Spring is Almost Here - Pike Time.

The Pike fly tying demo yesterday got a lot of us hot and bothered. Thinking about throwing an 8 or 10 weight with flies the size of a small chicken, ferocious takes, and yard-long fish can do that to a person! The pike season will be upon us soon, and we've been getting geared up to chase some northerns. We have an abundance of great warmwater lakes around us with plenty of opportunities that aren't getting utilized to their full extent. Pactola, Waggoner, Sheridan, Bear Butte, and Tisdale are just a few within an hours drive of the shop, with many of them being considerably closer. Prime pike season is the time of year that many of our local trout streams are high and dirty from runoff as well, and can be a great opportunity to get you out on the water in the early season rather than sitting around tying flies and listening to the 500th podcast of the winter. If you haven't fished pike with surface or close to surface flies, you haven't experienced the ferocity of these fish - one second you're gurgling your fly along, and the next second a 40 inch fish with the attitude of a pissed-off soccer mom crushes your fly and screams off the opposite direction. Another aspect of Pike fishing is that tying the flies is a nice change of pace from tying size 18 Baetis dries. The flies are big, gaudy, and super fun to fish and tie! Here's a bit of my pike box for inspiration. We're amped up about it, and you should be too! It's going to be a great year for Pike with numerous opportunities to target them in different ways. Stop by the shop and we can point you to a few areas that are going to be productive - We also have several boats and guides available if that's the route you want to go. If you haven't fished Pike on the fly, we highly recommend it, you won't be disappointed! Ryan