Growing up you always fished with a steel leader in the St. Lawrence river due to the NP and Muskies. I got dragged around a swamp in a canoe by a large NP as I neglected to bring an anchor when fishing. The fish won when it went under a log.

NP are probably the fiercest and most fun fish I have ever had the pleasure of catching. A 36" pike can take 30 minutes to tire out and land if you want your string intact. I remember many times puling in a perch or sunny only to have half of it actually show up, wishing that the pike would have grabbed a bit more including my hook.

The best story is when my family was in a small aluminum rowboat out in the main channel near Boldt Castle. The channel in that area is very deep, in some areas 130' or more. The large ships would pass within 20-30 feet of us out there, which is exciting when the bow waves tower over you and block the horizon for a bit. No need to wiggle the bait when you are going over those waves. We had all the faith in the world in my dad that we wouldn't tip over out there, but looking back at it now, I am not sure that was the safest place to bring a young family.

My sister was about 14 years old (I was 12), and started reeling her line in with a lot of struggle. It seemed like she snagged some junk on the bottom as it came up as a dead weight, no motion. My dad leaned over the edge of the boat with a net to help scoop up whatever it was, and then saw an absolute monster of a Muskie on the end of her line just drifting up. Of course he swore loudly so we all looked over (leaning the boat precariously) to see what appeared to be the largest fish I have ever seen, to the point it scared the hell out of us all. The fish took one look at us, flipped its tail and took off. It snapped her 10lb test like nothing, causing her pole to crack like a whip. All I know is it was much larger than my puny 36" largest NP catch.

That was pretty thrilling. I think we all reeled in at that point to something a little more to our scale.

Last edited by liquidsquid; 07/08/15 08:08 AM.