Northern Pike

During Dad's visit up to Alaska, we decided to head out after Northern Pike, a type of fish that we have never before caught. After a little homework and a few phone calls we head out to a lake in the Nancy Lake Recreation Area. The trip involved dropping some cash at a local tackle shop, renting a canoe (that is located on the lake) and a 3 miles hike through moose and bear country. It was a nice hike through lush forest. We saw grouse and moose and bear sign. As you will see it was a successful trip...

Me on the trail. We had to pack the paddles and life jackets to the lake and the key to unlock the canoe.

Here is the pike lake. Nice and remote. There are a few cabins on the lake and we saw a few float planes fly in and out (a.k.a. the lazy way to get there).

We ended up catching some nice pike. The biggest was a 24 1/2 incher. These fish are furocious predators and hit a few different lures that we threw at them and several methods to catch them worked.

Here is mine that I caught using herring. You can see from the pic that they like to hang out in the reeds and ambush their food (which consists of minnows, frogs and leeches).

Here is why you see me using my pliers to hold the fish in the previous pic. Pike have very sharp teeth. Their gill plates are even lined with barbs - so look out!