As Frank is my witness, I caught a 24 inch Northern Pike last night around 8 PM.

We were fishing for bluegills on North Lake, worms and bobbers. I think Frank was humoring me because I told him I never caught a bass big enough to keep, so I preferred to catch a lot of little fish like bluegills. Little sunfish and bluegills were biting, but none long enough to keep. Finally I switched to a jig with a rubber twister on it. Frank gave me a flavored "pumpkin seed" twister with a long, dark brown body and dayglo yellow tail. We were talking about packing it in, making a few last casts, and I hooked this little beast. It felt like I had hooked another weed, but when I stopped reeling for a second, the rod bent forward and line pulled away from me.

I was excited because it was the biggest thing I have ever caught. I got it up to the boat and Frank identified it as a pike, and not long enough to keep. Then we let it run back and forth for a few minutes while we figured out how to turn it loose without getting gouged by its fins or gills or nasty teeth. At one point it flopped itself up into the boat, then kicked around and back out. Finally Frank got some needle-nose pliers on the hook and it tried to struggle, basically hopped off the hook and back into the water.

So I got all of the glory and none of the mess. Next time we need to bring some thick gloves for handling spiny fish, a net, and a camera.

Update: A friend told me that 24 inches is legally a keeper for Northern Pike. I doubted him, but when I checked the 2005 guidebook, he was right. Oh well. I probably would have liked to keep it when I first hooked it, but now I'm glad we threw it back. Maybe I can catch him again next year and get a picture.