Fall Pike On The Fly

I recently got my hands on a new Wind Warrior 8 weight 9'6 and had been chomping at the bit to get out and try it on some of Wabamun's monster Pike. I don't fish for Pike a whole lot, maybe 5 or 6 times a year. I had upgraded from an 8 weight to a 9 weight fly rod a couple years back hoping for a little more backbone to cast those big Pike flies. Since I don't spend many days fly'n for water-wolves, spending a ton of money on a rod that sees less than 10 days of action per year wasn't something I felt compelled to do, so ended up purchasing a TFO LK signature series. Although I was content with the TFO rod, it made for some sore/stiff arms and shoulders at the end of a long day on the water. I got out to Wab twice in the last week and I have to say, casting the Wind Warrior was a pleasure. The rod has got plenty of backbone making it easy to cast those big Pike flies yet light enough that I didn't have any pain or stiffness in my arm or shoulder the days following. And like my 5wt, it lived up to it's name and casts like a cannon even in 25+ km/hr winds.

My last trip out to Wab was with good friend Phil Rowley on October 29. When we arrived at the lake it was -3 degrees Celsius and windy. We got on the water and headed over to the warm water discharge and although the fishing was pretty good (5 Pike each) we didn't last to long. I'm guessing we fished for about two hours then we headed back in as the wind picked up and Phil and I both felt like a couple of Popsicles. We were planning on shooting a video covering all aspects of fall Pike on the fly but because we couldn't stop shivering, we only shot about 1/4 of what we intended. The following video is made up of that footage and still has quite a bit of good information. Hope you enjoy it.