Usually catching several decent pike in Simcoe is not a big deal ... find some green weedgrowth, a nice edge, some baitfish and you have a perfect recipe for success. With heavy rain the night before and bluebird skies today with little wind, we knew it wouldn’t be that easy so we had to work for our fish. Perch were fairly cooperative so we tossed a couple 11 inchers in the well but the pike were few and far between. I had just switched baits to a 4 inch purple/albino colored X Rap when this good eating size pike below smacked my bait.
Two weeks before we caught plenty of pike on white/chartreuse colored X Raps during the annual Law Enforcement Fishing Classic charity pike tournament on Cooks Bay. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the size needed to place anywhere near our second place finish of the year before. In 2012, the event was won by my friend Tai Dang who caught this nice 10.70 pound Northern for the win.
Izaak and I were not overly thrilled with the incredible boat traffic on Cooks Bay Sunday June 10th . There were boats everywhere and as is often the case during these hot sunny days, most of the other boaters were not anglers at all ... but jet skiers and pleasure boaters ... all making for a very busy lake with lots of boat wakes to contend with.
When we got home it was time to clean the pike ... This can be a little tricky if you don’t want to contend with those darned Y bones during your meal. There are a couple of methods however where those pesky things can be removed and instead of trying to explain them here ... just ‘Google Removing Y Bones from pike’ and you’ll get some good step by step instruction and a few U Tube videos to boot.
Izaak decided he wanted to treat me to a late lunch at one of his favorite restaurants so we headed to La Mexi canada in Bradford. Here we enjoyed a real authentic Mexican meal ... the platter for two was outstanding. Just as memorable was having the owner turn on the Blue Jay Game for us (upon request) and being able to watch our Jays come back from a four run deficit against the Atlanta Braves. Much of the excitement happened in the fifth inning when Toronto scored six exciting runs to take the lead. They eventually beat Atlanta 12-4.
After a hearty meal we weren’t hungry until after 7pm that night ... but that’s when we fried up the pike and perch. We sprinkled some dill and Old Bay seasoning on the pike fillets, dropped them into a light breading mix ... and cooked them up ... delicious! Of course the perch were good too as usual, but Izaak is determined to make sure we don’t wait as long to bring our next pike home for dinner.
