee about every 10 minutes actually peed in his waders rather than stop fishing long enough to get out of the water and pull down his chest waders... (that's hard core...)

For the season, we caught 11 over 50 inches. I had two of them - 50, and 51-1/4.

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

b1gfsh1 -- I would like to find out a general area (if you don't mind sharing) where you find pike on the Croix, I have found every other species but them. wks1974@yahoo.com if you would rather email me.

My biggest is 32" caught 2006 opener on Many Point Lake...black and gray #7 shad rap trolling for eyes...

Whoah. I've actually been looking into Pike fishing in Alaska, but seem to get the impression that all the car-accessible places have been fished out. The sizes of the fish in the pictures on the guide websites are less impressive than what I've caught in MN and Calgary. I had pretty much given up and assumed I'd be doing Salmon on the fly instead. Innoko looks to be pretty far away from everything, flyin and dropoff, I assume? Is it still supposed to be great fishing? Any other places in Alaska you can recommend? Gotta use those Alaska Airline miles somehow...

OK, wow. Just read about the Midnight Sun houseboat out there. 50" Pike all over the place, huh? I think I will wait to see what the economy does...

Thanks Rob!

As a kid, I caught one that was 14 pounds. We didn't go by length then, just weight. As a 13-year-old, I was pretty proud.

Since then, 42 inches (not counted fishing is Canada).

I saw one last year spearing in the winter that could have topped that. I tried to angle it, but it wouldn't bite. Still trying to catch him in the summer....

An honest 46" fishing out of a canoe in the Boundary Waters. Had to paddle to shore to land it then used the fishing rod to measure. Didn't know the length until we got back to town a few days later and put a tape on the mark.