Free: Contests & Raffles.
3 years ago, I was fishing out of my canoe for bass, I casted, got a birds nest in my reel and let out a bunch of line to fix it. I reeled in and thought I was caught on a log when my rod went straight down towards the water. I thought big bass, Really big bass, but as I got him to the surface I realized I had about a 40 inch, very fat pike on the line. Every time he broke the surface he would open his mouth real wide and thrash around. Not having any experience with pike and knowing they have shard teeth, I had the 14 year old I was with at the time row to an inlet so I could take a pic of this guy and then release him. Got to about 2 feet of water and jumped out to the canoe went to pull him over a log just barely under the surface and he snapped my 12 pound test and swam away. Never got my pic. Only way I can prove my big fish story was because someone was with me. Somewhere in Long there is a big pike with a 4 inch imitation soft plastic trout sticking out of the corner of its mouth. If I am not mistaken, the state record is from Long Lake. So yes, they are in there.
Sorry, thought I posted the pic. Here you go - the angle of the pic doesn't do it much justice, but ya it tipped the scale right at 7 and gave him a good fight. He and my son were casting rooster tails as and crossed lines. I told my son to sit tight and told my buddy's son to reel in - his line doubled over and he yelled that he had a fish. I thought it was going to be the 100th pile of seaweed of the day that was on the end of his line till I saw this big flash in the water. Took me a few moments to realize what I was looking at as he fought it to shore. It was not a slow day at the launch either, there were tons of boats in the water and I think people halfway across the lake heard him yelling in excitement when we netted it. Fun day!