5-24-05 - Randy managed this one while casting from shore!

Stripping in slowly produced hits.

5-24-05 - Randy shows up for the pike...

Waters Fished: Lake Como
Fish Caught: a few
Outing Date: 5-24-05
Weather: Sunny, winds from the east.
Air Temp: n/a
Water Temp: 68F
Water Level: Normal
Water Color: Green, <6" visibility
Fish Species: Northern Pike
Pattern Fished: Flying Bunnies
Pattern Color: Red/White, Black/Orange/Chartreuse
Fishing Quality: Fair

Finally I've convinced someone else to come up and experience the Pike fishing from the dock - yeah Como was going that well. Randy decided to take an afternoon and ply the waters.

We started out early in the afternoon...for at least the first hour neither of us tagged a fish. Randy kinda had that look in his eyes...as if to call me a lair ;)

Well, the bite completely turned around as the afternoon progressed - Randy cast in close to shore and hooked up with a snake...small enough to let go before I could even run the 50 feet to take the picture!

By 3:30 PM Randy had landed his second pike..another little snake that he was almost embarrassed to be seen with! Come on...a pike is a pike...we go gaga for trout that size!!!

Randy toys with another little one.	Randy's #2 for the afternoon.	Not much larger than the last two, but hey, they're still larger than most inland trout!

Well, Randy kept up with it and again managed another fish...still small by our mutual standards. However, I think he was starting to see where I was coming from...we hadn't even left our DOCK to catch a few pike. EXCELLENT in my book, especially when the boat is back in the garage behind my dad's car.

Still, I was pretty frustrated myself. Probably 4-5 hours pounding the water from shore and I hadn't touched a fish! What's up with that? Well, I DID put Randy in the most productive spot, so I guess I can rest easy with the fact that I wasn't fishing from shore locations that had produced in the past.

Dinnertime rolled around and Randy broke out the wings. We opted for 6 traditional "buffalo" wings on the grill, as well as 6 of Randy's secret Peanut variation. It was 8:00 PM, the wings were grillin' and it hit me...I CANNOT give up before nightfall. Randy understood the itch.

Randy breaks out his secret recipes for dinner.	There we go, ran my personal skunk over! (Copyright © 2005 Randy Cochran)

Two casts in from the dock I got a hit on the hot fly of the day, a flying bunny in black/florescent orange/chartreuse. I shouted for Randy to come quick. After snapping a few pics, I went inside to cover up the wings so they'd stay hot.

RANDY was too busy now to worry about dinner...after seeing the size of my Pike he now DEFINITELY understood where I was coming from. Randy managed to lose a fairly nice fish! Randy didn't give up until he could no longer see ANYTHING.

Randy's drive is renewed.	One more cast...	Strip - pause - Strip - pause - Strip Strip - pause....
Come on...take my flies...	Yeah, the hook is still there...	Just one more cast....

So, to sum it up, the action did indeed slow relative to prior days and weeks. I attribute much of that to the higher water temperature and shift in wind. The fish seemed to be holding tighter to the heavy weed beds. Randy took up a spot on the couch - he was convinced & ready for another try in the morning!

  MP