Belwood Pike Derby

I participated in the Belwood Pike Derby May 25-26 with my son Keenan. I haven't had the opportunity to participate in this event in the past so really looked forward to it. My only concern was weather or not my eight year old son could handle 7-8 hours on the lake Saturday and Sunday. We launched the boat on Saturday morning about 10:00AM and headed straight to the river past the bridge. I figured the water would be warmer in the shallow water and hold some pike. I threw spinner baits for about an hour, then changed it up to crank baits and then finally tossed some jerkbaits to no avail. I focused on the shoreline brush figuring the pike would be hold up there waiting on baitfish. Unfortunately after a couple hours I didn't get the bit I was looking for so I fired up the motor and headed to the opposite side of the lake near a bay next to the dam. I headed to the end of the bay, anchored down and decided to throw a lipless crank bait near a weed line. On my first cast I got a hit and reeled in a decent smallmouth bass. I'd normally be happy with this but bass are out of season and this was a pike derby so I tossed her back and threw on a spinner bait. For the next couple hours Keenan and I drifted up and down the shoreline tossing cranks, spinners and jerkbaits but didn't get any more bites. On Sunday, we headed back to the bay by the dam and I decided to throw on a 1/4 oz jig head and a 3" GULP minnow. This seemed to attract the bullheads but not the Pike. I was pretty shocked as normally Pike are hammering my lures to my disappointment as I'm normally going after bass or walleye. After a few hours of fishing my usual hot spots, we didn't get any more bites from Pike so we headed in about 3:00PM. Although I was a bit disappointed, I wasn't too surprised. We had a cold front come in Friday night and it completely cooled the bite for everyone. If bass was in season, I would have thrown a drop shot in 10-15 feet of water and I think it would have been a bass filled day. From speaking to other anglers, I learned very few were catching fish throughout the weekend. Despite the slow bite, Keenan and I had a blast on the water and my concern for my eight year old becoming bored was invalid. He had a blast and actually wanted to spend Monday on the water as well. However, he had school and I had to say no, reluctantly. The winner of the Pike Derby took home a $2K cheque for catching a 28" Pike. Not a bad weekend for that lucky guy. Ken