Rick's Biggest Fish

Rick went ice fishing with his Dad and Carla today. Using his Tip Up, he caught, with the help of his dad...a 28.6 lb pike (or a jack fish as some may call it). It was 46" long, and had a 22" belly. This is the BIGGEST fish Rick has ever caught. Not only that, he also pulled it up by hand, and the fish had almost his whole line unreeled and in the water. After they got the fish out, they weighed it, and measured it. A few other ice fishermen came over to see the fish and take pictures.

So as every man has his fishing stories, this is Rick's story, as he told me:

The flag went up on the Tip Up, so Rick went over to see if there was anything on the line. As he was walking over there, he could see the spool still spinning. He started to pull in his line (you have to pull it in by hand because it doesn't have a reel), while he was pulling it in, he didn't think it was that big at first, cause there wasn't that big of a pull. He handed his line to his dad to get his opinion, and he agreed. When he handed it back to Rick, Rick felt a huge pull. But the overall fight wasn't as big and didn't take as long for the size of fish it was.

So until he got it right up to the hole, they had no idea what Rick was dealing with beneath the ice. Rick was trying to keep his line from getting to tangled up on the ice as he was pulling it in, and when he looked back into the hole, all he could see was a big open mouth. Ricks dad grabbed the his home made gaff (hook), and stuck it in his mouth and lifted the fish out onto the ice.

He looked at his dad, and said, this is almost as good as winning the Street Stock Shootout. He was so glad that he got to share this day, and this moment with his dad, because any time that Rick won a race, his dad was the first one out in victory lane with him. And today, his dad was right there on the ice fishing victory lane. Rick and his dad have been competing (in fun) to catch "Waldo" for a couple of years now. The kid Gott-R-Done, ha.

The smaller fish is 5 lbs. This just shows the comparison between an average pike, and the one they caught. An average pike weighs between 2-5 lbs. This fish is almost 30 lbs.