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Pioneering the new fly-fishing frontier.
FLY-FISHING TACKLE
Northern pike/lake trout
Fly-rods - A 9' 8 or 9 weight rod with a decent reel and at least 100 yds. of backing. For line, one spool of weight-forward floating line and one spool of monocore or another intermediate sinking line. Teeny 300 is a good one. Leaders are 5'-7' of 12 lb. line or heavier and 12" of wire on your tippet is mandatory.
Flies - Anything 4"-8" long and hook size 1/0-3/0. Deceivers, Whistlers, Sar-dul-mac, any nice tarpon streamer but bigger. Crystal hair or flashabou is a must. Bunny bugs (black leech patterns) are durable and HOT. Slightly weighted for later in the season. Late season and deeper fly pattern that produces: white, red, black combo with flash works like a charm. Poppers and gurglers work great. We have a complimentary fly-tying bench at the main lodge.
FLY-FISHING TECHNIQUES
Pike - Few things in fly-fishing are as visually exciting as big pike hitting a fly. Because our water is so clear, fly-fishing for pike is almost like hunting, except there are a lot more than just one fish. It's common to go into a bay and see 25 to 50 to even 100 fish sunning themselves. These fish don't spook and will chase a fly right up to the boat with the motor running. The common approach is to cast and retrieve in short 4-6" strips. It's even more fun to have one that is tentative. You'll cast your fly out, slowly easing it by the fish's mouth. The fish sits dormant as you SLOWLLLLYY work the fly in front of it, using short strips and letting the fly hover, teasing the fish. Your heart will JUMP when that seemingly sluggish fish begins a slow glide to fly, and then suddenly EXPLODES into a frenzied attack ! Later in the summer fish will still be in the bays but also in the weed beds. For this approach, you can slowly work streamers through the cabbage beds or work a surface popper in the pockets. There's nothing like a pike's aerial assault on a popper !
The other plus to pike is their absolute lack of fear. A beginner can make the worst cast in the world, wrap the line around his head, have it land 10' from the boat, and have a pike come up and destroy it. Flip Pallot had this comparison, "They're like snook fishing but there is a lot more of them and they have no fear !"
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