Fished Quetico again a couple weeks ago. Fishing was again phenomenal. Had my Grand slam in less then a hour, with a 49 inch Northern in the mix. walleye we’re in 15 to 25 feet, Lakers in 70 feet, and Northerns and smallmouth were everywhere, but the biggest were in 20 to 30 feet….

Nice, good to see the fires didn't get all the fish :)

RABC or drove up and around?

cyclones30: "Nice, good to see the fires didn't get all the fish :)

RABC or drove up and around?"

Drove up and around…

49 inches? And photographic proof. AWESOME!

Nice fishing walllee!!

missmolly: "49 inches? And photographic proof. AWESOME!"

This is the best pic I could get, I was solo, so there was no way to get a selfie picture. I was in a hurry to get the fish back in the water…

What an absolute tank. Congrats on catching that beast!

Wallee,

That pike is an absolute BEAST! It's also one of the largest that I've ever heard of from the BWCA/Quetico.

Landing that fish while solo fishing out of a canoe is most impressive.

Congrats!!

Dave

Walllee … CONGRATS… awesome fishing trip.

walllee: "

missmolly: "49 inches? And photographic proof. AWESOME!"

This is the best pic I could get, I was solo, so there was no way to get a selfie picture. I was in a hurry to get the fish back in the water… "

That's a great pic. Its massive size is clear. How did you get it into the canoe? Thanks for being in a hurry to return it to the water. I'm the same way. We must protect the trophy fish.

Wow. Seriously wow - great fish. That pike has to be...what, 30 pounds?!? Congrats!

Congrats. Great catch, and Solo to boot!

sns: "Wow. Seriously wow - great fish. That pike has to be...what, 30 pounds?!? Congrats!"

I guessed it between 25 or 30…

That's a nice laker!

WOW…what a trip!

I was already impressed with your fishing prowess…but hey…off the charts now!

T

Wallee, please share the details of your pike fight. When was hit hooked? What was the hit like? The fight like? And so on.

missmolly: "Wallee, please share the details of your pike fight. When was hit hooked? What was the hit like? The fight like? And so on. "

I was heading back to camp for a bite to eat at 1pm. I had been fishing for walleye for the last couple of hours, and my camp was about a mile from where I was fishing.

When I got about 1/4 mile from camp, I decided to just throw my line out, and slowly troll the rest of the way to camp. The area I was at was 20 to 30 feet deep, with absolutely no structure around for 100s of yards, but there were some weeds scattered throughout the area. I was using a 20 year old 7 foot Berkeley Cherrywood rod with a Shimano Stradic spooled with 8 pound test Clear Trilene XL. I had a 1/4 oz. pink jig, with a 4 inch double tail white twister, and no leader.

When the fish hit, it did feel like a snag for a few seconds, but it made a short run, and decided it was just going to stay on the bottom. The fish did not make any long, drag-zinging runs the first 15 minutes. It just stayed on the bottom, with a occasional run of only 10 yards or so.

The battle continued in that matter for another 15 or 20 minutes. It wasn’t until he saw the canoe that he knew he was in trouble. Then all hell broke loose.

From then on, he made many runs of 30 to 50 yards, and I just kept pressure on him, adjusting my drag many times during the fight. This went on for another 20 minutes before he finally tired enough to stay still for a few seconds and I was able to hoist him into the canoe and release him. I had drifted close to shore, so I paddled up to shore and unhooked him. I spent 15 minutes helping him revive, and he swam away.

I do have some video of him during the fight, as well as video of him swimming away. It was a pretty cool experience. Oh, he was hooked at the end of his snout, in the upper lip. That helped my luck on landing him.

Whoa!
What a fish!
What a fight!

Great story, congrats.

Wow! Thanks for the details. Were your hands shaking and heart pounding? Mine sure would be!

missmolly: "Wow! Thanks for the details. Were your hands shaking and heart pounding? Mine sure would be!"

Not really, I just wanted to get a look at it. I expected it to bite me off sometime during the fight. I caught one about the same size on Poohbah Lake fishing for Walleyes, so I had been through this scenario before….

Awesome story and catch! Yeah, I bet it had to be close to 30 lbs! Thanks for sharing!

QueticoMike: "Awesome story and catch! Yeah, I bet it had to be close to 30 lbs! Thanks for sharing!"

30 lbs looks to be a very reasonable estimate for that fish. If anything, maybe even a bit heavier as she's no skinny pike!

In-Fisherman says 49 inches of pike weighs 30.75 lbs.

DAAAANNNGG! Tank!
That is a big, big fish. Way to go.

That is a beautiful catch and an even better story, thank you for sharing both!

That is one huge pike !!!

Ho-Lee giant pike brother!

Basspro69: "That is one huge pike!!!"

And it's one of two, for it's the second one that size he caught in a canoe. He's one of those dang double lottery winners, except it did it with skill.

Wow that is amazing! That is such a long fight, awesome that you took such time and care reviving her. I have never caught any Pike close to that big. I remember reading your TR from a few years back to Poohbah so congrats on getting the pic this time around!

Need to make it up to the Quetico here one of these years!

egads! That Pike! Just...an epic catch. Congrats.

The equally impressive part was that you hoisted it into the canoe. That’s no easy feat! Congrats!!!

AdamX