The weather gods are shining over us this week.  Scott Smith, Josh Gallivan and I are camping and fly fishing for northern pike in November and there wasn’t even a frost this morning.  When I lit my stove and started my coffee water it had to be 40°.  Then as the sun rose over my tent the temps began to skyrocket.  Our high today was 65°!

This is the first time any of us have been on this massive lake.  We gathered some intel from a friend who’s been here before, but all in all, we’re winging it.  For me this is the most enjoyable fishing.  Fishing where you need to figure things out for yourself.

One thing for sure, I’ve done a lot of fly fishing for pike.  Pike generally hang in water 10 feet deep or less.  That led us from the main lake into the bays.  And it’s a good idea to chuck your cast close to the shoreline and retrieve the big fly back towards the boat, allowing it to sink below the drop-off as you strip.

It didn’t take long to see a pike.  The water color isn’t like a crystal clear trout lake in Idaho but there’s visibility.  As I lifted my dark fly from below our boat I saw a long shape.  I dropped my rod tip and executed nearly a minute’s worth of figure-eight but to no avail.

When I see a fish I get ultra-focused.  I was ready before we started fishing but after the pike sighting I was fired up.  It wasn’t ten minutes after that I was hoisting in our first pike of the trip.  An extra cool thing about this pike is that he had a Rapala hanging out of his lip from previously breaking someone’s line.  First move for us was to remove the godawful double-treble hooked set up before it caused any more damage.

I took the oars immediately after and rowed the guys further down the bank.  A light wind started but it was warm.  We all shed some clothes and continued to work our flies along the lakes edge.  The excitement of our first fish faded as we casted for an hour with nothing.

I got back fishing and suggested we row the same area we already fished.  There was the one I didn’t get and I suspected there were plenty more.  Sure enough I nailed what I believe was the one I saw earlier.  He wasn’t as stout as the first but a 28” fish that put a bend in my Winston 8-weight nonetheless.

I’m not sure what was going on but I had the hot hand today for pike.  I had three nice fish landed before either Scott or Josh saw a fish.  Scott finally tagged into a little guy.  But after that throughout the day I landed two more for a total of five.  And all decent size fish with the smallest around 26”.

Dark comes way too early in November.  At 3:30 PM it looked like 7 PM.  The pike bite slowed so we decided to look for walleyes.  On a lake I pick out rocky points with a depth ranging from 8 to 20 feet of water.  Walleye could be deeper but then its hard to get them with the fly.

Scott has a fish finder on his boat.  Its hard to believe I grew up walleye fishing without sonar.  Despite still doing well back in the day, now I can’t live without the finder for walleye fishing.  However, it wasn’t walleye we found.  We got into a big school of black crappie which kept us entertained.

It was pitch dark when we finally gave up.  Scott did roust a small walleye which along with a couple crappies made it to our grill tonight.  It was a great day that ended with fun, good food and beers around the fire.  We’re back on the lake tomorrow.  I still can’t believe this is November!

While I’m fishing, don’t forget that my webstore IS THE PLACE to buy “Gifts for the Anglers that have Everything!”  Check out my famous coffee mugs, frosted beer steins, sun-protective shirts and hoodies with nearly any fish species you want on them.

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Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing