Southern Alberta Northerns

I have come to realize that local high pressured water can hold big fish, but that they are very hard to come by. So if you want to catch big fish on a daily basis and have opportunities at fish of a lifetime, you have to go to lakes that hold BIG fish.

The day started with a bang! We arrived on the ice at 7:10am and by 7:40 the first flag sprung to the sky. It was a nice Northern, who managed to take Brandons bait, and my bait. Thinking we had a double header we both began fighting the same fish. After 10mins of struggles, the monster beneath the ice got away.
It wasnt but 30mins later tha Brandons flag lept to the sky, This was another huge northern! After about 15mins of a fight, we had em half way out of the hole, when the line snapped, and our arms were soaked trying to bring him out of the hole. Brandon was left without a fish, and a sliced thumb!
Our flags were rising almost every 20 minutes and we were catching decent 4-6lb fish. At around noon it died down. Where did all the fish go!? For 2 and a half hours nothing happened.

At 2:30pm my flag rose and i made a mad dash across the ice and set the hook. This was another nice pike and i wasnt about to let him get away. After taking pictures we quickly took some measurement and a final weigh in. 22.8lbs, 43" in length and a 21.5" girth! Wow, what a fish.

It took no more than 30 seconds to get its witts about as he muscled his way back down the hole, free as can be.

Fishing was once again slow after the big catch, with only a few flags rising, and missed hook sets. The sun was coming down quickly and we started to pack up when Dads flag took a trip! His northern weghed in at 16.8lbs. Another very nice fish!

The day ended with alot of smiles and the descision to come back tomorrow.
Sunday was again, another great day on the ice, I managed to pull out 3 Northerns weighing in at 11.8, 11.12, and 11.15lbs... All which were released back beneath the ice. I cant stress how important it is to be delicate when handling these big fish. They are what makes fishing trophy lakes, and it is important to release them for others to enjoy.

I noticed in the 2 days of fishing that 8-15ft was the key depth, and to leave your bait about 2ft from the bottom. Every once in a while, or when you clean your holes, pick up your tip up and give it a shake or 2 and set it back down. This will bring attention to your bait and seemed to be successful.
We were usuing medium sized hearing with a treble through the body and a trailor hook through the tail.
Its also important to fish near some kind of structure. In our case, we were fishing near some standing fresh water cabbage. Pike seem to really like this vegitation as a bedding and ambushing territory.

Here are some pictures of our weekend catch and one 19.8lber caught in the same location in 2009.