Fishing A Rat Lure On A River FULL Of Ferocious Beasts!

No luck getting that muskie to bite back there. I never saw him again the last oh 20 minutes or so I was back there. So there's a good bite though. That's a real nice pike. Howdy everyone. I'm back out again. It's a beautiful spring day here in North Dakota. I'm out here on a river full of ferocious beasts. Yeah we're gonna try to catch some piker muskie out here today. I'm gonna throw the rat lure at them. I've got the big 50 size Spro BBZ1 rat tied on. So we're gonna toss that rat lure around and we'll see if we can hook into a river monster out here today. I've got high hopes. The river is high right now. It's early June. Those predator fish should be into top water by now. There's a little backwater channel over here. It's usually shallow back there but with the river level right now it should be at least four or five feet deep. Deep enough to hold some pike or muskie maybe. I don't know. I found them back there later in the summer when the river's up this level. So we'll fish our way into there and check it out and we'll see what we can catch out here today. There's somebody back there hanging out in the shade. Oh there's smallies in here too. We might catch a smallie on that rat but I don't know. Throwing the 50 size I'd be a little bit surprised if we catch any smallies on that. I mean it is a pretty big lure. Anything like tip of the nose to tip the tail it's about 10 inches long. I've caught smallies on lures that big in the past but I'm more looking for those ferocious beasts today. The big pike and muskie. That looks like a good little ambush spot back there. One of these times that rat lure is going to get smashed. Throwing it into a spot like that. We're gonna get right over here out of this current. I'm gonna fish my way back into this little backwater channel too. I've found fish back there in the past so we'll definitely go check that out today but we're gonna stop here and fish a few minutes where the current meets the slack water. Looks like a good little spot right there. There's a couple boulders that sometimes fish will hide behind. Give that rat a little pause. Is anybody chasing him? Nope I didn't see anything. My anchor just barely touches bottom here. What do we got here? First fish of the day on the rat. He's an angry one. Just barely hooked there. I'll get that rat lure off of him. Well just a little guy but hey it's a start. I'll toss him back. We'll see if we can find a bigger one. I'll get that pike slam off my hands now. See I'm right up here where this little backwater channel leads in. Kind of fishing the current seam here where the current meets the slack water. Didn't take too long to find that first pike of the day. That's a good sign. That was perfect right on the edge of that tree there. Let's see if we can lure a big pike out of there. Huh what was that? I was reeling that thing in pretty quick and something just took a swipe at it there. We need to give it the speed reel again. Give it a try. Oh maybe they like the speed reel today. Another little pike. Well the little pike are all about that rat. I just need to find where the big ones are hiding. Just a little guy right there. I do think I might start fishing my way back into this little channel back here. I found big fish back there in the past. We'll go check it out see if they're back here today. Well there's lots of pelicans back here. That's a good sign. Thinking maybe that means the little baby perch are back here. And if those are back here the pike should be back here too. I was hoping I'd get smashed here right out in front of that drainage tube. I've been working my way through this little backwater channel here for about the last 45 minutes. Haven't found anything back here yet. All I've seen swimming around are a bunch of carp. So I don't know. I'll probably fish my way to the back of it here and fish my way back out. We'll see if we find anything. If not I'll go sit where I caught those couple little pike earlier. Maybe there's some big ones over there now. There's something. Little pike. Not much bigger. Well about the same size as those ones that we're catching out in front of this creek. I knew he was gonna do that. Give me my rat back. Nice fat little pike though. Healthy old guy. Hoping we can find one bigger than that today though. But at least we're catching a few. Man it is a perfect day to be out here. Nice pike chasing that rat. Just looking at it. Oh that was a muskie I think. So I just saw a really nice muskie back here. Pretty sure he took a look at my rat lure and then he swam right underneath me. So I'm gonna switch over to a Savage Gear Foreplay swim bait. We're gonna take a few casts with that and see if that will get that muskie to bite. See he looked like a big one. Water's a little bit murky out here so I'm going with that fire tiger color. I'd usually throw a perch colored one but I've got kind of stained water out here. All right let's see if