Well... been up camping at Rainbow Lake (aka Dog Lake) up by Plains for a spring break trip for my daughter. I got into some really decent Pike fishing. We caught up to 12 pike a day not even fishing all that seriously. The largest fish that was caught was a 12 lber that my wife caught on a quick strike rig with two size 2 treble hooks on a 20" steel leader (because I have had bad luck lately with short steel leaders and/or flourocarbon leaders), so I'm not messing around anymore. Smelt or Zimmer Tackle Green Cut-bait worked great but I was unable to catch any on spin fishing rigs except on Zoom Baby brush hog craws in pumpkinseed that I would rub liberally with Mike's Walleye scent. I have been using that same scent for perch and having great success with perch through the ice. I rigged up on steel leader with a 7x Gamakatsu worm hook, and a 1/8 oz. worm weight and a large bead, and I barely bumped it back on the bottom. Really soft bites and you had to let them take the bait. But all around averaged really good sized pike and they were hard fighting and a lot of fun. I saw some guys doing really well with Smelt about 2 feet below a bobber letting it drift in the wind, I put all my baits on the bottom with 1 oz. slide sinkers and that worked for me.
I was unable to catch any perch, I believe the water is still too cold but those should pick-up if we get some nicer weather. I was impresserd with the amount of life in the lake. Me and the kids would go out after dark and look at all the crawdads, and there was a lot!! Not to mention baby sunfish and perch.
The most interesting catch of the trip was the very last Pike before we packed up. He had a very unusual indentation on it's snout. A near perfect heart. Picture Below
All and all a good trip if you're in the mood for some for Pike fishing.
