NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Regional Discussions => Montana Kayak Fishing => Topic started by: pmmpete on May 29, 2017, 09:13:22 PM
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I went snorkeling and spearfishing for pike this weekend, and got eight. All of the fish in the pikes' stomachs were kokanee except for one, and a particularly hungry pike had three kokanee and a juvenile kokanee in its stomach. The exception was a cannibalistic pike which had a smaller pike in its stomach. The eaten pike was over half the length of the eater, which is long enough that its tail was visible in the eater's mouth.
(http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i444/pmmpete/P5261509a_zpsw9mwqnda.jpg) (http://s1094.photobucket.com/user/pmmpete/media/P5261509a_zpsw9mwqnda.jpg.html)
(http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i444/pmmpete/P5261511a_zpsbzp9warm.jpg) (http://s1094.photobucket.com/user/pmmpete/media/P5261511a_zpsbzp9warm.jpg.html)
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Wow, that's crazy. Thanks for sharing the pics. How big are the pike? I can see they're bigger than the food but I'm not familiar enough with pike to have a sense of overall scale of the eater versus the eaten. The little fish look like what I would expect, the other pike seems huge to have been eaten. Did they come out of the bellies in the direction in the photos? Ie, the pike was eaten head on, but the kokanee were eaten tail first?
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The pike in the first picture was 25 inches long. It swallowed the kokanee head first, as predatory fish always do, but I noticed that the skin on one side of each kokanee was digested, but the other side was still silver, so I flipped them over so the silver side was up to make a more attractive picture. I should have left them with their heads pointing towards the tail of the pike.
The pike in the second picture was smaller, as you can tell by the fewer spots on its side. I think it was 18 inches long.
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Thanks! I was really curious when I saw the kokanee pointed the other way. :) Still surprised at how big the eaten pike was in comparison, but I've had tiny fish crush big baits before so I guess it should be expected. Isn't sneaking up on a pike with a spear pretty hard to do?
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Nicely done! That definitely helps out the kokanee fishery. I'm guessing this was Seeley? Have you ever tried to target kokanee there?
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Isn't sneaking up on a pike with a spear pretty hard to do?
Yes. You have to snorkel around slowly and stealthily, looking constantly through the weeds to the limit of visibility. Sometimes you'll come across a pike which will sit still while you take a shot at it, but usually they start moving away or blast away as soon as they see or sense you, and you only have a second or so to snap off a shot. It's a lot like jump shooting birds in foggy weather.
Nicely done! That definitely helps out the kokanee fishery. I'm guessing this was Seeley? Have you ever tried to target kokanee there?
For some reason I haven't fished for kokanee on Seeley Lake, but I have done a lot of kokanee fishing on Salmon and Placid Lakes.
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Pretty impressive! Your next test will be using light tackle snorkeling techniques:-)
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Amazing fish. I was bass fishing last week and a large tiger muskie followed in a bass I had on the end of the line. I quickly switched gears and had a rod with a 7" muskie lure on it. After 3 casts I got him to follow and got him to hit after a couple figure 8's.
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Bigger boat, more tools, cut-proof gloves.
https://youtu.be/i03XB0AQVTM (https://youtu.be/i03XB0AQVTM)
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I grew up in Canada fishing for pike. Was walking along the shore one day and saw in the distance a fish washed up in shore. Looked to be about a 30" pike. Getting closer I had trouble figuring out which end was the head. It was a 20" pike that had swallowed another 20" pike head first and evidently choked to death on it. I also got a pike to bite a rock on the end of a string. Was fishing on a boat with cousins and so had to share my rod. Got bored and started playing with a rock in the water. This smaller pike started going after it. "Dad, I'm catching a fish with a rock" was not believed till he finally came over and saw for himself. He threw his hook in and caught the pike!