The Packernut and I were on the water at Cda Lake around 6:30am, once again in search of pike. We hit several spots on the main lake where I had seen or hooked some nice fish last weekend. Unfortunately, the wind made it difficult to dissect the now lush weed beds, and we were forced to retire to the chain lakes in search of cover. I managed one midget pike of about 16", and one nice small mouth bass on the main lake before heading up the river. Once in the chain lakes the wind was manageable, and we got on the fish right away, putting 3 pike and one nice largie in the boat within an 18 minute time span. These fish began the bite right on que with Mark K's theory that pike don't bite till 10am. The first one came at 10:00 am sharp and the others followed within the next 18 minutes. I had a good day releasing 8 pike and two bass, and "The Nut" got three including our biggest fish. Stay tuned for his report to see his catch of the day.
9 of our 11 pike, and all 3 bass were taken on spoons. The other 2 pike hit frogs. We missed a few others but for the most part hooked up on a high percentage of our strikes.
Fish were all in 4 to 8 feet of water. So far I haven't seen the spinner bait bite take off but I expect that to happen any time now. We saw water temps in the mid to high 50's in the main lake and up to 68 in the chains.
Bright, fire tiger spoons, and wide wobbling silver spoons have been most effective for me this year, along with the white soft plastic frogs.
I expect to be catching and releasing more fish in the main lake any day now. The water temps were significantly higher last weekend, but dropped with the colder overnight lows we had this past week. A return to warmer daytime and overnight temps will warm the water up nicely very soon. However, if you want to catch those fat main lake pike, you will want to flush the "Pike don't bit till 10am" theory and be on the water early in the day. Those warmer water temps are attractive to aggressive pike, but they are also very attractive to those pesky pleasure boaters that love to drive by fishermen at "Full Plow" or "Full Speed" in their over priced lake cruising boats.

---