I launched at Point Mouillee State Game Area. Lots of Ducks, Herons, an Eagle and 4 Pelicans flying in mild wind conditions.
A strong north wind quickly blew up with cold heavy rain. I turned the corner and headed north looking for protected edges. I sheltered in a phragmites thicket for 10 minutes until it let up. As I continued north it settled back into dry low wind conditions so I began casting to phragmite edges. It was slow until I caught a few sluggish Pike on slow rip and fall retrieves that were small enough so it would be better to not catch them. I got two more small ones hit hard in the retrieve. I was picking up to cast again when a pike rushed the fly at the surface making a pretty big splash. He was actually hooked, fought pretty hard and was pretty good sized. Not one of the 30+ inch females, he looked to have a bluegill in his stomach.
Shortly after that I got the first bass, average sized 16 inches. The biggest bass was this 18 incher.
Not much left of the first fly after taking over a dozen pike
I finished with 16 pike and 5 bass. The rest of the bass were about 16 inches and some of the pike were good sized. One of the bass took the fly as it was still bloody from the pike just before him. I had hooked that pike in the roof of the mouth, the barbs were broken off so its surprising he bled that much. He will be fine. Unlike other species, pike survive serious wounds from other pike and sever gill damage inflicted by fishermen. A medium sized pike had a healed and functioning gill hanging out of his gill slit.
