Got out on Cda for my first real shot at pike this year. Have been there once so far but wasn't expecting too much on the trip and I was mainly trying out some new baits.
That said, the first real fishing trip got under way yesterday at about 8am. I bought a fly rod and plan to add the fly fishing style to my pike game. Wow, what an eye opener. I took a friend along that is an avid fly fisherman. I used my normal bait casting gear for most of the day looking for active fish. The fish were not too cooperative, and I only had one 2lb or so bass in the boat so I pilled out the fly rod and started my version of fly casting. I'm new to this so it must have been quite comical for my friend to watch. I don't feel like I did too bad. After a while, I was managing to toss out some decent 50 foot casts. This lasted for about 45 minutes before I nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Wow, it sure takes different muscles to cast a fly rod then it does to cast conventional gear. My friend on the other hand, casted flies for the entire 10 hour trip.
We only managed 3 pike on the day. all three were 26", 5 pounders. One was caught on a spinner bait, one on a glide bait, and the final fish of the day was caught my my new fly casting instructor on a fly. All fish were in about 6 feet of water. Water temps on the main lake were 47-58 degrees. The lake level will be rising for at least the next week. After that it may really go up with the coming run off. My personal opinion is that with the snow we got this year, we can expect to see some pretty high water on the main lake and the chains as the run off hits. That can make for some pretty good fishing.

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