Spinnerbait
This morning, I went out to the Des Plaines River again, near Big Bend Lake. This is the same spot that I caught the other northern pike from October 5, 2009. I was hoping to catch another pike and this was the only spot I had caught one in the past.
I started casting out like I normally do with a spinnerbait hooked up to 25 lb. test monofilament line on a baitcasting rod and reel. After 15 minutes or more with no luck, I decided to target the area that was just after the dam between Big Bend Lake and the Des Plaines River. A couple of weeks ago, I had a fish hit my lure 3 times at that spot but he didn't hook up. So after trying once more, I got nothing again.
I swung myself around to go back to where I had tried in the beginning and then I heard a SPLASH at the spot I had just been at! So I quickly turned around and went back to the dam area and tried again. Nothing.
About this time, a guy who was out there doing some metal detecting (seems to be a popular thing to do near water...) came up to ask if I had caught anything. Well, no... nothing. But I did tell him that I had caught one weeks ago. As we talked, I explained that this very spot I was trying seemed to have something there, but I have not yet caught it. Then WHAM! Fish on!
We were both amazed to be talking about the fish and then having it hit the lure. I did not have a landing net with me, so I did my best to try to bring the fish to shore without harming it. I kept its head up and carefully lifted it so that only its tail was on the ground as it headed towards the shore. Then with a couple of quick flips, the fish unhooked itself and rolled back into the water! OH NO!
Technically, the pike was landed since it was at least three feet on the land, but it was still able to execute an escape. I was disappointed, but determined to try to catch it again. I had heard that pike and other fish don't have much of a memory that they had been caught before and so I was counting on that happening. So once again, I started casting at the same spot.
After about ten or fifteen minutes of nothing happening, I turned my attention to Big Bend Lake itself. I heard a splash there and then looked again and saw a HUGE fish do an aerial summersault. I tried my best to cast to the spot where I saw the huge waves eminating from, but to no avail. It was just too far away. So back I went to the first spot again.
After another 5 minutes of trying... FISH ON!
This fish did exactly what the other one did... aerial summersaults while hooked. This time, I made sure to keep the line taunt and lifted it totally off the ground and grabbed it with my Boga Grip before it had a chance to unhook itself. It didn't get away this time.
It's a smaller pike than the fish from October 5 at only 20 inches and 2 lbs., but I was glad to get it. But as I was checking it out, I started wondering if this fish was in fact the same fish that I had caught earlier. I really do think it is because it was caught at the exact same spot as the other fish.
So perhaps fish do not have a good memory. If it were me being caught the first time, you can bet I'd be out of there before someone else tried to catch me a second time!
Be sure to click on the image to take a closer look.
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