Fall Des Plaines River Pike

After reading DuPageAngler.com member Sooner’s BLOG on Kayak Pike Fishing, Jcrappies, Darkstar and myself could not take it any longer and decided to take the hour drive in the dark to the Wheeling area to fish for northern pike.

There are not many pike in the Naperville area so this is not a species I get to fish often. When I was younger I used to go to Canada once a year so at least I knew how to fish them. We put in at sunrise and it was 37 degrees. I had to sport a Beard Head to keep warm for the first couple hours until the sun was up.

Right off the bat Darkstar has what looked to me a nice pike swipe and miss at his Danny Spinner with a yellow blade. I threw spinners baits, the standard mepps, spoons, swim baits and some cranks without any luck. Since is has been cold and this was our first time I was praying that one of us would score.

I put on a Danny Spinner with a bronze blade praying for just one hit. We came up to a four foot deep wooded bank I made a cast parallel to the bank. I start telling DS that this stretch looks pretty good and as soon as I finished my sentence I get slammed!!! Most of the pike I have seen have been smaller so I was not expecting much. Then it realized it was hooked and I see this huge head come up shaking like mad! Whoa….. A few moments later I had her tired thank god JC had a boga grip. The pike was beautiful and measured at 31 inches. A great pike anywhere. It was awesome

That would be my only fish. Jc had to leave and just as he was paddling away DS caught a nice hammer handle on his Danny Spinner! Unfortunately that was it for the day. We fished hard but God only gave me that one hit I was praying for.

We will definitely be back in the spring when conditions are better and things are a little warmer.