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Boundary Waters / Quetico Discussion Forums >> Fishing Tips for the BWCA and Quetico >> Hey Pike Freaks
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Message started by Kingfisher on Feb 10th, 2014 at 5:38am

Title: Re: Hey Pike Freaks
Post by pikeman on Feb 15th, 2014 at 7:43pm
I'm going to 2nd MT's opinion that the boga grip is an outstanding tool for both landing and releasing big pike. 

I learned about this tool 3 years ago when I started fishing with a big musky guy here in Ohio.  I watched him land numerous musky up to 46".  We also carried a full sized Frabill musky landing net and never used it once as the boga offers a couple of key advantages:
1.  No getting tangled in the net if/when the fish thrashes.  Can add extra time to the C&R process working on getting the fish out of the net.
2.  Control - you can control the fishes head with one hand, and work the pliars with the second hand; makes for very fast releases.

I also learned that the inexpensive versions of the boga are typically to be avoided.  I bought a $25 version and it worked great for pike < 30".  I "landed" a 42" pike that was a bit too fresh, and she rolled while hooked on the gripper.... twisted right off and went back into Basswood's Pipestone Bay  (Know the length because my son caught her about 60 minutes later!).  The boga has a pivot that allows the pike/musky to twist/roll as much as they want, and they will just spin on the boga and not come loose.

For those few of you out there that prefer to target pike over trout, walleye, and bass, be sure to grab a copy of the summer 2014 Boundary Waters Journal.  BWJ has been running a series of "how to" articles for catching each of the big 4 species.  I emailed Stu this month and he told me Summer 2014 was scheduled to have the pike article.  I think me may believe I'm a little imbalanced for spending all of my time chasing pike in such good walleye/bass/trout waters, but pike is what has been drawing me into the BWCA and Quetico since 1991.

Dave

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