that foreplay will get him. Very first cast with that swim bait. Is this that muskie? No just a little pike. Just waiting to see if maybe that muskie was chasing him back. All right come here you. No funny business now. Very first cast on that Savage Gear Foreplay. Might be the biggest pike of the day so far. Well I was hoping to catch him on the rat lure today but I don't know. Might have to toss the swim bait around for a while. Well I know there's a big muskie roaming around back here somewhere. I've given it about 20 casts with that swim bait now and haven't had any luck getting him to bite. Caught that pike on it the very first cast but I don't know that muskie has swam right by me a couple of times. So I think he might be on to me that I'm trying to catch him. So I think what I'll do is give it a few more casts with the swim bait back here. I might switch back over to the rat and kind of fish my way out of here. Oh what do we got here? The sim? It doesn't feel that big but it kind of felt like he was swimming right back at me. It's not the muskie but it's a nice pike. Did I snag him? I might have. Gave me a little bath that felt kind of nice. All right you guys first decent fish of the day on the swim bait. Yeah I kind of had him foul hooked in the side of the face but you know what I'm gonna count it. It's been kind of slow going out here today. But yeah it's a nice pike. It's not the muskie I was hoping to hook into but it's good to see that there's multiple quality fish back here. I might give it a few more minutes with that swim bait. We'll see if we can hook into anything else but I am going to switch back to the rat. I think the moon is supposed to rise here in the hour so we might get a nice little feeding window where those fish are willing to hit top water. I'm back to throwing the rat lure. I'm just working my way along the shoreline here. It's a pretty quick drop off this grass so oh there might be something roaming right along the edge here. No luck getting that muskie to bite back there. I never saw him again the last oh 20 minutes or so I was back there so there's a good pike though. That's a real nice pike on the rat. Sweet. Well that's what I was hoping to find. Nice pike or muskie back here. Even better on top water. All right come here you. Gotcha. Oh look at that. He even unhooked himself for me. Yeah there's a nice pike. All right first quality fish of the day on that spro rat. How exciting is that when a big old pike comes up and smashes that top water. Look at that guy. That is a beast of a pike. It's a little bit beat up looking from spawn but oh yeah he is ready to go I think. Let's hold him here for just a second. Make sure he's ready. He was just thrashing there like he was ready to go. There he goes. Now that is exactly what I was hoping to find out here today. A nice pike or a muskie on that spro BBZ1 rat. Unfortunately I didn't get a good release shot on him. I thought my hat cam was running but it wasn't. Yeah I'm such a pro. Hey I'm pumped though. We got a nice fish in the net. I don't know maybe they're gonna start moving in here now that we're getting into the afternoon hour. It's probably warming up back here a little bit. Maybe they didn't like it so much back here in the morning when I launched. Maybe it's more of an afternoon spot back here. Oh what was that? Is that a pike or muskie? Oh it's a pike. That's a pretty nice pike though. Let's see if my anchor will drop right here. Oh just barely. Come on up here you. Look at that. Second nice fish of the day on that spro rat. He came up and swiped at it once and missed it but he came right back for it. Yeah they're a little bit beat up looking from spawn aren't they? But they're still hitting that top water. Off he goes and I made sure my GoPro is recording this time so we got it on camera. Awesome. All right you guys it's about that time for me to paddle back downstream to my truck. I did give it maybe another hour back here after catching that last pike but no action since then. I have had to really work for those fish today though. I've only caught two pike over the last oh probably three or four hours. They were both really nice pike though so no complaints out of me. I'd much rather catch quality than quantity any day. A little bit bummed I couldn't hook into a muskie. I did find one way back there in that back corner and I'm pretty sure he did take a swipe at my rat once but he wasn't really willing to come back for seconds I guess. In fact he proceeded to taunt me by swimming right underneath my kayak a couple of times as I was back there trying to catch him. I guess that's just the way muskie fishing goes. It was a fun day though. I caught what half dozen pike both the bigger ones on that Spro BBZ1 rat. So yeah that was a pretty good way to spend the afternoon out here getting pike on top water. That's always a good time. Well I enjoyed it. I hope you guys did too. Thanks for coming along with me again. I'll see you next time.