# Quetico pike hunt



## Jackfish (Apr 15, 2004)

(yes this could go under OUT OF STATE, but it was a straight pike hunt so thought I would post it here)

Well took my 1st outing up to the Quetico (the Canadian side of the Boundary Waters) after going to the BWCA for the last 15 years (annual pike trip)  for those of you that arent familiar with the area, its a large park on the MN/ON border that offers primitive camping and canoeing, and great fishing. Here are my thoughts on the Canadian side of the park:
-	Very little pike weed (cabbage) in the park  makes it much more difficult to find good sized Northerns, esp this time of year, which is what I go there for  a heck of a lot of pike in the eating size range though (3-4lb). This was strange as from a percentage point, the majority of the fish fell in this range, and usually we catch a lot of pike in this size but never this high of a percentage.
-	Very deep, very  very clear water  very oligotrophic lake structure
-	Very remote, we covered a lot of water during the week and only saw 3 people, 2 of which where off in the distance
-	A lot of pike, but not a lot of big pike  we had one day where we bagged about 90 pike between the 4 of us  but our group only tangled with 5 nice fish all week
-	LOTS of very aggressive small mouths  I think this was due to the lack of weed growth, the bass seemed to own the shorelines and where willing to hit some of the larger pike lures that we rarely catch smouths on, 6 or 8 inch crankbaits being hit by smallies, some as little as about 1/2lb? strange
-	Big fish of the week
o	Pike - 45.5 / 41.75 / 40.5 / 37 / 33  all released
o	Smouths  3.2lb & 3lb with a lot in the 1-2.5lb range
o	Walleye  we never got that bored J
-	Due to the warmer water  the bigger fish had a hard time going back  had to work with them for a long time even though we carefully handled them during the catch 
-	Took my daughter (12 yr old) she did awesome and caught her very 1st northern! Her biggest for the week was about a 4lb  highlight for me was watching her catch, hold, unhook and realease one all by herself
-	My brother trolled up a lake trout? This was strange as the lure only rode about 10 feet down, the lakers should not have been that shallow
-	Saw a crazy pike, was caught, let go, and the same fish hit again two minutes later, could tell same fish by the hook mark from the previous release
-	Tried Kevlar canoes for the 1st time  these are AWSOME on portages, but lack the room of the aluminum boats and are a bit more challenging in the wind than the aluminum boats  the Kevlars are not hands down better, which is what I was expecting

Neat trip, really enjoyed it  but will probably stick to the BWCA for future trips  I need my bays filled with pike weed off of deep water or I am lostJ

Here is a few pics, hopefully Pikeman will jump on here and post a few of the fish pics from his camera as well.

the names got strange when I uploaded them? the one without a name is the hawg and the one that says "s big one of the week" should say "my girl's big one of the week"


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## zachtrouter (May 1, 2006)

Those are some sweet pics man and what an awesome looking lake! That looks like a blast congrats on the fish...sounds like a great trip to me


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## crawdiddy (Apr 10, 2006)

what tastes better pike or smallies? I had pike once when I was a kid and it was great. Thanks for the nice report. You have me all excited that the smallies were willing to hit those big lures. That place sounds and looks unbelievable! Perfect for a honeymoon lol.

oh yeah :B !!!


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## Jackfish (Apr 15, 2004)

I think pike are hands down better, but they have a "y" bones and you have to use a different technique to end up without any bones, but the smallies are still pretty darn good


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## twistertail (Apr 10, 2004)

The pike are much better, I think as good as walleye. Great pics Jack. I have not been on the Q side just the BW but have not been for a few years. You ever thought of an early spring trip? Could be the best of both worlds, big pike in the shallows and lots of lakes in close also. We hit a lake last trip that was loaded with lakers and caught them all in 10' of water or less. It was the first week of June but from what I've read earlier is even better for lakers. Did you eat the laker? They are even better than the pike and walleye.


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## Jackfish (Apr 15, 2004)

Did we eat the laker??? Oh my gosh no, I tried one of those awhile back on a different trip and it was the nastiest, most unpleasant tasting thing I ever put in my mouth, comparing it to carp  a carp tastes like a 5star steak dinner. But now if you are telling me they are good? Maybe it was a fluke, next one we catch maybe we will try again, Ill just make sure we have enough other fish handy in case the experience repeats itself. Anyone else tried laker before?

I would love to get up there early June or late May - have tried Sept a few times and didnt do that great. Usually get up there late June  mid August.

One other thing about eating pike  only fish between about 3-6 pounds are good for eating. Smaller than that the Y bones are trouble, larger than that need to go have babies.


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## PIKEMAN (Apr 14, 2004)

Twistertail,

I've got to side with my brother on this one; lake trout taste absolutely terrible. Jackfish is darn good with cooking fish, but even with all of the spices, sautes, and soaks there was just something WRONG with lake trout. I am usually the guy that cleans up all of the left-over fish when everyone else is done eating, but I couldn't eat two bites of the lake trout. Of course, if you have a secret recipe you are willing to share, I'd be willing to try again!

As for Quetico, it's an absolutely great place to take a fishing vacation. You will work hard to get to your spots, but there are lots of fish and they are not in the least bit picky about which lures you throw at them. We caught many, many nice sized SM bass throwing 4" pike spoons. We had a tough time locating large pike, but absolutely no problem catching tons of eating size fish (4 lbs and under). We took this trip in mid-August which is supposed to be one of the worst times of the year for targetting big pike; I'm told that they are a lot more available if you go earlier in the year (May-June). Nevertheless we did manage to get 4 fish over 10 lbs (12#, 15#, 15#, 22#). I attached a picture of one of the 15# fish Jackfish caught, along with a pair if nice SM bass our buddy caught, and my niece's 3.5# pike.


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## Steel Cranium (Aug 22, 2005)

Spring is definately a great time to fish up there. All of my trips have been in May - from the first week (right after ice out) through the week before memorial day. We like to target lakers during that time, since they are shallower and quite catchable on spoons. The one that we kept on my last trip (6 or 7 lbs) was the best eating fish of the week, including the walleyes. Cooked whole (after cleaning out gills/gutz) with onions in the cavity with some butter. Wrapped the whole fish in foil and let cook in the coals. Peeled the skin back and carved it right off the bones. Big pike are somewhat easy to find that time of year -- sandy shorelines on the north side of the lake during sunny days normally holds the big guys. Also hooked/lost some very large pike fishing after dark with big stickbaits near the surface.

If you get up there early enough, you will beat the bugs and bears. Downside is that we often have one night with snow/ice or temps cold enough for snow.


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## CARP 104 (Apr 19, 2004)

Nice fish! I goto canada every year for pike and this year was our best by far. We caught 25 pike one day between the four of us all over 5lbs, with the biggest being 8lbs. Lots of trolling...trolled the entire lake we were on without a bite, then found a weedbed about 500 feet across out in the dead middle of the lake where we caught fish after fish.

Last year I caught a 16.2lb 41 inch pike that I had mounted on my wall. I really want to fly in to a secluded northern lake, I have heard some nice fish stories about them. 

looks like you had a lot of fun!


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