Being our first time targeting pike we were not sure what to throw but figured big, noisy, and gaudy was a good start.

Intermediate lines, wire leaders and flies that are not fun to cast all day.

There's one.

Had some pretty sweet takes.

Brought three small guys to the boat, missed 4 or 5 others and moved a few bigger ones in about three hours. Not bad for first time prospecting

And had a great time in the process.

Oh yeah we saw John Wayne, one of my all time favorite bad asses.

And an alligator, which would not eat anything we threw at it.

Usually impromptu "Hey lets go Pike fishing" trips seem like a good idea at the time but end up with poor results in the fish catching department. Today we had some success and were very satisfied with our first time efforts. The fish we landed were all pretty small but we did move a few large ones that didn't eat and figured a few things out in the process that make fishing fun. For instance Chartreuse was a good color while red/yellow were just marginal and what kind of cover we were getting strikes around that the fish seemed to prefer. We are all ready talking about trying a different stretch of river this week, will let you know how that turns out.