One thing to keep in mind is that if these are pike you are catching and they all of a sudden appeared to be very common out of nowhere is this... Northern pike are VERY spotty spawners in pond and even most man made lakes. They have very specific requirements for a successful spawn and these are rarely met in man made ponds and lakes. Here is a good example of pike spawning in a man made lake from a lake I am very familiar with:
This lake had a very low northern pike population for years. Then the population blew up when the right conditions existed. Something similar happened to a reservoir near my house. We had a bad drought a few years back. Many of the shallow coves went dry and grew up in vegetation. When the rains came, the vegetation was flooded and the northern pike spawned like crazy that spring. The 2005 year class is just getting to about 32"-36" in size now, makes for some great fishing for pike where they are not common typically.
