DENTRY: Drama coming down the pike

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

When the water takes that autumn chill, they say fishing heats up. So it goes at Colorado's middle-elevation impoundments.

With the onset of October, brown trout prowl and spawn. Lake trout emerge from their deep summer haunts, also to spawn.

Then there are big northern pike - sleek predators made for stalking in sun-warmed shallows near deeper sanctuaries.

Check the records. Pike appetites ramp up in October. When water temperatures slip into the low 50s, drama happens.

Take Friday, when a mess of angry pike took exception to Rob Mason, of Westminster, and a pal swimming big crankbaits over their turf at Stagecoach Reservoir.

The first fish to savage Mason's jointed, 5 1/4-inch Rapala measured 48 1/2 inches long, with a 23-inch girth.

"We estimate the fish at 32 pounds, using a pike estimator," Mason said. "I realize it may have been a new state record, but we released her to swim another day."

Next, the pair boated a 41-inch pike, a 45-incher and two 35-inchers, along with what Mason described as "several pesky 20- to 28-inchers."

"It was just an epic day of fishing, for sure," he said. He released every pike, with reverence.

"Release is my whole thing. A fish like that (first) one, she's been in there 15 years and she deserves to go back in the water so someone else can catch her," Mason said.

The problem with releasing a fish that big is, well, you sort of want to know how much it weighed. Boat scales are fairly accurate these days, but manhandling a fish and hanging it vertically is hard on its innards and could be fatal.

Northern pike weight calculators are posted on various Web sites, but most don't take girth into account. Punching the length only of Mason's mama pike into the Montana Pike Masters calculator makes her 32.6 pounds.

But an old formula - weight equals length times girth squared, divided by a constant of 900 - makes her 28 1/2 pounds. By the way, for less-elongated fish species, divide by a constant of 800.

Who's niggling? Clearly, Mason is more interested in battling fine northerns than scoring records. And that very well might have been a record he released.

Certainly, in the spring, when she comes back to the shallows laden with eggs, she will be a queen.

Colorado's record northern pike weighed 30 pounds, 11 ounces (Tim Bone caught it at Stagecoach in 2006). It was 46 1/2 inches long, 2 inches shorter than Mason's fish.

But others have caught, and many have released, even bigger pike in Colorado. The state's released-pike record, 48 inches, came from Navajo Reservoir.

The heaviest pike are caught in spring - females bearing eggs. But for pure muscle and aggressiveness, maybe you can't beat October.

"There are a couple guys local here who won't even come out until after the first of October," said Craig Preston, supervisor of Stagecoach State Park. "They're after pike."

In October 2006, the Division of Wildlife gave Master Angler awards for trophy-size pike caught at Navajo (48 inches), Vallecito (36 1/2 inches), Spinney Mountain (44 inches) and Stagecoach (43 inches) reservoirs.

As the water cools, fishing reports have been lighting up with northern pike at many of the other usual spots: Rifle Gap, Harvey Gap, Elevenmile and Tarryall reservoirs.

Preston said a man left him a photo of a Stagecoach pike that weighed more than 45 pounds. Makes you want to stay out of the water.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com