[Sparky]

Decided to play hooky from work yesterday and spend it fishing with my son. Day started at Sterling Lake in Van Patton woods. Winds were howling out of the South down the length of the lake. Well we were headed for the N. shore anyway, nothing like a little push! Fished the wind blown shores of the South lake for awhile.....Nothing. Chatted with a CPO for a little bit (fishing license and registration check), he said we might have better luck on the North lake.Tried it for a bit....same results. Left Sterling and headed for Gages Lake. Winds were still pretty strong, headed to the channel to look for shelter from the winds. Found out pretty fast that casting from a kayak is going to take a little practice. Didn't get any takers in the South channel so decided to head to the North channel. Since it was going to be a long paddle, I decided to toss out a Manns baby -1 and troll over to the channel. Didn't go more than 100 yards when my rod started bouncing! Hooked up with a nice fish, didn't know what it was yet but it turned my kayak around and started pulling me into the wind. After a nice fight I pulled in my first yak fish, a fat 28-in Northern Pike! Also found out that getting a lure out of the mouth of a toothy fish in a kayak is also going to take some practice, good thing sparky jr. had his jaw spreaders with him. All in all is was a great day, especially since I got to spend it with my best buddy! Can't wait until we can do it again!

[fish wrangler]

good thing you have your own spreaders now!!!

[sauger57]

Way to go Sparky! What a challenge that must have been fishing in all that wind.

[Sparky]

Yea, the wind made it interesting. Made for a better workout than the gym!

[Carlisle]

Congrats on the pike!

If you looking to make the catch and release process easier from your Yak, look into this product. Cabelas sells it, and I have found that it really helps with handling larger fish. I now use it to handle all the larger fish caught out of my kayak. It works so well, I don't even carry a net with me anymore.

I've been happy with mine, it holds well, floats, and it doesn't seem to cause any damage to the fish. I've found that it makes catch and release much easier, especially when your movement is limited in a small craft.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... hasJS=true


Edit: After I first posted this, I realized you can actually see this item stashed away in my avatar, just under the base of the fishing reel.