Slamming The Northern Pike In The Concord River
Myself and my wife's uncle launched from the route 225 ramp on the Bedford/Carlisle line, and we were out on the river by 1:30. This time I took other anglers advice and turned south, under the bridge (towards Concord).
We first stopped a little way before the river starts to get narrow. My friend was fishing the phoebe and was having no luck. I first threw the top water ribbit frog (as usual), and no luck. I looked in my tackle box for answers and switched to a small rubber swim bait with a paddle tail and a weight. I maybe made 3 casts, and I caught a Calico Bass/Crappie. On my 5 cast, WHAM. Something hit the lure... The fight was on... Got the fish in, and it was a northern pike, the first one that I've ever caught. Thank god for the hook out tool, or I may have had some bloody fingers. The pike absolutely destroyed my rubber swim bait... rubber shreaded off the weight, and the pike snapped the hook. I didn't weigh the fish, but it was large.
We went further south towards Concord in the area where it gets narrow, and I switched to a small spinner with a head that immitates a shiner/bait fish. To make a long story short, I caught 4 more northern pike and 3 bass. The spinner seemed to be working. My friend eventually followed suit, and switched to a spinner. On his first cast he landed a nice bass, probably a 1.5 lbs. That was the largest bass of the day. The pike really seemed to be liking the spinners this day.
My usual lures didn't work all day long... I threw rubber worms, ribbit frog, heddon torpedo... and not even a strike! The spinner seemed to be what was getting the job done.
I had a blast out there and I can't wait to go back. I did get some video of one of the pike I caught. Here is the link, and it is also posted on my blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU2Oep8Cd9k