Largest Pike, ever? for me

[photopredator]

Saturday morning I went to the local lake, (somewhere near Fenton and caught the largest pike of my life.

I was throwing a spinner bait in 7 to 10ft of water and on the 3rd cast the rod gets doubled over. I'm thinking "fish on". Then the fish realizes it's hooked. Line begins to exit my reel as the fish heads for never, never land. About 15 minutes goes by and I still haven't seen this thing. I'm starting to think it may be a 20lb carp or something stupid after all this fight. Then the creature from the black lagoon comes to the surface. Fifteen yds away from the boat, it looks like a big toothy critter and it decides it's not ready to give up. I decided I wasn't going to put too much pressure on the fish so I held on and let him do his thing. I've lost all track of time now, my heart is racing, i'm hoping just to land this thing, the fight continues.

Finally, I've seen the fish 3 or 4 times now and he is ready to give in. I get him next to the boat, this thing is not going into a bass net. I grab it by the lower jaw and pick it up.
For some reason my bump board is looking rather short at this time. I lay the fish next to my 36" decal on the side of the boat and it reaches about 8 inches beyond that too. I'm afraid I can only estimate it to be 44 to 46 inches in length because the rule isn't long enough. I can tell you it weighed 15lbs 9ozs.

This may not be a great accomplishment for many but it is to me. A pike weighing in over 15lbs is the biggest fish I've ever caught. Of course, I released the fish for someone else to catch.

Here comes the exciting part. My camera isn't in the boat yet.  (I'm a photographer). I'm so dang old, I didn't know when you take a photo with your phone you have to SAVE the image.

Oh, I almost forgot about the 4 nice keeper bass( 1 near 4lbs).

OK, so it now appears I posted this in the wrong place     Sorry!

Photopredator

[stackenem]

Sounds like you were on Lobdell Lake there are some big uns in there. And yes you have to hit the save button. I found out the hard way also!!!!!!!!

[Durand Dan]

Sounds like the one I released on Sat. at Lobdell. Just south of Stage Island. What a monster