West Branch reply

To: Basschasininohio

The lake DOES have pike. In fact, one spring , I was able to catch at least one pike on each (5) visit. One trip I caught three! It may just be a fluke but the following spring I caught ZERO! The time we did excellent, though, the water was in the 50's and we caught almost all on spinner baits. I caught a real beaut (36") with a 6" Creek Chub Pikie lure and while I was bringing in the thrasher, the other guy in the boat fishing hooked into a small (24"), but a real brute tiger musky. It just seemed that the pike were very active that year (lunar alignment with Saturn? Who knows?). As soon as the water hit the 60's the pike activity just died. The pike seemed to hit dark lures (blue) and water in the 3-8 feet range with some type of cover. Weed beds are throughout the lake's shores in the no-wake end (western end) in the coves. Give the lake a try (for pike) between late March and mid May in the shallows. Look for swirls from pike chasing bait fish. When they are active, hold on!

Here's a picture of one of the lunkers.   NEXT REPORT

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