Valentine Pike on the Fly

Today I was planning on going to a football game but overslept and didn't wake up until 1:30.  It was a gloomy day, cloudy and rained on and off.  

Since we know that fall revolves around three great activities - football, deer hunting, and fishing - I try to include at least one of those in every one of my days.  I missed football and hunting isn't possible yet, so after the rain stopped at around dinner time I headed out to fish for an hour before dark.

I've found a decent spot to do some fly fishing on the shores of Valentine, which is important because they pulled the dock for the year and I'm gonna lose my bike at the end of October so I won't be able to go down to Johanna as easily.  It's a spot with open room, the only problem is the cattails that just kill me whenever I get lazy and start casting wider loops.  

The algae is mostly gone from the shorelines, which leaves me able to cast both topwater flies and streamers, depending on conditions.  A safe bet is that, while topwaters are more fun to watch the fish hit (and it's easier to detect a strike), you'll get more strikes with streamers because most fish feeding occurs below the surface.    I usually look around when I get to the lake and don't use a topwater unless I can see topwater rises on the lake.

It rained today and was still cloudy.  The rain makes the water murkier and reduces visibility, something that I usually deal with by using brighter colors like chartreuse or red.  The cloudiness reduces the light level.  With low light levels, use a darker lure or fly so the fish can see a silhouette in the water.  Finally, it's fall, which means the fish are willing to take bigger offerings.  

So I put on a six-inch black streamer, with a tail that is tipped in chartreuse and a few orange rubber whiskers.  This way I got the size, I got the dark silhouette, and I got the brighter colors.  

And it worked out.  I fished for about an hour from the same spot of shore and caught two pike, a 27 incher and a 25 incher.  Considering how small and shallow Valentine stays, that's probably about where the fish top out in length.  That's part of what I love about fishing - putting all the factors together to outsmart the fish and see it come out in success.  I was lucky tonight because I managed to land both pike on a bass leader - six pound test, no wire leader.  Usually that doesn't go so well with northerns.

I released both pike. The first one managed to get his teeth into my thumb a little.  Not the best feeling in the world.  

Pictures are on facebook for those interested.