Been meaning to post this, but stopped over at the river last week on Father's Day morning near dam #1. I've fished the river several times in the past and never had any luck, but this time around my luck was about to change! I tried several spots above the dam, nothing. So I headed down below the dam and on my first cast, I was reeling in, and not more than 3 or 4 feet from shore, wham! Fish on! It was my first pike...



Not big, but that's ok, it was my first, I was proud! Not 10 minutes later, I head down stream a bit more, and wham! Fish on! This one was much bigger, a real fish...about 22" and a real fatty.



Caught both on the Walmart "midnight special" $1 black spinnerbait.

I know the handling of pike is a sensitive issue on these boards, so please don't yell and holler if I did something wrong, I did the best I could considering I was alone and I had never caught a pike before, much less two...for the record, both were successfully released and swam away healthy.

Anyhow, it was a great start to father's day!

Doublebass

sweet! good job
the second northern is fat, esp for the dpr

That first one is a small musky. It has vertical stripes. Tiger musky, I've been seein more of them the last couple years.

No kidding? You really think that first little skinny guy is a musky? Sweet...I don't care how small it is, that's still totally cool!

im pretty sure it is a pike, not a tiger muskie. adolescent pike tend to have stripes.

its gill cover is fulled scaled as well

I agree with walleye seeker, I've caught several like that as well.

Either way congrats on the pike. White spinners will definitely get you so more pike than that the black will. I tend to hook mine within 10 feet from shore most of the time I fish the river. Nice job!

I've tried white spinnerbaits on the DPR several times, never got anything with them, not sure why. The first time I try out the black one, I land 2 and had two more strikes...weird. I wonder if the pike like the colorado blades rather than the willow blades. My white spinners have the willows, this black one had colorado blades. The colorados put out more vibration, maybe that's what does it...

who knows???

Doublebass

Colorado blades have more vibration, which i prefer on the river because the water is murky. the white spinner baits have better visibility in the river though. If you can find white spinner baits with Colorado blades then you may end up catching even more

Try throwin a big mepps with a yellow skirt
usually kills em'