UNBELIEVABLE!!

[swampbuckster]

I got out to the permanent shanty this afternoon around 3:00, cleared the ice out of the hole and dropped down a live chub on a weighted treble along with  my firetiger perch decoy.  I worked the decoy for the next hour witnessing plenty of small gills coming in to investigate out of curiosity the activity of the two odd "fish". I did pick up a nice 10.5" gill that quickly came into the firetiger decoy and a crappie jig tipped with a waxxie brought him up above water onto the ice. Four o'clock rolls around and I'm watching the decoy swim in an endless circle round and round. I'm putting on quite the show apparently because I have an audience of around a dozen small gills at this point. Suddenly they scatter and literally two seconds later a fat and sassy female comes bombing in from the left, dead set on the decoy, mouth open at this point, like a rocket ready to explode. I had milliseconds to react and with one hand lunged the spear at an angle towards the pike. I realized the pike was way too fast for my coordination and a clean miss was obvious. But I quickly noticed my decoy wasn't in sight and here is the rod I tied my HOOKLESS wooden decoy to bent over ready to snap, drag buzzing away. I remove the rod from the holder, and pull back on it. With my other hand I limp the spear back to the surface and lay it against the bench seat of the shanty. I place that hand on the reel and begin to fight the ol gal on the other end, expecting her to come off at any moment because after all, there isn't a single hook on the decoy! My drag is screaming as fifteen yards of line leaves the spool in seconds. The pike dragged me down into a weedbed just to the left of the hole. I pull back hard on the Ugly Stick and feel no fish, just the dead weight of weeds. Suddenly the tension lifts and I realize shes still on!! Tired from the fight she cooperates smoothly with a pile of weeds surrounding her and the decoy hanging off to the side of her mouth! I now have the spear in my left hand, rod in my right she is now in my strike zone and I release and smoke her right behind the head!!!! The 15 lb flourocarbon leader I have tied off to the decoy got tangled up in her teeth (which were mostly missing) and must have held the entire time for me to pull her in!  Getting ready to filet her now! Thanks again Jason for making a great decoy!

[iluvgillz]

Wow, cool story!

[Whopper Stopper]

Good read. Nice fish!

               WS

[CAPITALCRAPPY]

Nice....cool story....

[Otto]

You are one lucky dude!  Nice job!

[swampbuckster]

It was a rush to say the least

[HUNTnFISHSD]

 That is a monster.

[jasonmichalski]

that's great I'm glad to see its working for you, your going to love the new decoys I just finished for you. I speared a fish a month ago that I pulled back to the hole as it mouthed the decoy and swim up to the top of the hole but it was smaller then yours, lol

[JCrean]

Awesome!  She wanted that deke!

[vt-jig]

Thats awesome! must have been pretty intense!

[IceHutt]

Hi jasonmichalski, I like the look of that decoy.  Can you PM me your info. and let me know if you can make some more of those.  Thanks.

[IceHutt]

Nick pike and story swampbuckster !  Sorry, I got carried away looking at the neat decoy fish.

[jasonmichalski]

Hi jasonmichalski, I like the look of that decoy.  Can you PM me your info. and let me know if you can make some more of those.  Thanks.

PM sent