First I will say this... it's amazing how fish can change their preferences in just 4 days, even in relatively stable weather. Second, I will say this... I'm glad I found them again! As it turned out, this was a "numbers" day, not a quality day. But the bite was incredible for about an hour and a half when it was on. We fished the south end of the main lake in much the same way I did Sunday, and I only managed to quick release one 24 incher boatside and missed one hit in another spot on the big swimbait. But we moved up the lake and found the water to be warmer, right above 43 degrees. The water also got smooth as glass, and then things started to heat up.

Here we started in on a cabbage bed I haven't fished since last fall, but it was thick, lush, and green, and up to within 2-4' of the surface in 6-10' of water on a distinct edge; we fished over the top and off the outside edge. I switched out to a Husky Jerk and the mayhem started. Between about 1:30 and 3:00 we caught 20 pike between us. Nothing big, in fact, mostly small, in the 20-24" range, but the numbers were incredible. I caught 4 in 4 casts at the end of this stretch of about 200 yards of weeds, and we had at least 3 double-headers. I ended up catching and releasing 16 pike if you include a couple of toy-hammer handles, and my buddy boated 7.

The one decent pike I caught was a 29 incher with a funny back near the tail, though I missed one slightly bigger and my buddy had a couple of decent sized follows. But the big ones weren't eating and the small ones were. It was pretty nuts. It took longer to unhook and catalogue fish than it did to catch the next one! I was fishing with a jerk-jerk-jerk pause cadence, moving the bait with hard snaps on slack line for slasher-style side to side movement between pauses, and that seemed to draw the most strikes.

Also of note was a bass that I caught that was 21" and just shy of 5 lbs. And we spoke to a couple of guys who were deadbaiting from shore with no luck this day, but who reported catching a 48" 32 lb pike last week that was currently at the taxidermist.

The water in Chatcolet near the docks still had ice on it when we returned, but the further north we went, the warmer the water got, and it was nice and clear. So there's my suggestion for where to fish if you try it. Good luck!

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