The northern pike (Esox lucius) is one of the largest fish that we can catch in interior Alaska. Since last winter, Taiga and I have been talking about catching pike. We have tried a couple times this summer without a success. We wanted to give another try before the summer ends. Right after we loaded up all the gear onto the truck on Aug. 5, an accidental injury occurred that morning and we had to postpone the trip. It was sad to see Taiga's disappointment, but I'm always amazed by his ability to understand. Then last weekend (Aug. 12), we could finally hit Tanana Lakes!
Tanana Lakes Recreational Area is a relatively new park, which opened in 2014. When we arrived to Fairbanks (before 2006), the area was junk-filled wetlands, where people were shooting abandoned cars. It was a good spot for birding, though. Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Department has converted this to a wonderful area for families (link to its history). In the winter, it offers a skate link, skate trails, ski trails, and ice fishing. In the summer time, there is an artificial beach, canoeing and kayaking (there is a rental), and fishing. It is a kid friendly fishing lake with shore access. For shore fishing, there is a trail starting from the south west corner of the main lake (near the boat rental/parking area). Fly-fishin from the shore is possible around here. Fortunately, motorized boats are not allowed in the main lake, so it is quiete and more enjoyable. Only downside is that it is noisy due to a nearby shooting range.
We didn't have any luck the last time when we tried from the shore, so this time, we brought our canoe. The first problem: we forgot to bring the paddles. But fortunately, we could rent the paddles from the boat rental. Then I forgot to bring the wire leaders, which we bought for pike fishing... I haven't fished pike, so I wasn't sure if we needed it or not. From the previous failure, I didn't have a high hope of catching one, and I was thinking that it would be a fun canoe trip even if we don't catch any. So I decided that we can try without the wire leader. Also, I thought that pike in this lake were not large, and 20Lb monofilament in Taiga's spinning reel should be ok.
The water in the lake is amazingly clear, and you can easily see the bottom of the lake even at the depth of 6-8 feet. After a couple casts, I saw a pike chasing the lure! We tried a couple more, but there wasn't a bite. So we changed the lure from the classic red/white Eppinger Daredevle spoon to Storm WildEye Live Pike (I think ours are 4"), which turned out to be the best one that day. Soon I hooked a small pike around 18". Then Taiga hooked a bigger one right next to the canoe, but it managed to escape after making a big splash. Later, Taiga caught another one all by himself! This was his first pike (the first photo above).
Diana was steering the canoe at the back and taking nap occasionally. But later, she got bored and decided to fish, too (she rarely fish). I was focusing on helping Taiga, so I didn't know where she was casting. But after a while, she got this:
She was using a ultra light rod with 4lb line and a small black/silver spinner (maybe Panther Martin) to target trouts. So it was quite a fight, and I'm amazed that she could land this. Immediately after this, she also managed to hook a pretty big rainbow, it's probably one of the biggest I have ever seen in a stocked lake around here. It was giving a good fight, too, so Taiga had to help. He negotiated the fish really well, and he managed to land it.
Lots of fish started to jump suddenly. I was sitting in the middle seat of the canoe, so it was a bit tough to fly fish. And here is what I got with a moose hair caddis. This is smaller than the one Taiga caught, but it was pulling and fighting so hard that I had to let the line out quite a bit. It was super fun with Taiga's #3 fly rod. I felt that it was weird to see the fish jumping in 2PM. I wonder if the fish were jumping because pike were chasing them. It didn't look like foraging jump of trouts.
Overall, we caught 3 pikes (about 18-24") and 2 decent rainbows. There were a couple more bites, which we lost. We caught pike near the shore with vegetation, which is relatively close to deeper area. When we returned the paddles, the rental person said that someone caught a big pike (bigger than 3') a couple weeks ago from the deeper area. One of the pike unfortunately swallowed the lure, so we couldn't release it. It was the first pike we have eaten, and it was pretty good. We had to be careful with bones, but it wasn't too bad at all.
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