First pike trip of the year--wont be the last!

[Jigman13]

Hit a stretch of the Passaic for the first time this year after reading the endless reports. Rolled out with a friend of mine on a fishing mission. Arrived at 6 AM--third cast with a black buzzbait--BOOM! Smallish pike around 20" inches blew up on my lure. Awesome way to start the day! A few casts later along a pile of branches, same lure, I get blasted again--this time a 2 lb'ish largemouth crushed the buzz. The day feels like it's shaping up and it's only about 6:15 AM! After that I didnt have a hit as we headed upstream for about 2 hours. Switched from the buzz to an inline #3 Mepps. Found a bit of a hole and nailed two more pike--right around the same size as the 1st one. My buddy nailed his first in the same hole--although it had the same colors and patterns of a pike but tell-tale tear drop black markings of a slime dart. Do they cross-breed?

Anyhow, another friend calls and asks "where are you?". Give him directions and we start heading back to where we parked to meet him. Speed casting the ground we already covered, I managed two more cookie cutter pike before we all met up--all on the #3 Mepps.

We all meet up and head down stream. My two buddies started catching pretty consistently--2-3 each in about 100 yards of shoreline as the sun starts getting higher in the sky; all cookie cutters. They were throwing Mepps #4 & #5--I stuck with the #3 for a bit longer. I make a cast under an over hanging tree and turn the reel handle twice when my lure gets walloped by a monster pike--from where I was standing, this thing looked about all of 3 feet. Bring refraction and adrenaline into the estimate equation and he was prob a few inches smaller or larger--but I"ll never know b/c the hook didnt stick. I continued to pound the spot, switching to a j-11 fire tiger jointed rapala hoping to coax the beast into biting again but it was all for naught. I continued on--screaming and cursing lol. A small ways down the river I was casting the rapala among some branch and log jam piles and got hung up. I clearly wasnt thinking straight and jarred my concentration from losing the big fish a few moments earlier. As I try to get my lure back, I snap the line and the lure shoots free from the branch and starts to slowly float down the river. My buddy walks up and I ask him to cast at my lure and snag it for me if he can. He says "Here bro, do it yourself." And hands me his pole with an #4 Mepps on it. I make a cast and just miss snagging the rapala--mind you I'm now fishing in about 6 inches of water. All of a sudden, WHOMP! The Mepps gets absolutely crushed by a pike! My boys jaw drops as I slide down the bank to get to the shoreline and fight this fish out of brush piles and logs. We both had polarized lenses on and neither of us saw this fish until it turned and opened its mouth to inhale the spinner--an absolutely awesome sight! I landed the fish and included a pic. It was prob 7-8 lbs. Def a nice fish and a personal best for me.

The rest of the day was filled with more cookie cutter pike and a few over 20" on spinnerbaits, Mepps, and buzzbaits. We also caught a bunch of largemouth.

I finished the day with 12 or 13 pike, a slime dart and about 5 or 6 bass. My buddy that arrive late had 8 or 9 pike, lost a beast that bit him off, a slime dart, and a few dink bass. My friend who was with me for the long haul had about 5 or 6 pike and a bass or two. All in all... A great day. I didnt fully comprehend the quality of the pike fishery in the Passaic--needless to say, its thriving and it has created a monster in me lol. Some passer-bys was telling me that people keep the pike out of there--I hope that's not true b/c maintaining that fishery through conservation would be ideal, providing an absurd amount of action for years to come. I'll certainly be back... Catch 'em up!