Northwest Fishing Reports

Fished my heart out for 4 days on the chains last week with near-desperate results. You know the excuses--bad moon, mild cold front, dog days of summer. How can fish suffer when the air temp is 100 but the water temp goes from 71 to 73? So i got 5 pike up to 5.5 lbs. I think i can still count 2020 p...

Family fished Curlew last week for Tigers. One follow and one sighting in 5 days. Fished one day at Silver with one 30", lost a nice one, two follows. One day at Newman with two sightings, two lost, one 40" and one 22". Shall we start a Go Fund Me for stocking more than 250 in Curlew each year?

I hate to report puny totals but, anyway, I have 4 pike so far 2020 from 18" to 5 1/2 lbs. That's a two state total so maybe that qualifies
as an atta-baby! Thanks to fishin fool for a 14 hour marathon attempt. He will begin posting pics again now that I am not in his boat.

Boy, I should have checked in here Nov 9 to quickly and effectively debunk Rick's embellished first line. I probably shouldn't bring attention to it as the other half of the world will flock to it now. Speaking of embellishments I didn't realize he got bit off by a "very big fish". Obviously Rick's ...

Mark,
I was surprised to see a tail on that fish since you already "used" it!!!

Hey, that's a dandy, Rick, way to go. Getting right close up there with those Tiger Muskies. I hope to get one at Curlew end of month

spent 3+ days on the chain lakes last week. Got 13 pike up to 25 inches (3.5 lbs). Kinda slow but at least had a little action. Windy Saturday was "best". Buried in deep weeds and not venturing out very far or very often. Dog days of summer!

Aha, I recognize that cloud in the second picture!!!

You Da Pikeman!! I've got to get my r... in gear (rhymes) or I won't be able to show my face here. Some day I will put a 20+ in my bucket....list.

I ice fished Killarney and Hayden Lake this winter with no success. Have picked up a pair of 6 pounders and lost another at shore at Roosevelt. So off to a slow start also. Gill nets everywhere in the bays, mouth of Kettle River, Colville River, etc. They move them around every few days. Big article...

Catching 8-11" perch on Curlew Lake last week. 7 inches of ice

Anyone know if there is safe ice (3 inches) on the north end of Hayden Lake?
There was only one inch of ice for 30 feet out from shore and 3 inches thereafter on Killarney last Thursday. Very touchy. Zero pike

Mark, you can save a lot of wear and tear on your arms by just ice fishing for pike.
You buy a can of peas. You drill a hole in the ice. You place a ring of peas around the hole.,
When the big pike comes up to take a pea.....YOU GRAB HIM!

My goodness, Rick, who needs muskies when we could have an equal self-sustaining fishery of monster pike!!!!
Canada can't produce fat pike like that.

Thanks for some clarification on releasing pike in Washington, Fish-N-Fool. The Colville tribe pays a $10 bounty on pike caught in Roosevelt if you put their head and photo in a provided freezer package. I've always wanted to take a pic of me releasing a pike, then put the pic and a 10 dollar bill i...

Mark,
finally got a little tutoring for posting pics with paint and attached my personal best pike mentioned last July. I have muskies up to 27lbs but can't crack the 20lb pike yet.

spent a week in Minnesota couple weeks ago chasing pike and muskies. Alas, the 20s to 40s temps and winds up to 26 MPH every day buried the targets into the weeds and I came up with only 11 pike--best 5lbs x 28 inches-- and zero muskies. So I have a miserly 14 on the year.

thanks for the photo resizing tip, Mark. I forgot to go to page 2 here and am late on thanking you. got to get off to work now but will try that later. have tried some piking around Roosevelt and Kettle River to no avail. Hard to keep ahead of those nets. :scratch: got about 40 walleye but them is e...

Fished chain lakes last weekend. Caught just 3 pike in 3 days but did get a personal best with a nice
15 pounder. It had a deformed bent down tail making it probably 39" straightened out. Pretty slow but
the big guy made it worthwhile. I have a pic but it tells me the file is too large

that's a mighty fine accomplishment, Rick. it's certainly rewarding when one's diligent searching pays off. I'm heading to the chain lakes today for 3 days of
piking. They were amazed by the pics and wanted me to ask you what lake you got those?